It is with great sadness that we report the death of one of our most treasured contributors, K. M. Sheard.  Kay ran the delightful website, Nook of Names, and was the author of a giant, encyclopedic compendium of name information, Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Names, which we have found to be...

　　By Brooke Cussans at Baby Name Pondering 　　Just starting your name search or stuck in a rut? Not sure where to start, or just need some fresh inspiration? Then how about one for every day of the week! Here are seven names containing the PER sound – one “per” day...

　　With their lilting rhythms and catchy rhymes, nursery rhymes have delighted successive generations of children since the first publication of Mother Goose in the 1700s—though the original meanings, some of them political, have been lost. (Who knew that ‘Ring Around a Rosy’ referred to the Great Plague of 1665?) The...

　　By Kara Cavazos of The Art of Naming 　　The baby girls who were born in 1950 are now grandmothers. They will turn 65 this year! It is safe to say, though, that a lot of their first names may not be getting passed down to their grand-daughters at the same rate...

　　By Linda Rosenkrantz 　　When you hear the phrase ‘Top 10 girls’ name,’ you might tend to think of classics like Mary and Elizabeth, or later long-running favorites Jennifer and Jessica, or the current Sophia.  But it certainly wouldn’t be Bertha—which in fact was in that golden group for twelve years–...

　　By Aimee Reneau Tafreshi 　　Parker Posey, Peppermint Patty and Pablo Picasso… Our history and pop culture have produced some notable “P” names. A perfect “P” name makes you stop and take notice. 　　I do not have anyone in my family whose name starts with a “P,” but the other day...

　　By Linda Rosenkrantz 　　The other day we took a look at all the boys’ names in the Alexandrian clan, now we move on to the girls. Here we find 11 direct descendants on the Social Security list. The big surprise is that Alexandra, the direct feminization of Alexander, does not...

　　By Kelli Brady, NameFreak! 　　As I reveal in my book, Name-alytics, there are three spellings of Katherine that have been in the Top 100… Catherine, Katherine and Kathryn (the Big 3). Catherine reached its peak in 1914, Katherine reached its peak in 1988, and Kathryn reached its peak in 1951....

　　By Joanna Walker 　　In Romeo & Juliet, Juliet faces a dilemma– she has fallen in love with the son of her father’s sworn enemy: a Montague. Juliet famously asks: “What’s in a name?” She concludes that names are irrelevant and uses the garden rose to illustrate her point “That which...

　　By Abby Sandel 　　The two biggest celebrity baby name announcements featured girl names starting with P, and both of those names are pretty unusual in the US. Designer Nate Berkus became the dad of a little girl with the P-starting name Poppy, and actor Vin Diesel became the father of...

　　By Anna Otto, Waltzing More Than 　　Matilda 　　The most popular girls names of the 1940s were Margaret, Patricia, Judith, and Helen, but what were the least popular names? Here are ten names which were only chosen once in any year between 1944 and 1949 in South Australia, making them unique...

　　What are the top 　　royal names for girls in contention for the new princess born to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge?  Will the royal baby girl be named Alice, the favorite with bookmakers?  Diana, the crowd-pleasing choice?  Or Elizabeth, one of the most royal names of all — or maybe something completely...

　　Charlotte Elizabeth Diana is the official name of the newborn Princess of Cambridge. 　　Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge have named their new daughter Charlotte, the recent favorite with the betting public.  The baby’s middle names are Elizabeth, after the queen, the baby’s great-grandmother, and Diana, after William‘s late mother...