Parents in search of names emblematic of a new masculine image for their sons are also looking toward ethnic choices unknown in the U.S. just a few years ago. 　　The inspiration?  To some extent, it’s celebrities, from actors like Joaquin Phoenix to star dog trainer Cesar Millan to Heidi Klum’s...

　　Memorial Day–formerly  known as Decoration Day–was first observed on May 30, 1868, shortly after the Civil War, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery, so that the  roots of the holiday were very much entwined with the War Between the States. It’s...

　　Guest blogger Teresa Strasser, a comedy writer whose new blog is called Exploiting My Baby, is desperate for one good boys’ name for her son, due in October.  How far will she go to find it? 　　I know from that stupidly catchy viral “Pregnant Women are Smug” song that pregnant...

　　If you were to go solely by the tabloids, you might think that every celebrity’s baby boy was given the name of a New York borough or a Disney character or was his parents’ quirky Scrabble-letter invention. 　　Au contraire. 　　There is a very  healthy segment of show biz parents who...

　　The other day on the nameberry message boards, I heard tell of a little boy named Vandal.  And then, the next day, one of the bandmembers of My Chemical Romance named his newborn daughter (yes, daughter) Bandit. 　　Are these parents masochistic?  Gang members?  Or do they just love the idea...

　　It’s Famous Dad Names time!  For Mother’s Day we took a look at some of the more interesting names of the mothers of distinguished people, and now we do the same for the paternal parent.  Once more,  it turns out that an unusual number of past (and a few present)...

　　Guest blogger Kathryn Livingston__, author of the essay collection All About Motherhood,  knew you weren’t supposed to name a baby after an old boyfriend.  But she couldn’t resist. 　　My first two babies—both boys—were easy enough to name, and my husband and I agreed that the names Aaron and Sam were...

　　They’re not like those jaunty Irish surnames that kind of jump out and hit you in the face–no way you could see Finnegan or Donovan as anything else.  But Scottish surnames, somewhat more subtly, have affected American nomenclature to a surprising degree. 　　Many Scottish names that could pass for Irish or...

　　A couple of weeks ago, we looked at the favorite girls’ names on a Nameberry Message Board thread–led by the lovely Beatrix, Penelope and Clementine–and now it’s time to look over at the boys’ side. 　　The most striking result is the strong showing for the good old traditional, timeless classics, with...

　　Novelist Christina Baker Kline, whose wonderful new book Bird in Hand comes out this week, writes about how even someone who names fictional people for a living can make mistakes when naming real live babies.  Like when she named her three sons: Eli, his brother William, and his other brother...

　　In the most recent list of Most Popular Boys ‘ Names, all five of the top five names came from the Good Book, accounting for well over 100,000 of the boy babies born in the US.  Obviously, many parents–whether for religious reasons or not–continue to be attracted to names with this strong...

　　Yesterday we took a look at the long-delayed UK Office for National Statistics’ list of most popular girls’ names in England and Wales for 2008–and now it’s the boys’ turn.  We see many similar patterns across the gender divide, though perhaps even more names in the boy’ column that are less familiar in...

　　When Henry was chosen as the #1 favorite boy’s name on the collective 5-star lists of the nameberry community, I was somewhat surprised and yet somewhat not.  Because in many ways Henry is the perfect boy’s name—as classic and historic as James and John and William –yet with a quirkier edge that makes it...