Just as the billows of white smoke emanating from the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City signal the election of a new pope, so does the name he chooses for himself signal his aspirations for his papacy.  Pope Francis broke precedent by picking one that had never been used before, but which...

　　This week in her Nameberry 9 blog, Appellation Mountain‘s Abby Sandel offers evidence that boys’ baby names are rapidly catching up with the girls’ in terms of creativity. 　　A few days ago, my daughter Clio announced that girls’ names are pretty, but boys’ names are awesome. 　　She also informed me...

　　It seems that just about every few decades since the 1940’s, one Old Testament patriarch name has entered the popularity list’s Top 5, some lingering longer than others.  From the forties through the early eighties it was David,  joined by Joshua in 1983, Daniel for the single year 1985, Jacob...

　　by Kelli Brady of NameFreak! 　　Wentworth Miller, the actor from the former hit show Prison Break, has a very distinctive name. He is a third, after his father and grandfather, and he may share his name with a few others in the world, but his first name is by no...

　　By Anna Otto of Waltzing More Than Matilda 　　February 17th is the birthdate of Andrew Barton Paterson, affectionately known as “Banjo” Paterson.  He was named Andrew after his Scottish-born father, and his middle name Barton was a family name from his mother’s side; he was related to Edmund Barton, who...

　　By Linda Rosenkrantz 　　Before you fire up the barbie or pack up the picnic basket, why not take a minute to think about what Memorial Day memorializes. 　　The holiday—originally called Decoration Day—was first commemorated on May 30, 1868, not long after the Civil War had ended, and was given that...

　　This week for the Nameberry 9, Appellation Mountain‘s Abby Sandel takes a look at the shifting perceptions of boys’ baby names. 　　When we named our son Alexander in 2004, it was a no-brainer, a family name that my husband very much wanted to pass down.  Despite my baby name obsession,...

　　All-boy quintuplets are very rare, so naming them is one of those name nerd fantasies that is unlikely ever to come true. 　　But we can dream, can’t we? 　　Over in our forums, there are nearly 500 pages of responses to the name game challenge to name a set of all-boy...

　　By Abby Sandel of Appellation Mountain 　　There’s something about a name that ends with the letter s. 　　They’re preppy.  Sometimes they sound plural or possessive.  But they’re also fresh.  In our age of Aiden and Asher, we’re not expecting to meet a kiddo with an s ending name. 　　I’m not...

　　by Pamela Redmond Satran 　　Sssssssssh, have you heard the secret? 　　There may be a lot of Wild and Wilder names around these days, but boys’ names are also going in a softer direction. 　　The sh sound is stylish — or should that be shtylish? — for baby boys’ names, introduced...

　　by Angela Mastrdonato of Upswing Baby Names 　　Boy names have inspired me lately. Here are some brilliant names with masculine swagger and a bit of 1960’s charm. If I were to write a novel with beatnik characters, these would be the names of the male characters. In my opinion they...

　　Which boy names have been most popular on Nameberry so far this year? 　　The big news in baby boy names: Asher is back on top, a spot he held in our 2011 popularity list but lost to Finn in 2012.  Finn is still enormously popular with Nameberry’s parents, holding onto...

　　By Pamela Redmond Satran 　　Baby Men Names are names that sound perennially middle-aged, born wearing ties and carrying leather briefcases, buttoned-up and oh-so-adult. 　　These names carry several advantages: They’re rooted in tradition, of course, and so give your child a solid base for any grownup pursuit.  And since so many...