The Baby Name Wizard

Khaleesi: The Non-Name from a Non-Language

Laura Wattenberg — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:15:24 +0000

Last year, 146 American girls were named Khaleesi. That's a 450% jump in the name's usage from 2011, and before that year it was completely unknown.

If you're not familiar with the name Khaleesi, you'd be excused for guessing that it's Arabic, like Khalilah, or perhaps from Western Africa, like Kwasi. In fact, the name comes from the Dothraki language. Except it's not a name in that language, but a common word meaning "queen." And Dothraki isn't a natural language, but a handful of words created by Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin for his imagined Dothraki people. (A language-creation specialist has since elaborated on Martin's vocabulary for the tv version of his fantasy epic.)

Plenty of authors dating back to Shakespeare have invented names that caught on with parents. You can even find names from imagined fantasy worlds that have been used on real-world babies. For instance, hundreds of American girls have been named Eowyn over the past decade after a Lord of the Rings character. [Read more about fantasy and science fiction names.] But a name taken from a word that's not a name, from an imagined language? I can't think of a precedent.

That's not to say we couldn't see this one coming. More than a year ago, I raised this question on Twitter:

"Game Of Thrones fans, help! A user added the title Khaleesi to our baby name db. Legit? Could you see it as a name?"

Among the responses, one Twitter denizen with the handle "pantalonesfuego" offered a key insight:

Most Popular Baby Names By State, 2012

Laura Wattenberg — Fri, 17 May 2013 00:28:03 +0000

The Social Security Administration today announced the most popular names in each state. On the girls' side, we see five antique -- or at least "faux antique" -- names utterly dominating the top spots across the country: Sophia, Emma, Olivia, Isabella and Ava. You'll find they account for all but 4 of the 150 girls' names in the chart below.

The boys' list shows off more of our country's regional diversity. 23 different boys' names rank in the top 3 in at least one state, from Bentley in West Virginia to Benjamin in Massachusetts; from John in Mississippi to Wyatt in Wyoming.

Note that 8 states count both William and Liam among their top 3 boys' names. The option of Liam as a nickname is helping William to remain the most popular of the classic English kingly names.

Jacob: The Amazing True Story of a Number-One Name

Laura Wattenberg — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:31:38 +0000

Jacob is the #1 name for American boys. Its popularity rose steadily for many years until it claimed the baby-name crown in 1999, and it has held onto that spot ever since.

I'd like to tell that story for you in pictures, below. The orange graph on the left shows the popularity of Jacob since 1990. The blue graph on the right shows...the popularity of Jacob since 1990. The key is that the left graph shows popularity rank, while the right shows frequency of use.

If you only looked at rankings, you would think that Jacob's popularity rose dramatically up to 1999 (highlighted in green) and has held perfectly steady since then. But the frequency graph shows that the name has actually made a complete u-turn.

The percentage of parents choosing Jacob peaked in 1998 and has since fallen by about half, to below 1990 levels. Due to the name-diversity revolution, a popularity level that would have ranked in in the 20s back then is good for the very top spot today. In fact, the year that Jacob began its long, triumphant reign as the top name was the very year it began to decline after decades on the rise.

Oh, and that sky-high peak in 1998? Jacob wasn't even the #1 name back then. Michael still held the crown -- despite falling by 61% from its own historical peak.

So before you give up on your lifelong dream of naming your son Noah because Noah has climbed to #4 on the baby name hit parade, remember that those rankings don't mean the same thing they did when you were a kid. "Popular" is very, very relative.

2012 Baby Name Pool: Hail the (Repeat) Champion!

Laura Wattenberg — Tue, 14 May 2013 23:59:24 +0000

The winner of this year's Baby Name Pool can claim a unique distinction. Jennifer Nicholas is the Pool's first ever repeat champion, reclaiming the crown she won two years ago. Please join me in a round of applause for the Ken Jennings of baby names!

Impressively, Jennifer earned this year's highest scores for both rising and falling name predictions. Her ballot correctly predicted both the #1 fastest-rising boy's name, Gael, and the #1 fastest-falling boy's name, Jaden -- plus the #4 falling name Ashton for good measure. (The complete winning ballot: Gael, Aldo, Danna to rise, Jaden, Ashton, Karla to fall.)

Jennifer is a literacy instructor and doctoral candidate in Workforce Education and Development at Penn State. Her own impeccably named children are Arlo (6) and Levi (4). She offered some insights on how she made some of her Pool choices:

"Gael was inspired by Gael Garcia Bernal. I love the unique blend of Celtic on a Mexican actor and director...not only is Gael an acclaimed actor and director, he's collaborated with Amnesty International and he's not bad looking! It's easy to picture him as a modern-day namesake.

"My first two 'fallers' were inspired by names and associations that I felt had lost their freshness. Ashton Kutcher has experienced skyrocketing success and he's currently attached to another name-inspiring phenomenon (Mila Kunis), but his name is all too familiar after an abundance of press over the years. The same could be said of another popular namesake, Jaden Smith. Jaden is young and incredibly successful, but there is nothing new about him or his name and I think his naming influence has peaked."

The Fastest-Falling Names of 2012: The ENNNd of an Era Ahead?

Laura Wattenberg — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:45:29 +0000

For the past decade, America has had an unprecedented love affair with the letter N. Over a third of American boys receive a name ending in that stylish letter. The N-thusiasm continues in the most recent name popularity stats, with -n names accounting for 36% of newborn boys. But the wave may be cresting. Take a look at the fastest-falling boys names of 2012:

1. Jaden
2. Hayden
3. Justin
4. Ashton
5. Rylan

Each name has its own story. Jaden, for instance, has given way as parents have standardized on the spelling Jayden. Justin is finally feeling its age after a 40+ year run as our national cute-boy name. (And in more bad news for incumbent cute-boy Justin Bieber, the names of all five members of the new cute-boy band One Direction rose in popularity). But as a group, this falling list gives a first hint that the age of N may have reached its limits.

On the girls' side, the fastest-falling names:

1. Alexis
2. Dulce
3. Audrina
4. Danna
5. Alyssa

Dulce, Audrina and Danna are all coming back to earth after sharp popularity spikes associated with celebrities (Dulce María, Audrina Partridge, and Danna Paola). Alexis and Alyssa, though, show bigger changes afoot. Both names are part of a new style category I added to the just-released edition the Baby Name Wizard book: the "Turn of the 21st Century" names. Alexis, Alyssa and cohorts are still very popular, but...

"Just as Shawn, Kristie, and Chad spell '1970s' now, these names will be the sound of the turn of the 21st century to coming generations."

Fastest-Rising Baby Names: Beyond the Top 1000

Laura Wattenberg — Fri, 10 May 2013 01:09:15 +0000

Outside the top-1,000 name lists, names can rise and fall fast without making much of an impression in America's nurseries. A dozen babies might move a name a thousand slots in the rankings. But the biggest movers and shakers outside the top 1,000 can still tell stories. And this year, the story they tell is a familiar one from the top chart: Cataleya. Cataleya, Cataleya, CATALEYA!

I've already identified Cataleya, the beautiful assassin from the movie Colombiana, as the fastest-rising name of the year, by a mile. But if you look at the deeper data pool, the name's utter dominance becomes more apparent. Here are the fastest rising names of the year if you include all popularity levels and both sexes:

#1: Cataleya

#2: Cattleya (this is the botanical spelling for a genus of Orchids)

#3: Kataleya

Yes, the deadly Cataleya is all three of the fastest-rising names of the year. And if that's not enough for you...

#8: Catalaya
#9: Cattaleya
#22: Catalia
#30: Katalaya
#53: Katalia
#54: Kattleya

You get the picture. This Cataleya wave comes close to the Miley/Mylee/Mylie phenomenon of five years ago, despite the name not receiving anything like the publicity Miley Cyrus got as "Hannah Montana."

Don't expect Cataleya's publicity to rise now, either, because of a bizarre quirk in the way the Social Security Administration reports its own name data. You won't find the name at all in the SSA's press release trumpeting the fastest-rising names of the year. For some reason, they ignore any names that started outside the top 1000, thus systematically missing the big stories that come out of nowhere. Instead, they reported on names like Major which made smaller leaps by any measure.

More notes from outside the top 1000:

The Fastest-Rising Boys' Names of 2012: One Name to Rule Them All?

Laura Wattenberg — Thu, 09 May 2013 19:19:29 +0000

The hottest boys' names of the year are no shriking violets. The rise of names like King, Major and Messiah takes our era of bold meaning names to a new level. And that's just one of the big stories in this year's rising boys' names.

The fastest-rising names for boys, as determined by the BabyNameWizard.com Hotness formula:

#1 Gael. No matter the year, you just can't go wrong with a devilishly handsome fellow with a Spanish accent. Actor Gael García Bernal starred in the Oscar-nominated film No, and a character named Gael made his mark in the popular telenovela Abismo de Pasión.

#2 Brantley. What would a hottest-boys list be without a "preppy cowboy"? Country-music name Brantley was the hottest riser last year, and country-music name Bentley was #1 the year before.

#3 Jase. Duck Dynasty star Jason "Jase" Robertson may seem an unlikely trendmaker. But the popularity of names like Chase makes this longtime nickname sound more like a fashionable update of old favorite Jason. A 2004 Jase boom was also triggered by a reality tv personality (from Big Brother) whose given name was Jason.

#4 Major, #6 King. Way back in 2005, I contrasted the trend toward humble tradesman names like Cooper and Carter with high-status title names of the 1800s like King and Major. Are more names of that era, like Judge and General, around the corner?

#5 Iker. Spanish soccer goal Iker Casillas; see note on handsome hombres above.

The Fastest-Rising Girls' Names of 2012: Don't Mess With This Champion!

Laura Wattenberg — Thu, 09 May 2013 18:50:49 +0000

Each year, thousands of names vie for our attention in movies, television, music, headline news and more. How does one name step up to win the hearts of hundreds of expectant parents? This year, the recipe boils down to two words:

Beautiful and Deadly.

The action film Colombiana featured Zoe Saldana as a (literally) drop-dead-gorgeous assassin named Cataleya. The name comes from the Cattleya genus of orchid, with a spelling that eliminates the unfortunate "cattle." The combination of sumptuous meaning, sumptuous sound, and Ms. Saldana in a role with appeal to both sexes vaulted Cataleya from rarity to the #479 name for American girls.

More of the hottest names for girls, as calculated by the BabyNameWizard.com Hotness Formula:

[EDIT: The following name slipped by me in my first rapid-fire write-up!]

#2 Adley. Country singer Adley Stump only made it to the second round of "The Voice," but that was long enough for parents to pick up on her cowgirl-ready name. (The singer who beat her out, RaeLynn, also inspired some country-minded namesakes.)

#3 Litzy. Mexican actress and singer Litzy starred in Telemundo's "Una Maid en Manhattan" in 2011 and 2012.

#4 Kenia. 19-year-old Kenia Monge was tragically murdered in 2011. Americans frequently memorialize young female crime victims with baby names.

#5 Paisley. This cowgirl continues to soar in country music territory. (Think singer Brad Paisley, not paisley-print fabric.)

#6 Harper. You just can't stop this name, a celebrity favorite that blends contemporary surname style and literary pedigree.

The Most Popular Baby Names in America for 2012

Laura Wattenberg — Thu, 09 May 2013 18:08:21 +0000

The Social Security Administration has released the official rankings of the most popular baby names in America for 2012. The new top 10:

RANK	BOYS	GIRLS
1	Jacob	Sophia
2	Mason	Emma
3	Ethan	Isabella
4	Noah	Olivia
5	William	Ava
6	Liam	Emily
7	Jayden	Abigail
8	Michael	Mia
9	Alexander	Madison
10	Aiden	Elizabeth

Meet the Book: Baby Name Wizard 3 Debuts Today!

Laura Wattenberg — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:29:10 +0000

Huzzah! The Baby Name Wizard, Revised 3rd Edition, is in stores today:

Buy at Amazon | Buy at BN.com | Buy from Your Local Bookseller

This fine volume weighs in at a 532 pages of baby name wizardry. That's over 100 pages longer than the previous edition. It's also a good way to explain to my family why they didn't see me for all of those months when I was holed up writing.

I can promise that added pages are just the beginning. I felt a little sorry for my new editor when she suggested I just pencil in any changes on a copy of the old manuscript. Clearly, nobody warned her about me. I revisit every line in the book for each edition, making dozens of changes on each page, adding, updating and rewriting so that the whole book has to be laid out from scratch. It's necessary, because names and the naming process are changing so fast today.

Some highlights of what's new in the 3rd edition: