The Baby Name Wizard

I'd like to nominate Addison. I am hearing it everywhere this year, and I wonder if the Grey's Anatomy character has anything to do with its popularity. The first I heard of it was a little boy born in 2004, and I feel like this year there's been a lot of little newborn girls with this name. I bet it will make a major jump on the popularity chart.
This is a fun post! Can't wait to see what the other nominees are. :)

Henry

I second Addison - I know three girl baby Addisons among a small group of friends, all of which were born last year.

I named my daughter Riley, which wasn't extremely popular when I had her, but now everywhere I go there are Rileys!

I'd have to say Isabella or Sophia. They are everywhere this year.

I say Kaden or Caden (does it matter the spelling?) I know several babies named Kaden.

I would have to say Jayden, since it's the newest Britney baby, but any name with -ayden at the end will do.

Aiden\Brayden

And

K names for girls, all around I hear Kailey, Kiley, Kelsey

Ava/Eva--I know SIX girls under one with this name!

Funny 'Addison' should get mentioned -- I've been running into 'Steele' lately. Maybe The Spectator has come back into fashion.

Maybe I'm late a year, but I nominate the Texas names: Austin, Travis, Houston, Dallas, etc. A month ago I met a tiny Lubbock on the playground, clearly born in '06. I'm proud to be a Texan too, but it's getting tired.

I am going to nominate Harper for girls, and Truman for boys, because of the movie Capote. Harper seems to be everywhere on the baby name discussion lists, and I know two Trumans, plus one who is a dog.

Addison?! I'm so curious where y'all are from, you folks with the baby Addisons. Now THAT's a trend I'd welcome, she's my favorite character on that show! So much better than being named after a movie mermaid ;)

It is hard to pinpoint a baby name by "what I keep hearing," since usually by the time I'm hearing it, it's about 5 years old. I'm tripping over Abigails, Emmas, and Isabellas everywhere I go, but that's 2001 growing up, not a 2006 phenomenon.

I've heard of two new baby boys named Maverick, born within the last year.

i am pretty confident that the Grey's Anatomy writers named Addison after Addison's disease. seems to make sense, right? medical show, medical condition. so the many throngs of Addisons are indirectly being named after a disease that is potentially fatal if left untreated!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addison's_disease

I know about ten couples with kids, and three of them have named their baby girl Ella. There are also two little boys named Finn in that small group. Has anyone else run into these?

Ava, definitely, seems I am hearing and reading that one constantly.

Solomon for a boy. We named our son this, and our pediatrician said he has two other babies or young toddlers by this name! What's old is new again!

Alissa/Allison for a girl --seems those are everywhere.

And, yes, I am a Katrina -- waiting to see if my name becomes more or less popular because of the hurricane!

The first name that popped in my head was Addison and the second was Riley. Both for multiple girls. Funny that they're in the top few responses. The next name that everyone seems to use for a middle name is Rose. (FYI I live in San Francisco.)

Addison is the street Wrigley Field is on in Chicago. Any time I hear Addison, I think oh, Cubs fan!

Addison sounds like an updated Allison. That's why I like it anyway.

Finn is pretty popular on this board, and Truman is also the name of Laura from Project Runway's kid right? (Okay i don't know how to make that sentence grammatically correct. But you all know what i mean.)

Addison sounds like someone with a cold trying to say Alison. I really don't like the name (sorry, Robyn). I think people are totally going for the sound, as they are used to the ring of Madison, Alison, etc. In England, Addison make toilet brushes and washing up bowls, so it has a very utilitarian feel to me! It also sounds too masculine for my taste. However, I think you may very well be right that it's the name of the year!

I would say Ethan and Emma. Both nice. Both way overused.
Ava/Eva are also wildly out of control.

and what about Jackson(Jaxson)? This too, is big where I live.

I'd say the name that date-stamps this year the most for me (though not for babies of course)is Borat!

For babies, I don't know what will date stamp this year but I bet the short classy feminine names like "Anna, Emma, Ava, Ella, Sophia" names will fade and be clearly from the early 2000s.

FWIW, I'm always amazed at the names my daughter (who's 7) doesn't know. Today she read a sign that said "Lisa's Pet Styles". She pronounced it Liza and when I corrected her she said one of the teachers at school is also Lisa. When I commented that it was a common name, she said "no mom, I've never heard that one before"!

But she doesn't miss a beat over a "Kaeson" or "Maeve". Too funny!

Addison and Jackson are both names I'm suddenly hearing a lot of in the past year or so.

Another name that surprises me in its quiet return to popularity is Charlie. It's a classic name that a relatively high number of pregnant women on my birth board are thinking about using for their children. Some will use Charlie as the name, others will use Charles and call him Charlie.

Cathie: Yeah, it seems like every name I knew before age 11 seems "normal" to me--from Harrison to Regan, Diana to Cara. The names I knew in childhood also formed my ideas about proper spellings and pronunciations: Alisa (with a short I), Kristel, Rolin (with a long O). I think the only names I thought were weird or unusual at this age were those I associated as marked with race--like "ethnic" names. Or the twin girls from Korea (I think) who adopted the names Alice and Susannah which sounded very old-fashioned for girls born in 1979.

I have a Charlie (19 mos.)! If he was a girl he was going to be Katrina! (He was born in April, months before the hurricane.)

I guess I don't know enough babies to comment on 2006 but someone mentioned Sophie/Sophia and oh my goodness I think my daughter Summer is the only girl born in 2002 NOT named Sophie/Sophia (though she is named after my grandmother Sophie--who will always be the only Sophie to me).

Babies I know born this year include Kylan (Ky for short), twins Emmett and Finn, Nevaeh, Julia, Thomas, Emily, Felix, and Donovan.

So basically I have nothing for you.

Jackson is an interesting one - I know a 20 year old Jack whose 7 year old nephew is Jackson. The latter is high up in the naming stakes in New Zealand but is now beginning to fade. Charlie is a newer choice.
Kayden/Jayden/Brayden/Ayden - sorry ladies - I think they have such a whiney sound to them - not nice to my ear.
For boys I would have to vote for Finn -its very high up, while for girls Poppy seems to be just one of the many floral names popular at present.
Jill - I agree about Sophie - since 2000 its completely flooded the market. I do like Summer - my son's first little girlfriend had that name - about 20 years ago :-)

The names mentioned are all popular, but they are not uniquely identified with 2006 (well, maybe Addison...)

The two names that I think sum up 2006 -- Shiloh and Suri.

Did you ever hear of them BEFORE 2006?

I am willing to bet that Suri will be climbing the charts in the next 5 years. Shiloh seems to me to be a harder sell...

I would have to call 2006 The Year of the Ava.

It fits the trend in girls' names that stood out to me: sweet, feminine, ending in -a, antique-y, picked by celebrities for their daughters, etc.

I can understand the Riley suggestion. I keep getting in trouble for either assuming Riley is a boy or the opposite. I best not make assumptions!

Jennifer

A couple on the fertility board that I read just named their b/g twins Clark and Addison - you guessed it, the dad is a huge Cubs fan. I actually think it's a really cute combo, very timely with today's trends.

I agree with Addison - the popularity of Grey's Anatomy and the ubiquity of the name makes it a great contender. I'm surprised my 30-year old sister's name (Meredith) isn't more popular recently because of that show too. Although Ellen Pompeo is the worst part of it. Eat a sandwich girl!

Arthur and Maya.

I don't know if this should be the name of the year because I don't like it, but I know at least 5 people that have named their babies Grace/Gracie, this year. Ugh.

Hi,
I would agree with most of the comments already. It's funny how the same names can be popular all over the country/world. Significant newer baby boy names in the Midwest are Jackson, Charlie (huge up-and-comer), Henry, Thomas, Riley and Brady (Brady Quinn, perhaps?)I'm less familiar with girl names but I would say Reese, -ayden names for girls (I know girl Aydens and Haydens), Rachel (Rachael Ray?)and Riley.

I'm new to this board, but I have to shake my head at how my husband and I must be slaves to the zeitgeist. Back in '95 we decided the perfect name for our daughter would be Sophia--we'd never heard anyone use that for their baby before, and were sure it was original.

By '02, having become wiser, we decided on Maeve for our second daughter, and researched intensively to make sure nobody anywhere was using it. No one had ever heard of it; the priest who baptized her had never encountered it.

Is it some kind of free-floating meme that makes us, in blithe ignorance, latch on to the same trendy name as everyone else? We have original names for the imminent baby, and I'm sure pregnant women across the country are choosing the same names.

Oh, man. This thread makes me want to throw up. I'm so bummed!

We picked out our baby names before we got married in '98. We decided Henry (born in 2000) was more of a firstborn name, so we reserved Charles Truman, nn Charlie, for our second, who has yet to arrive.

Eight years I've been hanging onto that name, people! EIGHT YEARS! Poo.

p.s. If Henry had been a girl, "she" would've been Meredith Grace. Can you imagine? Seriously? :P

The b/g twins Addison and Clark cracked me up. A good friend of mine (a Cubs fan, as well) was going to name her baby Addison Clark if it had been a girl. He turned out to be a boy, named Elijah Clark.

Other names of babies born in the last year or so: Hayden (another -ayden!), Caleb, Jonathan, Noah (for a girl!), Ethan, and Liliana.

An expecting mother on one forum I frequent is planning to name her baby (due in 2007) Remington. Do you suppose that weapons will be the naming wave of the future?

Well I have an original and no Im not a celebrity! Just kidding! My son's name is Tenesen Shomar and no one else has that name that I know of. My husband came up with it. If I have a girl it would be Victoria Rose since I love roses and the Victorian is the most beautiful. In essance my daughters name would mean "beautiful love" to me.

I would say Noah.. for a boy... I have 2 friends with babies named that and I hear it everywhere . .or Ethan.. that is also really popular here .. and Ava is really popular for girls here, or Hannah.

I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that Langdon will make the charts this year. It sounds like the current hit Landon, has going for it the surname effect, and is the name of the character from "The DaVinci Code." I don't think it will be a major hit, but I do think it will crack the top 1,000.

Ok, so I don't know if this should be the name for 2006, but in 2004 we had a baby girl. We named her Sofia. It was the day after she was born and in the middle of the night. We chose that name, not knowing the popularity, because of a good friend that I met in my travels in Europe. After leaving the hospital, we quickly realized the extreme popularity of the name. At 2 months, I couldn't take it any longer and decided to call her by her middle name. I do know an Addison too. I also know a couple of Jaxons. I have heard of quite a few Avas too. The waves are powerful....and frustrating.

I was just thinking yesterday that I like the name Summer. I remember not liking it when I was younger though. And the only Summer i can think of (character on The OC) is not someone I would want to name my kid after.

Wendy: Funny, I think Shiloh would catch on more than Suri. Shiloh sounds more familiar to me (from the kids book), while Suri sound completely new and... "made-up" (whether it is or not). Also, I think Brangelina is more respected than Tomkat these days.

Dawn: I think Meredith will pick up. Or if not, it should!

I also know a Noah born like... yesterday. But this name is a classic I think. I don't know if it's exceptionally popular this year.

Our second was almost a Finn but we had a couple of warning signs (how many TV characters are named Finn now?? it's today's Dylan-equivalent someone told me). I know of three baby Finns here in DC. Ditto with Harper for girls.

I think "ay-den" with whatever letter preceding it is the name of the decade, but it started well before 2006. (Or possibly McKsomething.)

The one name I hadn't heard before this year, which I think will catch fire soon if it hasn't already, is "Miley" (the name of the main character in "Hannah Montana" and the name of the actress who plays her). Picks up the sound Kylie and Ryleigh, but newer (and with an "M" like Maddie), and just a breath away from 'smiley'.

Borat is definitely the name of the year for 2006 - who had heard of that name before this year, and who hasn't heard of it now? Definitely Suri and Shiloh as well, never heard of them before and now everyone has heard of them.
But I'm sticking by my original post of Addison - what is more 2006 than the name on the most popular TV show in America (according to last week's ratings anyway, and I know we have some British fans of this blog and I'm not sure how the show does over there) and all the people rushing to name their baby girls Addison? I'm telling you, this name was completely off the radar (for me anyway) and it is suddenly everywhere starting early this year.

I live in the Boston area and the 2006 baby girls that I know almost all have names like Isabella, Bella, Ella, and Ava. I don't know any babies named -ayden, or McAnything. Maybe it is the New England traditionalism (or maybe just the circles I hang out in.) Around here, I'd say it's the year of the -ella, or at least the -a!
On a related note, whenever I meet a little girl and find out that her name is Bella, I have to remind myself not to do the mental eye roll and think "of course, another Bella." It's obvious that no one picks a name for their child just because it's popular. Parents put a lot of thought into their child's name and it's certainly not their fault if a bunch of other people happen to choose the same name. Every name is special. Every Bella is special! I mean, speaking as a Jennifer, I should know, right?

I was going to add my vote for Finn. Grey's had that character, but there was also a character with that name on one of my son's favorite children's shows. I've also met a lot of baby boys named Finn (Phinneaus) at play areas lately.

I agree that this is also the year of the Ava. My daughter Georgia was almost an Ava. I'm so glad we didn't name her that, though I love the name. I just can't go anywhere without hearing moms calling, "Avaaaaa!" :P

I'd be very interested to know how all these names we "discover" somewhere obscure and think are going to be one-of-a-kind end up all over the place! Laura, any thoughts?

Same old sob story here - I had Finn picked out years ago. And look what's happened. The Gilmore Girls and Grey's Anatomy writers caught onto it, and now it's everywhere.

The only place I'd ever heard it before was the main character on the 1998 movie Great Expectations, based on Charles Dickens' novel (in the novel, the name is Pip).

I wouldnt mind it if my son (due in March 07) had a common name, but not a trendy one like Finn seems like it's becoming.

Lara, everyone else has probably had the names picked out for years too! Back when I was in middle school in the mid-80s, I liked picking out names for my imaginary children. I chose names like Brittany and Brianna and Katelyn, names that were uncommon then but became popular about 10 years later. I didn't realize it then, but those kinds of names probably felt fresh to those of my generation, and then some years later when people my age started having kids, those names became popular.

I can see Finn as a contender. It has definitely been leaping up the charts and I expect a big leap this year. But having looked at Addison, 2006 is just a continuing rise for it. Look at its ranking for the last few years:
2005 107
2004 160
2003 190
2002 220
2001 270
2000 322
1999 369
1998 403
1997 475
1996 547
1995 677
1994 800

is it rising? Yes. Is it THE name of the year. Don't think so.