It is official! The clear frontrunner in the boy’s category has sailed off with the victory. The 2012 March Madness champion for boys is Arthur, leaving Rhys is the dust.
On the girls’ side, Genevieve handily won, beating Eliza by more than thirty votes. She’s something of a surprise, since Adelaide seemed poised to walk away with the trophy.
The 2011 victors were Nathaniel and Louisa. This year’s winners sound like their younger siblings.
Thanks to everyone for the votes!
What do you think of the winners? Were they your favorites, or were you rooting for someone else?
I would have liked Adelaide to win as I am going to use it for a daughter..However I am in Australia and it isn’t so big here as it is in the USA from what I gather. Genevieve is lovely, too.
I’m so happy Genevieve won but I really hope that it doesn’t indicate that the name is taking off in popularity. We named our 4 month old daughter Genevieve Isobel (sister to Lila Sophia) but we call her Eve or Evie . I have gotten so many complements on the name and other then some concern about the nickname Gen popping up at some point we are very happy with our choice. We also very much hope that Genevieve will stay stable on the popularity chart’s and not skyrocket like Lila’s did after we chose it back in 2007.
This is a really nice pair of winners, and does fit in nicely with last years champions. A sibset of Genevieve, Nathaniel, Louisa and Arthur would be lovely.
I love Arthur but am not a fan of Genevieve. I definitely would have preferred Arthur and Eliza.
I love Arthur and dislike Genevieve.
I still love Louisa. What a sweet name!
Arthur is my top pick for the imaginary 4th child / 3rd boy that we’re not going to have. 😛 I think he’d make a great brother for Henry & George. You can put ‘King’ in front of him. 🙂 I spotted the name on the wall of the elementary school my daughter goes to and it stood out to me amongst all the other names I read. The local boy must be in 3rd or 4th grade or so. My husband didn’t like the name when I suggested it for George though and he doesn’t like the nickname Art.
Genevieve is pretty but not so much my thing. Doesn’t sound like a sister of Rose. It seems like an update on Jennifer. So I kind of like it as a middle name with the Jen sound being a nod to my own name. There are so many letters and I’d have to think how to spell it all the time.
The winners are interesting from my perspective, as we live in Montreal and are currently trying to choose a name for our baby-to-be that will work in Canada and France (where much of my husband’s family lives). Genevieve is actually one of my husband’s top picks, but it is considered very dated in both France and Quebec and is thus extremely unpopular currently, whereas in the US and English-speaking Canada it seems to be quite a different story. I think it’s a lovely name, and although I don’t mind the jenna-veev pronunciation in English at all, I dislike the ‘Frenchified’ pronunciation that’s often used which is not, in fact, French, and I think that would prevent me from choosing it.
Arthur, on the other hand, is very trendy among francophones at the moment – it was #18 in France in 2010 and #55 in Quebec and on the rise. I have to admit I’m a bit surprised that it won the whole tournament, but perhaps that’s a sign that it’s poised to follow Henry up the charts, as parents continue to seek fresh-sounding classics? I guess time will tell…
Both very worthy winners!
I like both Arthur and Genevieve. I had a hard time choosing between Arthur and Rhys, but I highly dislike Eliza, so I’m glad Genevieve won. Nathaniel is okay, but I dislike Louisa.
Funny story… When Genevieve was against Carys, I couldn’t decide, so I asked my seven-year-old nephew and five-year-old niece their opinions: “Do you like Carys, Jenna-veev, or ZHAH(N)-vee-ev?” Niece immediately chose Carys, Nephew liked ZHAH(N)-vee-ev. Then Nephew noticed that there were only two names in the poll, so I had to explain the different pronunciations of Genevieve. Niece then changed her mind to Jenna-veev. I told them they were no help at all! 😀
Genevieve was my favourite girls name right from the beginning, but I was hoping Luca would make it for the boys. Still, I do like Arthur.