Now that Isabella is #2 on the list of most popular girls’ names, Isaac and Isaiah are in the Top 50 for boys, and names like Isla are heating up, we’re wondering if the letter ‘I’ just might be in line to become the next vowel du jour, moving up...

　　The biggest baby name news of 2009 was Emma’s rise to the number one spot for girls’ names, becoming only the ninth girls’ name in U.S. history to claim first place. 　　EMMA unseated EMILY, which slipped to number three, after a 12-year-reign.  ISABELLA moved up to number two, but if...

　　Here at nameberry, we’re not so much in the business of tracking which names are popular now – the Social Security Administration does that more accurately than we ever could – but of predicting which names are going to be popular in the future.  The reason for all this prognosticating:...

　　The Scottish Registry General’s Office has released the country’s most popular names for 2009, showing very little change at the top.  Jack and Sophie remained in first place, and the girls’ list wasn’t so dissimilar to ours, with Olivia, Ava, Emily, Chloe and Emma all in the top ten, along...

　　What are as the hottest 2010 baby names trends?  Here, our 15 top picks: 　　MOST FASHIONABLE CONSONANT 　　L, by far, with the booming fashionableness of almost every L name for girls, and most especially those with two L sounds: Lila, Lola, Layla, Leila, Lily, Lillian, Delilah, Tallulah, even Lulu and...

　　Stephenie Meyer‘s Twilight series has been one of the biggest influencers of baby name trends in recent times, propelling Bella, Edward, Cullen, Esme, and a host of other names up the charts.  Here, nameberry intern DANIELLE MIKSZA, a Twilight fan, analyzes the Twilight baby names. 　　There’s been a vampire epidemic...

　　Baby names in France have never been shorter: exit Sébastien, Alexandre, Frédéric, Caroline, Nathalie, Angélique—the popular names of the 1980’s.  Emma, Léa, Clara now take the limelight as the most popular French girl names, while Lucas, Enzo and Nathan dominate the popularity list of French boy names. 　　As a result,...

　　Celebrity baby names can reflect or even launch naming trends in the general population.  Here, some of the hottest celebrity baby names and trends we see heating up right now: 　　Babies Named After Heavenly Bodies, Objects, And/Or Beings – 　　SERAPHINA – Ben and Jen 　　MARS – Erykah Badu 　　LUNA –...

　　Just as names move in and out of fashion so do sounds and initial letters.  In the 70s and 80s, J-names ruled, from Jennifer and Jason to Jessica and Joshua, and then came the Ms –Michael, Matthew, Melissa, Megan, the Bs—Brianna, Brittany, Brandon, the Ks—Kayla, Kimberly, Kelsey, and the still continuing...

　　In the mid-1980s, when we were beginning to conceptualize our first book, Beyond Jennifer & Jason, the most popular names were, well, Jennifer (42,637 of them born in 1985 alone) and Jason, as well as Jessica, Michael (a whopping 64,852 of them—no wonder  we run into so many 25-year-old Mikes)...

　　There’s an entire generation of new baby names that are moving rapidly up the popularity list and that distinguish themselves by being recently minted–and by the fact that grandparents do a double take the first time they hear them. For even if they existed as surnames or place names or...

　　I’ve always been intrigued with the names of the characters played by movie stars, especially the iconic figures of the Golden Age—the interplay between actor and character name, and the roles those names played in establishing and perpetuating their screen personas. 　　It certainly comes as no surprise that John Wayne...

　　The top baby names 2009 were announced yesterday by the Social Security Administration, and the big news is that Isabella unseated Emma as the top girls’ name. Jacob remains for its 11th year atop the boys’ list. 　　Emma claimed the top spot for just one year before she was unseated...