By Linda Rosenkrantz 　　Nickname names are hot! Who by now hasn’t met, for instance, a girl named Sam or Charlie? And nobody loves a nickname name more than celebrities, and many of them have displayed a lot of originality, discovering and reviving long forgotten relics.  Here are some of the...

　　These veteran parents know their style, but that doesn’t always make it easier to choose a favorite. 　　Christina writes: 　　I need some help coming up with a name for our FIFTH baby.  Our oldest is a boy and the rest are girls. New baby is another girl, which makes it...

　　By Kelli Brady 　　After seeing the SSA’s 2017 Popular Baby Names list, did you wonder why you aren’t hearing the #1 name as much as a name further down on the list? Do you hear a lot more “Sophia!” on the playground than “Emma!”? One way to try to explain...

　　Once more this year we commemorate Father’s Day with a list of some notable names of the paternal parents of celebrities of various times and places, with some truly unusual examples, as in Archulus (Truman Capote) and Belmont (Humphrey Bogart). As with the moms we displayed on Mother’s Day, it turns out that quite...

　　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...

　　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...

　　Unisex nature names blend two of the coolest categories of baby names right now, so it’s no wonder they’re attracting a lot of attention! 　　The top gender neutral names in the US include several nature-inspired options, and the natural world is also a wonderful place to look for unique unisex...

　　Gender-bending baby names cross gender boundaries. Some of them are more popular for boys, others for girls, and some are so rare they could go either way. See what you think – are these names more boy or girl to you? 　　Arlo 　　Actor Theo Rossi and his wife chose a...

　　Unisex baby names are increasingly appealing to parents. But which names are considered unisex, and which names are not, is a very subjective matter – one that is influenced by factors like a person’s past experience, age or location. 　　If you live in the United States of America, you can...

　　What are America's next top baby names, the future favorites that nobody is using today? 　　A few generations ago, in 1980, names like Luna and Luca, Kennedy and Maverick were shuffling along at the bottom of the charts. Today, they’re among the most popular namesUSA, each ranking within the Top...

　　So long, Junior! Creative family names are a major modern name trend, replacing Jrs and IIIs on the birth certificate. 　　Two years ago, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle named their daughter Lilibet Diana, honoring two of the most important women in Harry’s family. Lilibet pays homage to Harry's grandmother, Queen...

　　Can the rise of ancient names for babies be credited to the prominence of Amelia, Zoe, Sebastian, and Atticus on international lists of popular names? 　　Or maybe it’s a reaction against all the new names and trends that have mushroomed over the past few decades, from word names to nature...

　　Even though Australian baby names are a lot like British names, they do also have their own distinctive flavor.  The blend of cultures Down Under and the strong presence of several enduring indigenous languages and groups have a powerful influence on Australian baby names (the complex Aboriginal naming traditions definitely...

　　If you’re looking for some eye-opening  name moments, try browsing  through some vintage name books and you might be surprised to discover just how dramatically perceptions of some  names have changed over time.  In some cases what we think of as perfectly valid current choices have actually been written off as dead and gone.  Today’s popular Ava, for instance, was rarely thought worthy of...

　　Thanks to all of you for entering the Nameberry Mother’s Day Contest. Now that the SSA lists are in, we are able to declare the winners–which turned out to be more complicated than we expected. Largely due to Emma jumping into first place–and not Isabella, which most of you predicted–...

　　They’re not sure what to name their firstborn. But they’re certain the right name should be easy to spell and recognizable. Ideally, they’d love to choose timeless names, too. Sounds reasonable, but it’s more of a challenge than they expected! 　　Holly writes:I’ve enjoyed your blog for a long time and...

　　Georgi writes:Our daughter is Aurelia Rose. Do we stick with the ancient, Roman, Latin theme for our second … or not? We like some modern and girly names, too. 　　Our favorite girl name is Seraphina Belle, but we aren’t liking any nicknames. 　　For boys, we like Marcellus and Lucian.  ...

　　Julie writes:We have two boys, Benjamin John, nn Benji, and William Henry, nn Will. Our third on the way is a girl and we are really struggling with her name. 　　For our boys, we quickly settled on classic names and used family names for the middles. There doesn’t seem to...