Best of 2018 - Appellation Mountain

As the year draws to a close, let’s look back at the very best of 2018!

I mean – this was the year that we celebrated a royal birth. Plus not one, not two, but three Kar-Jenner daughters, all born within the first few months of the year. Each one was quite headline-worthy: Stormi, Chicago, and True. I like that last one SO very much.

But plenty of these lists pre-date 2018. They were just wildly well-read over the last 365 days or so, the most popular of the thousands of posts on the site. (There are 3,460 to be exact – at least at this moment.)

I’ve also included the most popular of the Baby Names of the Day posts in 2018. We’ll see this again, for our March Madness Baby Names 2019 contest. Speaking of March Madness …

Best of 2018: Contests & Competitions

The community voted for our favorites four separate times this year:

Our long-running March Madness Baby Names tournament crowned Rowan and Eliza the winners for 2018.
In the summer-time New Names Showdown, Marlowe and Wells took home the trophies.
The Great Halloween Baby Names contest was all Harry Potter. Our favorites? Arthur and Luna.
And new this year, we voted for our favorite Celebrity Baby Name. No, not Kulture and Chicago. This contest was about the mainstream choices that wear well anywhere. The champs of this first-ever contest? Margot and Sebastian.

Best of 2018: Name Lists

I love a good list, don’t you? These were the most popular of 2018.

125 One-Syllable Middle Names for Girls Besides Grace and Rose: because Gem, Doe, Swift, and Bess all work better than you might think. Only published in July, but easily the top new list of the year.
Proof that we really love O names for boys: 80 Boy Names Ending in O. It’s been read nearly 10,000 times this year alone.
Rare vintage names take center stage in this list of 1885 Baby Names. I’m in love with Leda, Lafe, and Fielding. They just sound so darn modern!
Still love this 2013 list: Night Owl Names for Girls. And ooh … Leda is on this list, too!
These rare boy names from 2017 got lots of attention. They’re really unusual, but so many of these would fit right in on any playground today.
A list that just won’t quit: The Great Big List of Bird Names for Girls.
What to Name a Fairytale Prince: a question that I ask myself more than one might guess.
Inspired by a rumored Kardashian baby name: Butterfly Baby Names. If Kylie had gone with Mariposa, I think it could have sparked a trend.

Best of 2018: Nicknames

I’m an unapologetic fan of nicknames, and these lists are some of the most-read on the site.

There’s a new number one in this category! 16 Unexpected Elizabeth Nicknames surprised me by pulling into the top spot.
Elizabeth unseats Ten Unexpected Nicknames for Charles. Still one of my favorites.
This one is the nearest and dearest to my heart: 10 Unexpected Nicknames for Alexander. How can my sweet Alex – the kiddo who rejected every. single. name. on the list – be fourteen? And six feet tall?!
Sometimes I start with the formal name and shorten it; other times, I go the opposite direction. Here’s one of the latter: Lily names. They’re slipping just the tiniest bit on the popularity charts these days, but there are still SO many long, lovely choices that shorten to Lily.
As Lily falls, Millie climbs. No surprise, then, that formal names for Millie are attracting lots of attention, too.

Best of 2018: Advice

In which I dispense advice about all sorts of naming quandaries:

How Close is too Close? Ten Factors to Consider. This is one of those questions that vexes parents.
Baby Naming Advice: Nicknames versus Formal Names People feel so strongly about this issue!
More on the topic: In Defense of Nicknames: Ten Reasons to Embrace Nickname-Rich Names.
This isn’t exactly advice, but it fits in this category better than the others: Baby Name Trends 2018: O Baby, Em and Em, and the Power of the Small Screen.
And one more along those lines: Top Ten Baby Name Predictions 2018: Amelia, Evelyn, Oliver.
Worried that your favorite name is the next big thing? Some guidance here.

Best of 2018: #namehelp

The #namehelp posts are always wildly popular. By request, I’ve started collecting the updates. Here’s the first installment of Babies We Have Named!

These are the most popular #namehelp posts of the year:

Name Help: If Lucky Seven is a Boy … (Plus, read Kate’s update on her site!)
Name Help: Does Lucy need a formal name? There’s no update on this one yet … but a clear consensus came through on the poll. Nearly 3/4 of votes say it stands alone!
What goes with Nova? They chose a great name for her little brother.
Strong and feminine sister names for Harriet garnered lots of conversation, too.

Best of 2018: Boy Names

These were the most popular boy name posts on the site in 2018:

1. Torin
2. Arrow
3. Wilder
4. Rowan*
5. Endeavour
6. Huxley
7. Gray
8. True
9. Credence
10. Deckard
11. Ayrton
12. Fox
13. Arlo
14. Leo*
15. Cove
16. Koa
17. Soren
18. Smith
19. Loxley
20. Canaan
21. Crew
22. Calder
23. Emrys
24. Atlas
25. Linden

indicates a past March Madness contest winner

Best of 2018: Girl Names

And these were the most popular girl name posts.

The top Baby Name of the Day posts will be back to complete in March Madness 2019 before you know it!

Best of 2018: My Favorites

Let’s end with a few of my personal favorites from the last twelve months:

Don’t you just love #namegames? This list of Henry Danger-inspired boy names is just too much fun.
Because my daughter is obsessed with A Series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix: Baudelaire Baby Names.
Strong girl names inspired by archers – eclectic, but oh-so-wearable.
This trend fascinates me: epic boy names.
And, of course, my favorite celebrity baby names of the year.

That caps off 2018 for me!

What were your highlights in baby naming this year?