Looking for a hot baby name? Look for a hot babe -- preferably one who sings. The top five fastest rising baby names of 2007 were all inspired by attractive female celebrities, the top four of them singers. According the the official Baby Name Wizard Hotness Formula, the hottest rising names in America are:
#1: Miley
Unranked last year, Miley made an extraordinary debut at #278. It's no secret why: 2007 was the Year of Miley, as young Miley Cyrus and her Hannah Montana alter ego swept the nation. The outpouring of namesakes won't surprise regular readers of this blog, who made Miley their top pick as a hot name in the Baby Name Pool. Take a bow, gentle readers! That's two years in a row you've hit the bullseye on the #1 hottest name.
#2: Kingston
Celebrity baby names attract a lot of attention, but not so many namesakes. (It's usually the celebs themselves who do that.) Kingston is an exception. Singer Gwen Stefani's son was born in 2006 and squeaked onto the name charts that year, but in his first full year in the world his name truly took hold. The ingredients of Kingston's appeal: a place name, ending in the uber-popular letter n, with the ultimate power nickname of King. If Stefani would just have a few more kids, she might give Angelina Jolie a run for her money as America's queen of baby name style.
#3: Mylee
...and Mylie ranked #24 on the hot list. You get the picture.
#4: Jordin
At age 17, Jordin Sparks became the youngest ever champion of American Idol. A big part of her appeal was being just plain nice. It must have been easy for expectant parents to say "yeah, I'd like a daughter like that!" But there's another secret to her name's appeal. Sparks established her name as a feminine spelling of the androgynous Jordan. In fact, while the young singer sent Jordin soaring, Jordan-with-an-a declined as a girl's name--and rose for boys. Ah, the power of reality tv. Which brings us to #5:
#5. Jaslene
Ladies and gentlemen, another champion! Jaslene Gonzalez was the popular winner of America's Next Top Model, and has been gracing billboards and magazine covers ever since. As the first Puerto Rican winner of the contest, she surely inspired many Puerto Rican namesakes. But watch out, Jaslenes. Unusual names sparked by reality tv may rise fast, but they fall fast too...as you'll see when I introduce the top falling names of the year.
Comments
I think the Aiden name phenomenon started when Sarah Jessica Parker's character dated a guy named Aiden on Sex and the City.
Why would you name your child after a nigger?!?
FARK kicks ass- shut the fuck up
I agree- all niggers should die!
It's also the name of uber-popular quarterback Tom Brady's girlfriend. So that might be part of the appeal.
What's very interesting is to look at the SSO's by-state listing (unfortunately only 1960-2004).
In 2004 The #1 and #3 names in Mississippi were Madison and Hannah respectively. In California Madison was #12 and Hannah was #18. On the flip, the #3 in Cali that year was Samantha - wasn't even in the top 100 in MS.
Popularity in highly populated regions dominate the top 100 US names. As silly as it sounds, I should have checked my state's listing to avoid having 1 of 5 (!) Caitlin variants in my girl's first grade class this year. And that's just HER class, not the school's whole first grade. grumble.
You know what name I don't hear on little girls anymore - Marie.
Oh, the social security by-state link is:
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/namesbystate.html
bah... all those names are boring, unoriginal, and over-used. that's why i named my son Ocean.
While my kids don't common names they don't have strange names either, though thats what my husbands family seems to think.
My husband and his sister have names that topped the charts for their birth years.
My first son is Keirnan (an irish name) and his brother is Ronan (also irish) I mostly get crap about the names because they are not offten heard in the US and are spelled the traditional way with the E before the I in my older sons name.
I'm all for naming babies for themselves, not because the name was popular because of some snotty singer/actress/tabloid star.
I can't go into kindergarten without seeing twenty kids named Payton or Aiden.
It's a shame people are getting slammed for not naming their babies the top twenty even top 100 names. Sure there are some lame names out there but when I was growing up I was sooo sooo very glad to be a Miriah and not one of the namy girls I grew up with named Jennifer, Kirsten, Kristen, Meghan or Lindsey.
Remember, Shirley hit the top 1000 list in 2007 for the first time since the 1930's. It's definitely on the comeback trail.
Any of the Mary Something names sound very Catholic to me. Which is fine if you're Catholic.
haha...I originally always thought of jasmine when I heard the name Jaslene. But now I can't get Vaseline out of my head. ; )
I don't think Barack will make the list this year, but I bet Malia (name of one of his daughters) will rise quickly.
I think it def differs by state for sure. I looked up Michigan and Ava was the top name for 2007 and my daughters name was not even close to it. But it's fairly common for the overall top lists. In my family, we like to spell things a little different but not so much so that you can't tell what their name is. I spell my daughter's name: Caitlynn. It's not too far off of the original spelling but still unique. Before we knew what we were having, we thought Aidan sounded like a good name but then we found out that everyone was naming their baby that and decided not to go for it. I like having a unique name but pairing it with an older family name like Grace (which is Caitlynn's middle name). Kind of ties the older generations with the newer ones.
Is it possible that Michele Serros' teen books on Evie Gomez have made the name popular in the US? The first book came out in 2006. Even Evie Tornquist who first became popular in the '70s didn't give the name a jump.
Do we have a sense of how "Evie" is being pronounced by the current crop of parents who are bestowing this name? Previously, "Evie" was usually pronounced "EH-vee," no? However, Serros pronounces her character's name as "EE-vee."
As for me, I tell people my name rhymes with "TV." That usually burns it into the synapses.
How about you die?...you bigot.
God, hate these tacky names based on American pop culture.
Susanne, Sorry to be so late to comment to this, and to comment with such a persnickety detail, but as an "Anne" freak I had to comment that Anne's twins were called Nan (nn for Anne) and Diana. Blythe was actualy their last name.
I love the name Blythe for a first name, though. I'm trying to talk my husband into using it, but he prefers Everest. Maybe Everest Blythe?
If you googled the name Azaria before commenting, you would realize that it predates Hank Azaria by thousands of years. It is a biblical name. Since biblical names have been rising in popularity, it makes sense that those parents who want a biblical name but prefer to be unique are delving in to lesser-heard names now. After all, Sarah, Elizabeth, Hannah, etc. have already been done to death.
I am considering calling my daughter Olive, as it was my mum's name. My husband thought of it as he thinks it is cute. I was a bit scared but now I really love it and hope I have a girl. What do you think? Younger kids today - I don't think they know about Olive popeye etc but evenso kids can tease about any thing. It can sound yuk to some but I really like it. She can call herself Liv or Oli, or if that drastic use her pretty middle name. But I was little scared but now love it. So do you think I should name her after her Grandma in the hope it will be cute and unique?
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