Great Baby Names

After the hustle and bustle of the new year has passed, and we are settling into 2008, we thought it was a good time to research the hottest names and trends for the rest of the year.

As always, the most popular names are the traditional names. Names from the Bible and the New Testament rank number one in every major naming chart. Jacob, Michael,  Abigail, Joshua, Hannah and Daniel appear in all these lists. In spite of this, “new” Biblical and traditional names have climbed the charts: Ethan, which ranked number one in several charts, Benjamin, Caleb, Zachary and the hot new name – Elijah.

Even though these names are the most popular, they only represent twenty five percent of the names. The other seventy five are divided between modern names, retro names and just plain weird names.

In the girl name charts we noticed an interesting trend. A lot of names start with vowels. Emily, Ashley, Alexis, Emma, Angel and  Olivia replaced names such as Sarah, Grace, Rebecca and Martha.

Another trend is global naming. Westerners, especially American and English, are naming their babies Spanish, Chinese or an Arab originated name. Some of the most popular names are:  Lian, a name of Chinese origin meaning lotus flower; Shen, a boy name meaning a deep thinker; Carlos, a Spanish boy name meaning free man; or
Alegria, a girl’s name which means happiness.

A trend which has started in 2007 is getting stronger and looms to crown the title of the hottest trend for 2008 is Place names. London, Boston, Dresden, Paris, Ireland, Hudson and  Athena are just some of the names given according to places.

As always, we have come to weird baby names. 2008 started well in that department; here are weird names given in the first week of January 2008:  Ariance Victorian, Trucker, Maybalee, X, Zyerion (yes, a name with a comma in it!), and Bryten Starr. Not a bad batch for one week!

Here are other, unique names given in 2008:

Atlantis, Acacia, Australia, Alma, Ashbbie, Avery, Azul, Alston, Adreia, Beckham, Bishop, Blessing, Corgin, Clover, Crimson, Cairo, December, Eros, Eden, Emme, Ember, Gianni, Jameson, Olympia, and Willow.

Maybe the most popular trend will be going back to old up-scale American and English surnames, or as they are known “Preppy” names. Names such as Archibald, Ashley (for a male!), Bennett, Carrington, and Jamison will be popular.

Following this trend, Ivy  League names will be most popular: Xavier, Stanford, Cornell, and Marshall. Do you think these babies will have a problem getting into these schools?

The popular names for 2008 in  this category are : Ashton, Addison, Briton, Cordelia, Easton, Hunt, Heatherly, Tyler and Randolph.

2008 guarantees to be a year with exiting original names along traditional and retro names. The internet gives us more name ideas that ever, and the global village has made it possible for a parent in Australia to relate to a name originated in Kenya and vice versa.

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