What will baby names 2010 (and 2011, 2012, and onward) look like? We can get a lot of clues from which names are moving up fastest on the Social Security most popular names list of 2009.

　　While we reported the major news from the list earlier this week – Isabella climbing to number one for girls, with Ethan rising to number two for boys while longtime favorites Christopher and Matthew fell off the Top Ten – today we look deeper into the list to identify less obvious but perhaps more important trends in baby names 2010.

　　What we see:

　　THE RISE OF THE QUIRKY CLASSIC GIRLS’ NAME

　　We wouldn’t presume to claim sole responsibility, but the list does show that many of the nameberry-loved quirky classic girls’ names are clearly on the rise.  (A few of these, such as Charlotte and Penelope, are cited in the celebrity section.)  These include, in order of popularity (with 2008 popularity figures in parentheses):

　　EVELYN 39 (from 54)AMELIA 55 (from 68)ELEANOR 218 (from 256)NORA 197 (from 216)ANNABELLE 156 (from 188)ELIZA 278 (from 328)GENEVIEVE 288 (from 325)CORA 303 (from 322)JOSIE 294 (from 314)IRIS 317 (from 341)JULIET 319 (from 451)ADA 573 (from 598)EVE 562 (from 655)JUNE 662 (from 863)

　　THE INFLUENCE OF GLOBALIZATION

　　Many names on the rise for girls, and a few for boys, point to a European influence, particularly Latinate and Irish. Prime examples:

　　ANNABELLA

　　GEMMA

　　LIAM

　　LILIANA

　　LUCA

　　LUNA

　　MAEVE

　　MATEO and MATTEO

　　VALENTINA

　　CELEBRITY INSPIRATION

　　Some of the biggest risers show a clear celebrity influence, either because they’re attached to stars, to the characters they play, or to their children. Jacob and Isabella, the number one names, both have a Twilight connection – though we suspect Stephenie Meyer picked the names for their popularity rather than their popularity being (overly) influenced by Twilight. The fastest-rising name for boys, Cullen, is taken directly from Twilight.

　　While some celebrity-influenced baby names – notably Seraphina and Esme – have not yet made it onto the Top 1000, the following are showing increases:

　　Celebrity Names

　　ANDERSON

　　CHACE

　　EVANGELINE

　　ISLA

　　KHLOE

　　PENELOPE

　　Celebrity Baby Names

　　BECKETT

　　CHARLOTTE

　　CRUZ

　　EDEN

　　EMERY

　　HARLOW

　　HARPER

　　HAZEL

　　JUDE

　　KINGSTON

　　KNOX

　　LEVI

　　MADDOX

　　MALIA

　　OLIVE

　　PIPER

　　ROCCO

　　ROMEO

　　RYDER

　　SASHA

　　SHILOH

　　STELLA

　　TRIPP

　　VIOLET

　　VIVIENNE

　　WILLOW

　　Character Names

　　ALICE

　　BELLA

　　MAX

　　CULLEN

　　DEXTER

　　ATTICUS

　　ALSO LEAPING UP THE LIST

　　Not easy to classify, but also moving up are these names for boys:

　　ACE

　　ASHER

　　BRAXTON

　　CHARLIE

　　COLT

　　DECLAN

　　DESMOND

　　EASTON

　　ELLIOT, ELLIOTT

　　EVERETT

　　GRAHAM

　　GUNNER

　　HUDSON

　　JAX (up over 250 places)JAXON

　　OLIVER

　　OSCAR

　　Check out our trend predictions for 2011!

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