The Art of Naming

Have you ever really taken a look at the names in the United State's Social Security Administration's Top 1000 most popular names chart? I mean, have you  really  looked at it?  I decided to fish a little bit and I found a ton of Arabic names swimming right at me. Had I  really  never noticed these names before? Sure, I'm not an ethnic match for any of them but not all of them stand out as foreign. Just take a look at the female names! Many of them aren't obviously Arabic and they are no doubt being used on girls of a variety of races all across the country. For example, the highest ranking name is Layla at #29 and it has so many variants that are very fashionable today such as Lyla, Laila, Lila, Leila and Lilah which all rank within the Top 1000.  Then there's the Aaliyah sisters with a similar story. Let's start with the male names. There are four spellings of Muhammad and also variants like Ahmad that rank in the Top 1000. Somehow, though, the masculine n

Leonardo da Vinci There is a very large Latin presence in the United States these days. Did you know that there are several Spanish, Italian and Portuguese names for boys that rank within the Top 1000 most popular names? My favorite of the bunch is listed as the "Italian, Spanish and Portuguese form of Leonard" on Behind the Name. Leonardo fits all three origin categories with ease and yet it is familiar enough to English ears that it could be considered for American boys who do not have Latin origins. The part-Italian Leonardo DiCaprio has helped make the name more mainstream in America. Interestingly, his name was chosen when his pregnant mother felt him kick for the first time while his parents were viewing a painting by Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo isn't the only name that works across all three of these cultures though.  Below are all of the Latinate names and their popularity rank for the year 2014 in the US. Let's take a look at the first half of th

As you may know, here in the US the Social Security Administration tallies up the names of all the babies born within a year and reveals which names were most popular. While there are clearly thousands of parents who are happy using popular names, there are also parents who would rather avoid them. For those parents who may secretly like the sound of the top names but hate their popularity, I've created a list of alternative options to the Top 10 names for girls. The names may be similar in sound, syllables, initial letter, meaning, origin or a combination of those. None of the alternate names below rank on the SSA's Top 1000 most popular names chart in 2014. 1, Emma ---> Amabel The rare medieval name Amabel maintains a sound similar to Emma at the start of the name but it also offers the trendy "bel" sound at the end. It does all of this while still being an unusual name and a cool alternative to the popular Emma.  I can never believe that this lovely p

As you may know, here in the US the Social Security Administration tallies up the names of all the babies born within a year and reveals which names were most popular. While there are clearly thousands of parents who are happy using popular names, there are also parents who would rather avoid them. For those parents who may secretly like the sound of the top names but hate their popularity, I've created a list of alternative options to the Top 10 names for boys. The names may be similar in sound, syllables, initial letter, meaning, origin or a combination of those. None of the alternate names below rank on the SSA's Top 1000 most popular names chart in 2014. 1. Noah ---> Nahum Nahum is the best alternative to Noah because it is also a biblical Hebrew name and it has a similar meaning. Noah means "rest, comfort" and Nahum means "comforter". It starts with the same letter, has the same number of syllables and they're both very vowel heavy. While

Last month we discovered which names were most favored by America in 2014. As you know, Emma and Noah were ranked at #1.  Have you ever wondered which unisex names are the most popular? The SSA doesn't make a separate list for unisex names. It's up to us to determine which names are used for both boys and girls. If you saw my previous article regarding  the boy-to-girl ratios of every unisex name within the Top 1000 , you'll see that some names are used more often for one gender than the other, yet some names are very evenly used. So how can we determine which unisex names are the most popular based on this information? Since there are two genders, it's a bit complicated to determine the exact popularity, especially since I was taking into account the boy-to-girl ratios of the names, the number of births for each gender, and the rank assigned to the names by the Social Security Administration.. While determining which unisex names are the most popular across

Welcome to our annual list of unisex names. This is where we analyze the gender ratios of each name. Some of these may not truly classify as a true "unisex name" because they will swing very heavily to one side or the other. I chose to include some names like that because it is worth mentioning, especially if it ranked at 3% last year and now ranks at 5%. That means the name is beginning to gain more popularity for the minority gender. Over time, it could continue to change and become more of a 20/80 thing and perhaps later a 40/60 thing. Wouldn't you like to be able to guess these things in advance if its a name you're pondering for a future child? There have been many cases where a name was traditionally male and it was then slowly taken over by the girls. Some of those formerly male names are now considered completely female. Names evolve. If we can catch them in the act, well, I think it would be exciting. I'm only mentioning all of this because last

I went through the US Top 1000 baby names for 2013 and pulled out as many unisex names as I could. At least one name had to be in the Top 1000, but most of the names are on the list for both a boy and a girl. If you can think of any names that I missed --and I'm sure there are a few-- let me know so that I can include them. Seeing information like this is helpful for those who are considering a unisex name but are unsure of how popular it really is for each gender. For example, Harper has really skyrocketed up the charts for girls lately. If you have always pictured it on a boy, it may be handy to know that only 4% of all Harpers are boys. Perhaps that matters to you, perhaps it doesn't. Either way, that kind of information can be found here.  You may even come across a name or two that you had no idea was somewhat unisex. Alexis: 20% boy / 80% girl Boy:  1,182 births (#294) Girl: 4,741 births (#46) Amari: 62% boy / 38% girl Boy: 951 births (#337) Girl: 576 b