We wish we’d thought of the Nameberry Awards. 　　But the entertaining and illuminating awards given by popular vote to the best names in a range of categories was the brainchild of Genevieve, over on the Nameberry forums. 　　How it worked: Berries nominated names in each category.  Then the entries were...

　　This week, Appellation Mountain‘s Abby Sandel investigates some of the factors affecting the shifts in names’ popularity. 　　Last week we wanted to write about babies named Mitt Romney and Sandy, and as it happened, the world gave us both.  Name nerds and regular folk alike respond to the idea that...

　　Obviously, everyone has their own definition of what a perfect name is, but for Pam and me, as expressed in our books, it has always been distilled into the phrase fitting in/standing out. 　　Located in the sweet spot between the hundreds of names that are epidemically popular–common enough for their...

　　Forget Katniss and Finn: Today we leave individual baby names behind and bring you the most popular features on Nameberry in 2012. 　　Sifting through nearly100 million page views on the site, these are our most-read blogs, our lists that attracted the highest number of viewers, our most commented-on forums, and...

　　And now we come to the 2012 final quarter round-up of the names that Berries have actually chosen after all their various options were considered and discussed, on our forums and in the outside world.  And once again, it’s a gorgeous group, with many great first and middle combos and...

　　This year, for the first time, we have–with the invaluable help of our invaluable intern Hannah Tenison, tallied the final name choices reported by Berries on the Birth Announcement forum.  So here is what happened when all the hypotheticals were winnowed down to a single reality. 　　(Of course we know...

　　It’s a fallacy that, in the sweet old days, baby names were conventional and “normal” — children were named Mary and John or, at the outer fringes of adventurism, Ethel and Irving. 　　The truth is that a century ago there were scores of invented names, names with kreeative spellings, surnames...

　　It was a headline we couldn’t resist: Names You Like That Have Been “Ruined” for You. 　　Visitors to the forum have as many ways their favorites have been ruined — by movies, celebrities, and insensitive friends — as they have lamented name loves. 　　The topic is so provocative we thought...

　　There are many popular names that are fashionable on both sides of the Atlantic: Olivia and Oliver, Charlotte and William both rank high in the US and the UK. 　　And then there are those baby names that are evidence of how wide the gulf is between the British and the...

　　Popular baby names get a bad rap, especially — okay, we admit it — here on Nameberry. 　　But popular baby names are popular for a reason: A lot of people like them for a lot of good reasons. Popular names often have a sound and feel that’s right in step...

　　New baby names are those that have never (or rarely) been used until recent years, but are red-hot for children now. 　　Each generation wants to do things differently from the last. For some parents that means looking wider for baby name inspiration, and choosing a name that they’ve never heard...

　　This week, Appellation Mountain‘s Abby Sandel looks at the “quiet” classic baby names  and measures how they stand in the new popularity ratings. 　　 There were dozens of stories in the baby name news last week, but they all shared a common theme: the Social Security Administration’s release of the 2012...

　　By Angela Mastrodonato of Upswing Baby Names. 　　Every decade or two the name landscape transforms. New names are on the way in. Old names are on the way out. But as names rise and fall, the qualities parents seek in baby names remain constant. As a result, today’s top names share...