Happy Mother’s Day!  I spent the morning indulging in an M-Day brunch at Max Brenner and then listening for kids’ names at the Union Square playground near my sister’s new Manhattan apartment.  I heard Ezra and Sophie at Ladybird Bakery in Park Slope – near sister #2′s place – the morning before, but mostly the Big Apple was a big letdown in terms of name spotting.  I was too busy to really listen.  (But, no, dear sisters, that’s not why I come visit you in the Big City.)

As usual, the real Mother’s Day gift comes from Uncle Sam.  The Social Security Administration has released the Top 1000 baby names for babes born the year prior.  It’s pretty much impossible to collect all of the interesting commentary on the topic, but here are a few highlights:

• Laura Wattenberg’s analysis of the fastest rising and falling names is fascinating.  Adios, Miley and Jaslene.  Hello, Caylee and Khloe;
• Also from Laura, check out the fascinating case of Maximiliano;
• Nancy spotlights the fast risers and fallers, too, and correctly pins the success of Cullen on the Twilight franchise;
• Nameberry has their comments here – and more to come, I’m sure!

In non-statistical news:

• As someone who grew up with a Philadelphia accent, drinking Flahrida arrange juice for breakfast, I’m sensitive to how very easy it is to butcher a name.  Maybe that’s why I’m always amused by posts like this one at the Baby Name Wizard about Sawyer;
• And there’s this mention of Gazelle, pronounced Giselle. Gazelle is a bit much, but it must be really frustrating to have an unusual name with a phonetically baffling pronunciation;
• As a first name, Riches would be surprising, but I’d go searching to see if it were a medieval variant or obscure feminine variant of Richard.  But For Real Baby Names reported a baby Riches paired with Dior in the middle spot.  It’s probably not a family name;
• The Stir covers Gray as a Baby Name of the Day.  So it’s not just me. (And Joy!)  I recently met a couple who named their son Graydon because Grayson was too trendy.  Methinks all of the Gray names might be white hot;
• More proof that Gray is gaining – Nymbler’s Most Popular Names for April were as follows: Charlotte, Amelia, Oliver, Ava, Benjamin, Grace, Henry, Owen, Ella and Liam.  And the Top Five new names?  Gracyn, Zaden, Grayer, Clodagh and Ming.  Ming? The Merciless?  Well, Kimora is in the US Top 1000.  And it is a traditional name in Chinese;
• I was delighted by this article from Kenya posted at Nameberry earlier this week;
• And another irresistible tale comes from the parents of Esther Claire. They were behind a pair of little old ladies out shopping and heard one say to the other, “Oh, Esther!” And it stuck!  They call her Essie for short.

Our only celeb birth of the week is author Sophie Kinsella, mom to four boys: Freddy, Hugo, Oscar and Rex William.

I’m off to unpack luggage and wrangle overtired into their pajamas.  Hope you had a fabulous Mother’s Day and thank you for reading!  See you next week.