Christmas may still be almost two weeks away.  But this Sunday, I’m all abuzz about year-end name news:

• First up, the Nameberry gurus predict the Top Baby Names of the Future over at The Daily Beast.  Not any real surprises here, but almost certainly what we’ll hear everywhere in 2019;
• There’s also their look backwards, published at Nameberry earlier this week. 2009 certainly was a good year for celeb-inspired choices.  A few cited in their post include Khloe, Marley, Miley, Kingston, Kobe, Cruz and Kimora;
• Over at Baby Name Wizard, Laura Wattenberg announced her Name of the Year for 2009.  Second Runner Up: Balloon Boy Falcon. First Runner Up: the gender-neutral country chanteuse/werewolf actor Taylor.  And the winner?  Twilight mash-up Renesmee;
• The Melton Leader  tells us that Riley and Olivia were the most popular names in their corner of Australia in 2009.  Unusual names bestowed at their local hospital included a girl called Syntynche, as well as boys named Memphis and Atticus – but really, that’s nuthin’ compared to Syntynche;
• In Japan, Hiroto tops the charts for boys and Rin for girls - or do they?  The list comes from Benesse Corp., not a government agency.  And are gender neutral names big in Japan, too?  Ren is #3 on the boys’ list;
• And back to Christmas – check out this list of holiday names over at Lil’ Sugar.  They range from the obvious (Noel) to the subtle (Neve).  Just don’t name your baby boy Rudolph.

Speaking of unusual names:

• For Real Baby Names spotted an Everly Joe - which wouldn’t surprise me, except that Everly Joe is a she!  Shades of Jagger Joseph Blue, I think.  There’s also a Sixx Delilah.  Wonder if the proud parents were Motley Crue fans?
• Sebastiane over at LegitBabeNames wrote about Arpad, supermodel Elle MacPherson’s Hungarian hero name for her husband and son;
• Bewildertrix spotted a Unity – a virtue name much-neglected, save for the infamous Mitford sister.  There’s also a bumper crop of boys with bitsy names like Kye and Jai.  Wonder if they’ll join Kai in the US?  There’s also an Isobel Elizabeth Idonia. Isobel and Elizabeth together seems repetitive – and yet, it’s an appealing combo.

In starbaby news:

• The littlest Duggar, Josie Brooklyn, is here.  And quite early, though reports are optimistic;
• Model Jourdan Dunn has welcomed a baby boy – no name yet;
• Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady are also proud parents to a bouncing baby boy – also with no name released;
• Kendra Wilkinson is a mom. She and husband welcomed Hank Randall Baskett IV.  Of course, they’d announced his name when HB4 was still a zygote;
• American Idol alum Jessica Sierra welcomed son Kayden Cash.

Is it me, or is it more fun when celebs don’t release their baby names while their offspring are still in utero?  Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take a baby name announcement whenever it comes.  (Is Pilot’s little sister really named Casper?  Inquiring minds want to know.)  But I kind of enjoy the whole “So and So Had a Girl and Named Her Guess What?” part of the process.

Perhaps I’ve been conditioned by reality television’s big reveals.

Thanks for reading – have a great week!