Appellation Mountain - Where every name has a story

Best New Baby Names 2018: Luella, Yara, Ledger, Reign

May 21, 2018 By appellationmountain 4 Comments

Drumroll, please! These are my picks for the best new baby names 2018: my favorites from the names debuting or returning to the US Top 1000 in May 2018.

You can read the full lists here:

All told, 37 boy names and 43 girl names debuted or returned in 2018. These are my favorites for each.

Why eight? Eight names will compete in the annual Appellation Mountain New Names Showdown this July. Past contests turned out like this:

New Names Showdown Winners 2017: Shepherd & Sylvie
New Names Showdown Winners 2016: Wilder & Arden

Now, my picks for this year:

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Sunday Summary: Happy Eliza Doolittle Day!

May 20, 2018 By appellationmountain Leave a Comment

I woke up this morning to discover that it’s Eliza Doolittle Day. Observed every May 20th, it celebrates the heroine of musical-turned-movie My Fair Lady. Audrey Hepburn starred in the 1964 movie version, which won the Oscar for Best Picture. The two-cent synopsis: a highly educated and quite snobbish professor takes a bet that he […]

Name Help: A Sister for Skylar Celina

May 19, 2018 By appellationmountain 18 Comments

Name Help is a series at Appellation Mountain. Every week, one reader’s name questions will be discussed. We’re relying on thoughtful comments from the community to help expectant parents narrow down their name decisions. Thank you in advance for sharing your insight! Kelsey writes: I’m an avid Pinterest follower and just found you on Facebook. […]

Name Help: A Sister for Luke

May 18, 2018 By appellationmountain 13 Comments

Name Help is a series at Appellation Mountain. Every week, one reader’s name questions will be discussed. We’re relying on thoughtful comments from the community to help expectant parents narrow down their name decisions. Thank you in advance for sharing your insight! Linnea writes: We are expecting a baby girl to join our toddler, Luke. […]

Baby Name Trends 2018: O Baby, Em and Em, and the Power of the Small Screen

May 17, 2018 By appellationmountain 1 Comment

What are the biggest baby names trends 2018? On May 11th, the US Social Security Administration released the new lists of most popular names given to children born between January 1st and December 31st of 2017. That means it’s time to look at baby name trends 2018 – the influences that are changing the way […]

Emilia: Baby Name of the Day

May 16, 2018 By appellationmountain 6 Comments

Emilia looks like a respelling of the wildly popular Amelia, but it’s so much more. Our Baby Name of the Day was inspired by this post about rising names in 2018. Emilia: Amelia’s Distant Cousin Strictly speaking, Emilia – this spelling – comes from the Latin aemulus – rival. We know it as Emil and […]

Fastest Rising Boy Names 2018 Update

May 15, 2018 By appellationmountain 3 Comments

Let’s look at the fastest rising boy names 2018. Plenty of lists look at rank change, but this list focuses on the actual number of births. Why? It turns out that it might be a better predictor of future popularity than rank change. After all, rank is relative. We know more boys received the 115th […]

Fastest Rising Girl Names 2018 Update

May 14, 2018 By appellationmountain 7 Comments

Let’s look at the fastest rising girl names 2018. These aren’t the biggest changes in rank. Sure, it’s exciting to see which names climb quickly. (Alessia was up over 200 spots, from #828 to #625!) But I like to look at actual births. Why? A name near the top of the list might only gain […]

Sunday Summary: 5.13.18

May 13, 2018 By appellationmountain 2 Comments

Happy Mother’s Day! My big excitement? Binge-watching The 100. Well, wait. My big excitement was the new baby names popularity data release. I spent hours looking at the numbers, and there’s much more to come. Also, there were flowers. Back to the screen: I found myself binging The 100 because I hadn’t realized Octavia owed […]

New Boy Names 2018: Ledger, Kace, Wells

May 12, 2018 By appellationmountain 2 Comments

New boy names 2018 tend towards the masculine this year. Plenty of these turn it up to eleven! Others feel inventive, imported, or just plain new. And a few might be future classics. In May 2018, the US Social Security Administration released the new popularity data for all children born between January 1st and December […]