They snap, crackle, and pop—which is one reason why alliterative names are so widely used for the characters in children’s stories—from nursery rhymes like ‘Wee Willie Winkie’ to picture books like Mike Mulligan’s Steam Shovel to Young Adult book characters like Harry Potter‘s Luna Lovegood. 　　Here, the distinguished name scholars Don...

　　We first discovered Teresa Strasser when she mentioned us on her hilarious blog, Exploiting My Baby, to be published as a book next year.  (That’s her at the right, pretending to be Heidi Klum.) Like many moms, Teresa spent her entire pregnancy obsessing about names, except unlike most moms, she...

　　Of course they’re still around, with a few like William and Daniel still in the Top Ten, but most of the standard classics are far from being the power names they once were–Peter, Paul and George, for example, have hit all-time lows. 　　And yes, Edward has that Twilight touch, and Jack is back with...

　　Do you love vintage names but want to move beyond the usual classics and Biblical choices to cool names from history?  We looked at the popularity lists of 1910 to uncover hundreds of vintage boy names that are no longer in use — but could be revived. 　　It’s odd that there...

　　With Labor Day upon us, it seems like the perfect moment to focus on the original pre-barbecue meaning of the holiday and celebrate hard-working occupational names.  So we’re looking back to wtoe we wrote on the subject in our book Beyond Ava & Aiden, but here focusing on the less used, fresher sounding...

　　For a number of years, when I wasn’t writing about names, I was writing about antiques and collectibles for a syndicated newspaper column.  But of course when I was thinking about antiques, I was still also thinking about names. 　　Looking at the field of antique furniture, for example, I found that...

　　Looking for boys’ names that feel contemporary and stylish but that you won’t hear coming and going?  Here are our picks of unusual boys’ names – used for fewer than 100 boys, but at least 50 (those borders were picked to keep the collection manageable) – that are in step...

　　There’s a new Number One boys’ name three-quarters of the way through the year.  Finn beat out Henry to become the most popular of the boys’ names 2010, as the most-searched male name on nameberry for the nine months that just ended. 　　This is big news, not least because well-liked...

　　Yesterday we took a look at the girls’ names moving in and out of fashion and now we turn our attention to their brothers. 　　And here we find a somewhat different picture. 　　Overall, it confirms the fact that there is much greater consistency on the boys’ side of the fence, with...

　　I don’t you know if you’ve noticed a growing trendlet—at least among celebrities—for what we might call generic-boy-nickname-names.  In other words, these aren’t specific short forms like Charlie or Archie, but ol- timey macho boy tags like Buddy and Buster. 　　In the recent past, we’ve seen Noel Gallagher’s Sonny, a...

　　Maybe contemplating the name Rufus sparked my revelation.  Or it might have hit me when I encountered an Otis.  Whatever the inspiration, I suddenly realized that my most-loved boys’ names end in the letter s.  Yep, almost all of them. 　　Amias?  One of my all-time underappreciated favorites. 　　Amadeus and Miles? ...

　　The Nameberry Question of the Week: Would you name your baby boy Harvey or Stanley or any of the other up-and-coming oldies appearing on the recently released British pop list? 　　Is this another case where the Yanks will follow the Brits in baby-naming trends and revive such previously verboten Grandpa...

　　Heroes and villains, famous and infamous, real life, big and small screen characters and the actors who played them—there’s a whole genre of cowboy names that have a certain swagger and western twang all their own. 　　Here are a dozen of the best: who they were and why we like...