The Baby Name Wizard

Woot!

All of my risers broke into the top 1000 for the first time, and all of my fallers fell.

This makes me inordinately happy. ;-D

Woot!

All of my risers broke into the top 1000 for the first time, and all of my fallers fell.

This makes me inordinately happy. ;-D

I am not surprised by Isabella's rise at all, but I thought Emily would be in the #4 slot. I thought Emma would have fallen farther as well.

To those who predicted Bella's rise, you were right. It is up to #58 from #122.

Barack didn't crack the top 1000.

What a great day!

Elisabeth, what were your risers that broke into the top 1000?

I noticed that Seraphina did not make the Top 1000. ;)

Top 10 boys: Christopher and Matthew were replaced by Jayden and Noah. Top 10 girls: Mia came on, Elizabeth went off. Other than that, the very most popular names were stable. I was surprised Isabella made it into first place because there are several other spellings and of course, Bella is doing well on its own.

Some things I noticed right away. As predicted Mary fell out of the top 100. Lucy rose a touch but not as dramatic as I was thinking it would.

FROM THE PREVIOUS POST

Whew! SO much to catch up on!

@Cathie
Such a GOOD point about ‘anders’! It’s the same in Afrikaans. That’s probably what was throwing my pronunciation . It’s amazing how languages can change your perception .Lol, he would be the ‘other’ child : )

WRITING/PSEUDONYMS
I was also thinking of just initials i.e. J.K. Rowling etc The benefit with initials is that you can still keep your identity private (or at least more so) & you get gender ambiguity. That way, people who only read books by men or only books by women will still buy your book. I was thinking that if you do use a pseudonym, using a truly unisex name as a FN could do the same. The benefit with a pseudonym is that if the books flops or gets horrible reviews, no one need know about it ! Plus, if you write about things or views that you hold that you don’t really want others close to you to know about – you can have a secret life ! You could be a Literature Professor moonlighting as a writer of Harlequin novels or a SAHM who secretly writes horror novels that rival Stephen King : ) I’m wondering what I’ll do : )

@zoerhenne
You should write Sci-fi poetry ! Yes, of course poetry counts. : )
If I ever get my work published, it’d most likely be for my poetry as opposed to one of my stories

@Amy3
I’ve noticed that some writers use different names for different genres ! Some of the names are completely different from each other & it’s the same author .

@Anna S
You have a good point about the hyphen. It seems like such a stupid thing – not even silly, a stupid thing that causes so much drama for people. ‘shakes head & sighs ….very deeply’
Thanks for the info on how it works for scientific articles

@EVie
Good luck with the novel ! When – not ‘if’ you get it published : ) , tell us all please ! They much some very well named characters !

@knp
I completely agree with you regarding the whole born in the month thing. I don’t judge either or assume. I normally just view a name as a name. I just find if a parent wouldn’t use August, for example, just because the kid wasn’t born in August odd OR if they did use it only because of being born in the month cheesy. What’s odd, is that I don’t find sibsets like Poppy,Daisy & Violet or Hope,Faith & Grace cheesy. It’s only the month thing & the season thing that I find cheesy. But then again, sometimes a little bit of corniness is good.
I also like Daphne !

@Guest 310
Sawyer & Lawyer do rhyme for me. And it’s SAW not SOY. It’s odder for me to hear people say it as SOY or LOY. Those who say it with an AW, say it that way because that is how it’s spelled. AW & OY are completely different sounds for some. For where I live, if I came across someone saying lawyer as LOY, I’d think it’s rather odd. It’s mainly all just regional accents that affect how sounds are perceived.

NOW I'M OFF TO GO AND DEVOUR THE LIST !!!!

And here I though Jayden was a girls name.

Patricia-- my risers were Harlow (902) Rosalie (840), and Vivienne (532)

Bristol also broke the top 1000 entering at 666!

Also noticed that there was still no rise for Philip, Simon, or Hugo -- those popular European names from a few blogs back.

WOW

Look at the leap Isla made
2009 346
2008 619

I though Luna was interesting
2009 322
2008 397
2007 453
2006 514
2005 592
2004 723
2003 890

It seems like most of my favorite names have definitely increased in popularity . Most of them seems to be in the 300s for me, though

Piper is steadily increasing in popularity 2009 147
2008 172
2007 240
2006 246
2005 259
2004 267
2003 343
2002 448
2001 411
2000 509

This is so much fun to look at lol !

Thank you for posting the top 1000 on the site, Laura!!!

Vivienne pulled an Isla. I'm not surprised! :)
I am surprised at Lucia not rising though. She's stuck in the exact same place as 2008!
As for boys, my beloved Silas is rising. Sigh. Only to be expected I guess with 'The Graveyard Book' and my thought that maybe -s endings will have an upswing for boys :)

Isabella's jump is HUGE- an extra 4000 births! And the most popular girl's name is more common than the most popular boy's name. wow.

@Elisabeth@youcantcallitit

I also noticed Bristol !

Compare the spelling of Vivian to Vivienne
Vivian is 164

Olive leaped up 217 places and June went up 205 places. Beautiful names that I can't use, so I'm happy about that. :)

Also, Cullen, Jasper, Alice, Bella,Edward and Rosalie all went up but no sign of Esme, Carlisle or Renesme as of yet.

Mustafa? I have to say that I'm surprised to see Cain on the list.
#1 Jacob #970- Jaycob.

I wonder the percentage of names ending in the sound "aden". Jayden is in the top 10, but Jaiden is 101, followed by Kaden and Caden and 102 and 103. Aiden is 12, 72(Aidan), and 85(Ayden).

I'd like to see a top 100 that compiles all the different variations of one name.

i think some of the twilight names were set to rise even without twilight, specifically jasper and alice and bella. although i guess laura's covered that point before.

Elisabeth@youcantcallitit

Congrats on your guesses, by the way ! That's brilliant

Awww I had put down Beatrix to crack the top 1000 :( Maybe next year.

I really can't remember what else I put down in the pool! Happens every year....

I'm kicking myself for not thinking of Vivienne as I spent weeks trying to convince DH that we should name #2 that (we wound up with Avery). The other name he vetoed, Imogen(or Imogene), is not in top 1000 yet.

And the number one name for boys born in 2009 is: .....AIDEN!

Yet again. Aiden, Aidan, Ayden, Aden, Aaden, Adan, Aydan, Aydin, Aidyn, Aedan add up to 31,635 baby boys called by that name in 2009.

While Jacob, which 'won' because there are so few alternate spellings, had just 22,246 baby boys answering to that name, including those whose parents gave them an alternate spelling - Jakob, Jakobe or Jaycob.

Jayden too will be heard more than Jacob, as there were 26,116 boys given that name in 2009, using 10 different spellings to arrive at the same sound.

It looks like the top three names heard among baby boys born in 2009 are:
1. Aiden (ranked 12 SSA) [31,635]
2. Jayden (ranked 8 SSA) [26,116]
3. Jacob (ranked #1 SSA) [22,246]

Wow. Liam jumped from 75 to 49. I didn't call it as a riser, but I did consider it for my son.

Awesome! Thanks for crunching those. I just noticed that there is an alternate spelling for Brayden (Braydon)

Raiden 670 --- that's a new one for me
Tripp 671 --- that's interesting

Thanks Patricia ! That's fabulous of you to do

June deserves that jump and I wouldn't be surprised if it jumped another 200 this year. When we were talking about month names last thread I meant to post that somehow the vibe I get from April and May stem from their month - spring. But June's vibe stems largely from Leave it to Beaver and Johnny Cash - a fun mix!

Isn't Raiden a character from the game Mortal Combat?

I played with Excel. Here is a list of all new top 1000 names (by rank). Some of these I'm surprised were not top 1000 before now:

Name Rank
Analia 329 (??? Huge jump! Where did this come from?)
Vivienne532
Bristol 666
Leighton669
Malaya 755
Milan 775
Brinley 778
Maliah 800
Lylah 828
Jayde 831
Calleigh832
Kourtney836
Janice 838
Rosalie 840
Adelynn 843
Rylan 859
Hayleigh867
Millie 868
Elianna 872
Taraji 881
Demi 883
Ember 885
Vera 893
Evelynn 899
Harlow 902
Alaya 903
Caydence905
Myra 906
Eloise 917
Kylah 921
Raelyn 922
Caleigh 924
Unique 929
Cayla 942
Rebeca 943
Taya 944
Maryam 945
Aiyanna 948
Charley 949
Kaelynn 955
Kamya 956
River 960
Ivanna 965
Ayleen 968
Devyn 969
Leona 970
Abigale 972
Marleigh976
Kayleen 981
Azariah 985
Reece 987
Cambria 993
Samiyah 994
Kloe 998
Lilyanna999

patricia,
thanks for crunching the numbers. i'm amused that they're so similar. i mean jayden is basically just a cross of jacob and aidan. pretty fascinating though.

another laura,
i agree: june deserves that jump.

one of my risers rose and cracked the top 1,000 (eloise), but the other two didn't break in (vienna and barack). though i did find this about barack in an article on these new stats:

"Some 69 boys born in 2009 were named Barack, making it the 1,993rd most popular name for boys. That's up from No. 2,424 the year before."

so it's still rising. but i don't think i'll put money on it next year though. i think most of the people who wanted to use it as a namesake would have done so in 2009.

One interesting thing about the sheer number of Isabellas is that typically there are fewer baby girls with the #1 name compared to the #1 boy (and some years the first few boys names on the list).

EDA: Sorry, Blythe I missed that you already made this point.

AmberSim

Thanks for doing that !

I'm glad Ember is in !

Isabella's alternate spellings are fewer than I thought -- only Izabella (#163) and Isabela (#492) are in the Top 1000. With combined spellings, 24,629 baby girls were called Isabella in 2009, while on the boys' side, 31,635 were called Aiden. I don't think there's a girls' name whose combined spellings can overcome Isabella's total number.

So it appears that Aiden and Isabella were the top names parents chose to CALL their new son or daughter in 2009.

And here are names that ranked in 2008, but fell off the charts in 2009 (sorted by 2008 rank):

Name Rank
Hillary 719
Mareli 721
Rhianna 752
Dayami 753
Cierra 789
Jazlene 832
Gillian 833
Mylie 838 (I am shocked by this one)
Shyann 847
Areli 852
Kaley 853
Gina 854
Kaila 856
Litzy 874
Kristin 886
Adison 892
Krista 894
Shirley 912
Cloe 913
Monique 926
Ashanti 931
Justine 932
Abigayle939
Kamora 942
Marin 945
Naima 946
Nathalia949
Nyasia 951
Izabelle955
Laci 957
Anabel 958
Chasity 961
Denisse 962
Maren 963
Micaela 965
Selina 967
Shea 968
Donna 970
Kaylah 972
Makaila 975
Shayna 977
Essence 979
Amaris 980
Ashtyn 981
Laurel 983
Leticia 984
Kianna 987
Desirae 988
Kathy 989
Dania 992
Jamiya 993
Hailie 995
Carleigh996
Sky 998
Carrie 1000

From the previous thread:

Anna S., thanks for the link to the Elliott website. It looks like a good resource, and it's weird--that guy looks soooo much like one of DH's cousins, I did a double-take.

zoerhenne, thanks for checking those numbers again--that makes a lot more sense, because I was starting to wonder if there was something in your water over there leading to an unnatural abundance of baby boys!!

EVie, glad to hear that your airline story worked out--and I'm surprised it did, actually!! I totally agree with you--if airlines are going to make a fuss over the tiniest discrepancies, then they have a duty to make sure that their name policies (i.e. acceptance of hyphens, length of name, etc.) are at least as accomodating as the US govt's.

And generally--I really don't think that naming a baby for the month or season or whatever that they are born in is cheesy at all, as long as you like that name anyway. I think it can be really charming, if, for instance, you call your June-born girl June not ONLY because she was born then, and when you think of her you might always think about that wonderous June day when she came into your life, but also because you love the vibrance of early summer, and you want her to embody that and carry it through the whole year (or whatever). I don't think it shows a lack of imagination at all--and it ties into historical practices, when children were often named for the day or season of their birth. Oh, and I'm also kind of glad to see June jumping in the ranks again--it really is such a lovely name!!

I named my son (born in 2010) Micah. People suggested that it might be mistaken as a girls name and that it was one of the names being overtaken by girls- however in 2009 there were 3,490 boys and only 341 girls named Micah.

Wow, I'm surprised by Laurel. I also was surprised to see Grace back in the top 20 but in terms of number of births it looks like it actually fell.

WHO in their right mind thinks ANALIA is a good idea?

Disaster.

(Thanks for the congrats, Larksong!)

emilyrae, could you give the URL for the article you mentioned?

Interesting to read the stats on the name Barack, not that they mean anything one way or the other politically speaking. But I rather like the name and keep a photo of myself and a guy with that name here on my computer desk hutch.

AmberSim, I too was surprised that some of those names weren't in the 2008 Top 1000. And how about Unique at #929? I can think of several names I would expect to see on this list before that one!

"Honey, let's give the baby a really unique name!"

"What would you suggest?"

"Hmm -- how about Unique! No one else will think of that!"

Ah, but they did. And now Unique is no longer unique!

I am also confused over Analia.
#1 that name is completely off my radar, and to go from unranked to 300something is HUGE.
#2 YUCK. Annalia might be ok, but this is one case where leaving out that 2nd N is a real detriment to the name...

I checked my formula, and it appears correct.... I am just very surprised.

Patricia and AmberSim, thanks for summarizing the data--very interesting and helpful!! And I'm pleased (I think) to see Vera breaking into the top 1000--it's one of my dark horse favorites.

For my first hits on the new list, I was pleased to see that Ivy dropped a bit (22 points) from 2008--my only worry would be skyrocketing, and there doesn't seem to be much danger of that. I was disappointed, though to see that Oliver rose 20 points up to number 98--it seems to be steadily climbing 20-30 points every year since 2001, which means to me that I wouldn't be surprised to see it in the top 50 soon. Sigh. I don't mind it being popular, but I will have to draw the line somewhere. Rowan was pleasing, on the other hand. It dropped almost 30 spots for girls (from 469 to 496), and rose very slightly for boys (340 to 336).

Dearest, I am also a bit surprised/dismayed by Silas's jump--310 to 254 is a big leap in one year. I can't use it, but I do love it dearly.

Miley also fell from #128 to #189. The total number of babies given this name decreased from 2,641 to 1,716.

Re: Analia.

I did a quick google and ended up on a WIKI for a Spanish-language soap opera called "Analia's Face". Perhaps these are hispanic parents who don't necessarily see that this name will make their child the butt of many jokes.

hyz,
i'm right there with you on oliver. i still love it though. :] i'm not sure any level of popularity could change that. however, i do hope it doesn't make like...top 20 or something. on the other hand, julian (my other favorite) dropped one place. so yay. :]

i agree that analia isn't the best spelling, and a huuuge jump. a quick google search indicates that it might be from a spanish telenovela.

Analia

Are they not maybe saying it with a long A or an UH sound. UH -naah-lee-uh ? etc

I haven't had a chance to read any of the comments yet, but wanted to jump in quickly. I love to look at the pairings of the names (although I realize those are largely random). My favorite is 846 (Sidney - Edith); I'd totally give those names to kids of mine.

One of the funny ones was 940 (Royce - Joyce). There are lots of sound-alikes (or look-alikes) that share identical rankings, which I always find interesting. Some from this year are Rayan - Ryann and Deegan - Deja.

"Perhaps these are hispanic parents who don't necessarily see that this name will make their child the butt of many jokes."

ala-mama,
was that a pun? :]

The names Isla,Olive & Sasha have all risen . I'd love to see what happens when Isla Fisher & Sacha Baron Cohen have their next child & to see what that child is named

I just browsed the list for names that rhyme with Aiden and came up with over 93,000. Who knew there were so many ways to spell Kaden.

@emilyrae- why, yes it was :)

But I think "anal" means the same thing in both English and Spanish, so I don't let those parents off the hook either way. As pretty as "anna-lia" may sound, Analia is not a good name for a child born in an English OR Spanish speaking country.

@hyz- I absolutely agree