12 Hottest Baby Name Trends of 2012

Trend Trying Hardest to Have It All: Same but Different Names

Popular names get popular for a reason: They capture the style of the time and they're well liked by a wide range of parents. Yet as the horror of choosing a too-popular name grows, parents search for ways to create names that are similar to the top choices yet different, a trend we see expanding in several directions. So number-one girls' name Isabella gives rise to stylistically related choices Arabella and Annabelle; Olivia, the top name in Britain, inspires spelling variation Alivia; Emma and Emily promote brother name Emmett.

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Most Aggressive Trend: Fierce Names

Our frightening times seem to have inspired many parents to give their sons names that make them seem equally fearsome. There are fierce animal names such as Bear, Fox, Wolf, Lynx, and a range of names from Leo to Lionel that mean lion, and then there are the perhaps-even-fiercer names like Breaker, Ranger, and Wilder.

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Hottest Direction in Baby Naming: West

...and North and East and Easton, too, but especially West and Weston and Wesley, along with Western-sounding names fit for a new generation of li'l cowboys: Boone and Bo, Wyatt and Wylie, Cole and Colt, Zane and Shane, and even Maverick.

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The It Vowel: A

A-names have been trending upward for several years now, with more babies receiving these names than those of any other letter. What makes A-names new are the adventurous choices parents are making these days to use a name with this primary letter: Fresh ones attracting attention on Nameberry include, for girls, Acacia, Ada, Anais, Annelise, Anouk, Aria, Athena, Aurelia, and Azalea, and, for boys, Alistair, Ambrose, Aragon, Archer, Arthur, Augustus, and Axel.

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Consonant of the Moment: M

Over the past few decades, we've had J, K, and L names in the forefront, and with Baby Names 2012 it's M's moment. M names making their move include, for girls, Maeve, Magdalena, Maisie, Marguerite, Marlo/Marlowe, May, Mila, Millie, and Minnie, and, for boys, Magnus, Micah, Miller, Milo, and Montgomery.

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Strongest, Bravest Trend: Adjective Names

Word names are taking a new turn away from nouns and toward adjectives. Choices we have been hearing: True, Noble, Brave, Strong, Loyal, Loving, Sunny, Golden, Royal, and Happy. One U.K. soccer star and his fashionista wife tried to beat this trend by naming their son Trendy.

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Most Surprising Comeback Name: Betty

Betty, a popular name in 1950s sitcoms, seemed like one of those names that might never come back. But stylish mommy blogger Gabrielle Blair has a Betty (and a Ralph and a June) and stunning Mad Men actress January Jones (who plays Betty Draper) did much to heat up the image of this old standard. Move over, Veronica: There's a new glamour girl in town.

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Coolest Middle Names: New Connectors

Gone are the old one-syllable connective-tissue middle names like Ann and Lee and Lynn, and in their place are... new one-syllable connective-tissue middle names such as May and Wren and Bee. Tied to this trend: Choosing family middle names that are the nicknames of the person being honored, as in Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber's son Alexander Pete and Sara Gilbert's son, Levi Hank.

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Most Unlikely Baby Name Inspiration: TV's Evil Grandpa

When we first saw the name Arlo popping on the back end of Nameberry, we thought maybe folk singer Arlo Guthrie was making a comeback. But no, today's Arlo inspiration is more contemporary but even more unlikely: the gun-toting, pot-dealing grandpa Arlo Givens on television's Justified.

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Name Trend Ready To Jump The Shark: The -ley Names

We liked Hadley, the name of Hemingway's sympathetic first wife. And Huxley, Ridley, and Radley, as in Aldous, Scott, and Boo, were all intriguing. But the trend toward tacking a "ley" onto the end of a wide range of first syllables and calling it a name -- Brinley, Kinley, Finley, endlessly -- became so pandemic so quickly that we are ready to declare it over, already.

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Sweetest Ending: Vintage Nicknames That End in -ie

Nicknames that end in "ie" -- Lottie and Hattie, Addie and Nellie -- were all the rage at the end of the 19th century but then gave way to "modern" y endings, which in the 1960s became cutesy "i" endings, which in the "yooneek" era morphed into "ee" and "eigh." But now we're back where we started from, with sweet vintage nicknames for girls spelled the authentic vintage way, with "ie" at the end.

Copyright © 2011 Meredith Corporation.

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