The Baby Name Wizard

Harper

Pippa

Pippa (I was going to say this even before I saw the previous post!).

"The 99%"

Harper (on a girl). It's been rising for a couple years already, possibly due to the Wizards of Waverly Place, but now there's a celebrity baby with the name. With Harper's parents being the Beckhams, I'm sure this name is going to skyrocket.

Monroe. I think that Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon may be starting a trend giving their daughter a famous starlets surname. Surnames are already popular but now this takes the surname trend and merges it with old Hollywood glam.

Flynn. The movie Tangled introduced us to Flynn Ryder, a much needed alternative to Finn.

I also fully agree with Pippa. I bet the name will be a full blown phenomenon in the US, just like the world's love for Pippa Middleton.

Sob, sob, sob. I named my daughter Philippa (which is shortened variously to Pippa, Pippi & Pips) in 2010. I chose it because I loved it and it fit our key criteria of giving formal/informal, girlie/androgynous/strong flexibility but also because it was a classic English name relatively uncommon in the current generation.

I was aware that Kate had a sister called Pippa but didn't really think through the likelihood of her being thrown so fully into the spotlight.

I suspect it will grow in popularity in the UK but not overnight. I hadn't thought about the worldwide impact.

The only problem with Pippa is that none of the American men I know have heard of her, only American women.

I will second Pippa for now and look through the Namecandy site and others for further nominations.

May I also PRE-nominate for next year whatever the new Duggar baby's name ends up being?

Another vote for Pippa!

Adele.

Vintage style, modern feel, and now a pop star with a meteoric rise.

Hmm names in the news other than Pippa don't seem to be anything exciting or encouraging new usage: Michael, Casey, Kate, Lindsey, Charlie, Ashton, Nicholas, Lisa, Andy, Steve. What I actually see from the names above is a resurgence of the classic 70's/80's names. Stuff you don't hear very much on newborns anymore but still isn't completely unfamiliar. Can we nominate the top 50 names from the 70's and 80's as a whole?

Without pondering too much over the NOTY-worthiness, these are names I've been hearing a lot in the past year:

Mila Kunis - an exotic (nick)name from the USSR/Ukraine, yet it fits right in.
Harper Seven Beckham - probably the most anticipated celebrity baby name of the year.
Pippa - the single sister with the nice bottom, an über-British nickname and a valid alternative to Piper.

Lisbeth Salander - most talked-about Swedish badass heroine of the year.
Fukushima Daiichi - when was the last time we were on a first name basis with Japanese nuclear plants?

Oh, and if there is a Letter of the Year subcategory to NOTY; H.

I agree with Pippa. I named my daughter Piper. I was pregnant with her during the royal wedding, and I (literally) had 10 people ask me the next day if I was going to change her name to Pippa instead of Piper.

I'm liking the Pippa and Adele nominations. I know new babies born in this year with each of those names. Eloise is also really on the rise among the statistically significant sample of my facebook friends.

But I nominate Jobs-- for the double meaning of Steve and the constant drumbeat of "job creation" among the Republican primary candidates.

Or we could go with Zucotti.

Agree about Pippa and Adele. I think Katniss is going to be big when the Hunger Games movie comes out.
As for boys..Bieber?

I have to agree with previous posters. I don't think there's much competition with Pippa (although for the life of me I still don't know why people are going ga-ga over her. She's pretty and all, but jeez). But you've surprised me before.

The only other yet unmentioned name that stood out this year that I can think of is, unfortunately, "Unwanted."

I nominate Siri. Though nobody is talking about her name, everyone's talking about her. Or to her.

Pippa seems like a good nomination.

In terms of the European debt crisis, how about Silvio, Angela, Nicolas, and George to get in the (ex)leaders of Italy, Germany, France, and Greece? I hear their names all the time!

It's been such a huge year for news what with the Arab Spring, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, the continuing financial problems the world over, the royal wedding, the Occupy movement, and the run up to the Republican primaries.

How about the name Spring just to sum up all the changes in the Arab World as well as the Occupy movements that got their inspiration from the Arab Spring? I like the imagery of the name: it could represent the hopefulness of new birth and renewal, gratitude for having survived a long winter, a leap into an unknown future, or a piece of machinery (politically speaking a critical part that makes government function). I'm rambling here, but hopefully you'll take my point...

I agree with many of the other nominations, but here are a few more ideas:

Seven - In 2011, the world population reached 7 billion; David & Victoria Beckham used the name for their daughter born this year.

Steve or Apple - Steve Jobs' death was a big deal.

Tahrir - it's a place name (Tahrir Square), means "liberation", and was a major focal point in the Arab Spring news.

I agree with Pippa, but also definitely Siri.

I vote for Seven. But partly for selfish reasons, because I hate the idea of my daughter's name being grouped with Renesmee and The Situation, dear God forbid. I named my daughter Philippa, nn Pippa, but she was named after a Philip! The Duchess's sister almost made us change our minds.

Just for the record, in the real world, there's been far less "oh, after Pippa Middleton?" than I feared. In fact, sometimes, when someone doesn't know the name Pippa, I've even said "Like Pippa Middleton?" and they reply "Who's that?"

Of course I don't know what people are thinking in their hearts, but only two or three people total have brought up Pippa Middleton first.

Don't get me wrong, I'm expecting a name bump, but I don't think it's going to be as drastic as people in the name enthusiast community think. The doubling in popularity of an obscure name is still pretty obscure. Check out the charts on babycenter.com, especially for her full name Philippa.

Kate is my vote. Stylish, graceful, princess, etc.

Hmm, I just had to google Siri, so....

I like Elizabeth T.'s suggestion of and argument for Spring, and Joye's suggestion of Seven for the 7 billion, and Coll's mention of Jobs (but only because it's a twofer that captures the unemployment issue, Mr. Jobs alone wouldn't do it for me, as influential as he has been).

My suggestions would've been along the lines of Fukushima Daiichi or Zucati, both of which are actually names/proper nouns, both of which represent significant world events of the past year, and both of which are kind of fun to say.

Anthony:

1. The over-hyped media circus that was the Casey Anthony trial.
2. Anthony Weiner's sexting scandal "Weinergate".
3. Marc Anthony's and Jennifer Lopez's split.
4. Anthony "Tony" La Russa announcing his retirement after the Cardinals won the World series.

Ok, the last one is pushing it and I'm not sure how "essential the name is to the story"... but the name Anthony has spent much of the year in the news.

My vote is for Adele. It is a name with instant recognition among people from all kinds of demographics. My older relatives know the name and they are really out of the news/pop culture loop.

Pippa & Lisbeth would also be good choices.

Adele is another excellent choice. Hyz, I am smiling at you because you had to Google Siri. I don't have one but I know what/who it is. However, I have to assume you will smile back at me when I say I had to Google Zucati. I so try NOT to watch the news and listen to depressing stuff about abuse and death and politics. Yet there are still things I hear. I don't know who Lisbeth is either btw.
Spring is an okay choice, but the Spring on the east coast was messy here. I would nominate Rain. We've had SO much of it that it has almost become a 4 letter word here if you know what I mean. I would also nominate Irene or Lee. We had enough of each of them to last a lifetime too though.I don't know if anyone outside of the US would care about those though. Maybe that makes Fukishima the ultimate because EVERYONE heard about that.

Oh, it's going to be Pippa, isn't it? I have a 7-year-old Philippa called Pippa, and so far we've both been enjoying her name's little bit of media attention (our girl even happens to share the same birthday as Pippa Middleton). It's nice to have her name met with recognition now rather than the puzzled looks we used to get. But I have to admit, my heart sank a little to see how overwhelmingly popular it is as a nomination here. Just don't write anything that will send it to the top 10, okay, Laura?

Even without knowing the votes, I would have said Pippa. It is really the only name that hasn't really been a sort of flash in the pan. Pippa has remained in the media since April.

Been trying to think of names since I saw this posted yesterday but nothing has even come close to Pippa.

So many good nominations already, I like the nominations of Flynn, Arab Spring, Siri, Fukushima and Adele. Although Siri hasn't caught on as well as I had thought it would.

Other names that stuck out but are far behind Pippa that haven't been mentioned yet:

Rory: as in Rory McIlroy, the anointed next Tiger Woods who hasn't really done much since his epic failure at the Masters and meteoric demolishment at the US Open - he hasn't been able to maintain that level of exposure.

(Tim) Tebow: as in "Dear New York Jets, you just got Tebowed!" and the "Tebowing" trend see: http://tebowing.com/ - this isn't Tim Tebow's first year where he's made headlines but I certainly think "Tebow-mania" is growing every week and there's still 6 more weeks of 2011 Football for his name to become even more "mythologized"

Goddess/Troll/Warlock: all courtesy of Mr. Charlie Sheen. (if only "Winning!" could be considered a name, it might stand up against Pippa)

--

thinking back through 2011 it just seems like a lot of stuff was being rehashed, there was nothing really new in music, movies, or tv - no huge new phenomenon or anything, it was just same stuff and same people as 2010.

I'm going to chime in here and say Pippa does seem like a good and obvious choice to me. The royal wedding got such attention and especially because people wanted to focus on soemthing positive in the midst of turmoil. But the surprise was the boring expected Princess Kate got upstaged by her spunky fresh sister Pippa. (at least those are my associations with the names. I'm not in the UK)

I also really like Spring as being evocative of the Arab Spring, the Occupy Wallstreet, and a new awakening. But I don't know if it has the same influence in the naming world. I can readily imagine a group of little Pippa's named after the royal in law but I have a harder time imagining a young Spring named after the political movements. I mean, I would do it actually but I don't see it being a larger trend.

As an American man, I just have to say: Definitely NOT Pippa. She is NOT on our radar. I have a vague memory of a pretty girl with a ridiculously stupid hat, and after that, nothing. She has not appeared again in my news.

Anthony? Perhaps. Seven? A contender.

Siri: I like this one. It's a specific name that denotes a specific trend that's growing: it's no longer about human-human interaction, but human-computer, where the computer interprets the human.

I'd like to add one more name to nomination. We hadn't heard names of people in the Japan disaster. One of the defining characteristics of the Occupy movements is that it's about no one person in particular, but about (nearly) everyone. With both Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Jerry Sandusky there's work on letting the victims keep their privacy. And one additional group has appeared a few times for different reasons in the news lately: the recent Facebook hack, background behind Wikileaks, and the like.

I nominate the name Anonymous.

Also, Zucati? Do you mean Zuccotti?

See, it's funny I have no idea who or what Siri is. We all pay attention to different news stories I guess.

I agree on Harper. Tiffani Thiessen and Neil Patrick Harris also have baby girls named Harper.

Zoerhenne, I blame myself--maybe you wouldn't have had to google Zuccotti if I'd spelled it correctly. Derp! I do pay attention to the news, but I get about 80% of my news from NPR, 10% from DH, and the other 10% from misc. sources. DH is a huge Mac fanatic, so I'm not sure how I missed out on Siri, although the iPhone is probably the only Apple product we don't own, so maybe that's it. Coincidentally, I heard Siri mentioned in a teaser this morning on NPR, and it went by so fast that if I hadn't heard it here I probably would've assumed they had just said something about Syria--maybe that's how it's escaped my notice so far.

I think the whole idea of NOTY is pretty challenging, because how do you balance important world events vs. cultural events which are fluffier but also maybe more appealing/fun (deadly earthquake/nuclear disaster vs. political revolution vs. royal wedding vs. high end electronics available to a small segment of the population vs. celebrity gossip and fictional characters)? The "naminess" requirement (a very reasonable one, of course!) seems to lean towards pop culture more than serious world news, because pop culture is full of branding (of products and individuals), where a memorable or distinctive name is de rigueur, whereas the news (generally) has to take the names associated with events as they come. So, while Pippa is certainly a more attractive choice than some other options (and it's a name I love), I have a hard time really getting behind it as NOTY.

Linnaeus, I like the Anonymous suggestion, and yes, I definitely meant Zuccotti. Zucati was sort of a late night, phonetic stream of consciousness invention. Any takers on Zucati as a baby name? It looks a little zippier than the correct spelling, to me--kind of like Ducati meets everyone's favorite scrabble value multiplier. ;)

My nomination is for the name Storm. It's the name a Canadian couple used for their child,while announcing to the world that Storm would be raised genderless.

In terms of people names, Pippa, Harper, and Adele went through my mind. The other name that went through was Kris as in both Kris Jenner and Kris Humphries and their ties to the the wedding fiasco of the year. It's spawned the time-unit of Kardashian; such a pop cultural reference that my news station talked about the Demi-Ashton split this morning saying that they'd been married 30-some Kardashians.

I do like "The 99%" and Arab Spring as well.

I think in defense of Pippa - it is the only name that sort of spans both "serious news" and pop culture (even if you don't consider The Royal Wedding "serious news" it was covered by almost every "serious news" network). She is 2011 just like The Situation was 2010. If there is one person who really made it big this year, it was Pippa. I can't really think of anyone else who had such a meteoric rise in fame in 2011. and I think her name has a lot to do with the attention the media has given her, it allows them to cast her as the party sister with such a fun and spunky nickname compared to the more demure and proper Kate. I think it'd be a whole different ball game if Kate had a sister name Jane. Pippa is fresh, fun, and spunky (plus a nn of a grandma name). My favourite part of Pippa is just saying it, it's a fun name to say. Pip-pa. such fun. don't we all want a bit of fun once in a while?

I agree with Linnaeus - there is no single name in these movements that stand out like a Che, Marcos, or Stalin - there isn't a "leader". There hasn't been one specific figure in the "hard news" this year it seems - except the baddies, like Gaddafi or Mubarak. I like Anonymous but I don't think I would put it above Pippa.

Mitt -- Mitt Romney is the Republican presidential front-runner, but I haven't seen any commentary about his unusual name. I looked it up, and his full name appears to be Willard Mitt Romney. I bet most people assume it's Mitchell.

I second Anonymous for NOTY! Or maybe Julian (Assange).

hyz-It wasn't you and I would definitely pick Zucati over Zucotti for a baby name.
Zucotti to me = manicotti + cool Z factor; Zucati to me =african name meaning something I forget.

Saugifer-I do remember hearing about Storm. I also remember seeing that Adolf Hitler was being returned to his parents along with his siblings.

Linnaeus-The thing with Seven is that I have to consciously think about why that is being nominated. The same with Harper. Except Harper is the last name of the character that Charlie Sheen played on 2 1/2 men so it gets an extra vote for that. But, when I hear Pippa there are only 2 I think of: Middleton and one of our own board babies. Adele makes me think of the singer. How about Gaga or is she past her prime name-wise?

I am baffled by all the talk about Pippa Middleton. I am a 20 something woman and the only time/place I have ever heard of her is on this blog.

Not that I have a better nomination. It seems like Siri is still too new for most to have much exposure to it, though unlike Pippa I have heard of it from other sources. Maybe it is set to be the 2012 NOTY? The suggestion of Anthony is intriguing.

Humphries.

Oo! I have another one! Wasn't the little Egyptian girl named Facebook this year?

And could someone please explain why Anonymous and Siri are nominated? Because I have no idea what you're talking about.

I also like Storm as a nomination.

tinaconn-I am not sure about Anonymous except to say that it represents everyone and no one in particular which Linnaeus was referencing to the Occupy protests. Siri is the name of the AI in the new smart phones. A quick google search says its the iphone4S. I don't have a compu-phone.

tinaconn and zoerhenne: Anonymous is also the name of the hacker group that has been highlighted in a number of stories throughout the year, regarding Wikileaks, the recent Facebook attack, and the hacking attacks on businesses in the name of the Occupy protests. I see Anonymous as a candidate for the name of the year because the big stories are about the nameless masses, or about privacy, or about the power of anonymity online.

At first I thought of Pippa as just one of the fastest rising names of the year, but I realized the reason for its meteoric rise is very significant.

America is not a commonwealth country and until this year, our fascination with the royals was waning. With Pippa, we have gone beyond an obsession with the new princess, but now the next ring around her can make front page news across the pond.

In the midst of natural disasters and worldwide tension, looking to the royal wedding became a bit of an escapist pleasure. They transcend the Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan debacles. Our celebrities have all been publicly self-destructing. But the royals, oh the royals. They are elegant, timeless and uplifting. If they were a bit too unapproachable for our sentiments, we can fixate on Pippa. With Pippa we get all the class without the confinements.

Pippa is short, sweet and spunky. It is an instant reminder of something that has brought the world together this year.

oh I totally agree with Essy01 about the "naminess" of Pippa. It sounds peppy and different and fun, like the sister who still gets to play when grown up dignified Kate has to greet the diplomats.

A sister named Anne or Margaret just wouldn't have the same image.

I think Pippa falls too much along the lines of trends, and she didn't really have that much to do with the royal wedding itself.

I with the "Anonymous" nominators. I think that the idea of naming an organization something that basically means "nameless" is of real name-of-the-year significance.

It's changed our perception of the word just as over the past year we've changed our concept of internet identity. Before facebook, it was really rare to actually put your full real name on the internet--it's predecessors like myspace relied heavily on psuedonyms and protected anonymity. With the "lollipop" horror video and concerns over privacy with facebook as it unveils more changes, it's become even more of a concern.

"Anonymous" also represents how the use of the internet has changed in recent years and how it can be used a a political tool for good and bad--the protests, the hackers good and bad,etc.

I'm afraid I'm one of those culturally illiterate people who was completely baffled by all of the Pippa nominations. I had to go look her up, and then I was like, "oh, so this name goes with that face. Okay."

Anonymous, though, I can definitely see. All I have to do to not know about Pippa is not bother with pop news (I'm sorry if I offend anyone), but there is no escaping the Wall Street occupiers, at the very least. I'll nominate Anonymous. I like that the meaning of Anonymous has somewhat changed. In the past, it meant a single person writing something and getting it published. This year, it refers to a whole group of people, no one named because all of them are equally important, and it doesn't necessarily mean they publish anything. And, for the conspiracy-theorists among us, a desire to maintain our rights to privacy.