In The Nameberry 9 blog this week, Appellation Mountain‘s Abby Sandel, addresseses the question of “What is a ‘normal name?” 　　The news was filled with so-called normal names this week.  But what defines a normal name?  Is it a Top Ten choice that plenty of people your age share?  Or...

　　As we eagerly await the revelation of what the top names were in the US last year, we thought it might be fun to see what international faves were heading the lists in other parts of the world.  Which American favorites were also among the three preferred choices in other...

　　This week, Appellation Mountain‘s Abby Sandel looks beyond the Top 1000 most popular baby names list to find some still undiscovered goodies. 　　Wasn’t yesterday a little bit like a birthday/Fourth of July/belated Mother’s Day celebration all rolled into one?  I’ll admit it: I hung up on my own mother to...

　　Popular baby names are the Number 1 topic of the week, but today we thought we’d turn the tables and ask instead about favorite baby names.  What are your personal Top 10 names for each gender? 　　The criteria: Those you love best, period.  Put them in order, with Number 1...

　　Today is officially Soap Opera Day (woo hoo!) and though this isn’t as big of a deal in the baby name world as it once was, with a lot fewer sudsers on TV than there were when soap operas were the main staple of daytime programming, we have to acknowledge...

　　Yesterday, to launch British Names Week on Nameberry, Eleanor Nickerson identified the five strongest current naming trends in the UK.  　　Today we zero in on the popularity of individual names on both sides of the Atlantic, seeing which names have shared success and which haven’t. 　　We Yanks sometimes tend to...

　　Time again for one of my absolute favorite activities—rounding up the names that Berries have chosen over the past three-month period.  These are the winning picks after all the options were weighed– so often the result of enlightened discussions with and suggestions from fellowberries. 　　Today’s Quarterly Report includes an even...

　　Guest blogger and Sweden native Sarah–known to us Berries as Svea–  gives us some insight on the trends behind the list of most popular Swedish baby names. 　　Being a Swedish Sarah (the #1 name the year I was born), I grew up in a sea of Saras and Sarahs, with...

　　The figures for the most popular names in the UK in 2011 have just been released by the Office for National Statistics, containing plenty of surprises and interesting tidbits.  For one thing, it seems that despite a lot of cross-pollination, there is still a considerable divide in name popularity across...

　　Conventional wisdom holds that baby names tend to follow the Hundred-Year-Rule, cycling back after a century has passed. But with everything speeding up exponentially in modern life, and with the great interest in all things mid-century, we’re thinking maybe we should change that to the Fifty-Year-Rule. 　　Which prompts us to...

　　This week, Appellation Mountain‘s Abby Sandel considers the impact of baby name popularity–does it sway our choices more than it should? 　　Lately I’m wondering: is all this talk about baby names changing the names we use? 　　A century ago, parents could draw inspiration from the newspaper, the Bible, literature, music,...

　　The time has rolled around again when I get to do one of my favorite things—browse through the Birth Announcement Forum and get to see a snapshot of the gorgeous names Berries have chosen over these past three months–the latest installment of Baby Names 2012.  Because each quarter they seem...

　　For The Nameberry 9 this week, Appellation Mountain‘s Abby Sandel finds a nonet of  familiar boys’ names that you might not have considered. 　　Are you watching The League?  The FX comedy is about a group of friends who form a fantasy football league.  Draft picks matter, in real sports as...