Wow! The March Madness 2017 Boys Opening Round had one matches that was decided by just a few votes, and two more that weren’t far behind. We didn’t see anything like that in the Girls Opening Round, so my jaw dropped when I realized how close the contests came!
Still, there weren’t any big upsets – just lots of nail-biting finishes. The contests ended up this way:
- Top-seeded Arlo handily defeated Grady, 74% to 26%.
- oo continues to reign, bringing home 74% of the vote versus just 26% for Merritt.
- Reid just narrowly bested Wilder, by 51% to 49%.
- Likewise, Lucian squeaked past Torin, 51% to 49%.
- Huxley edged past Koa, 59% to 41%.
- Here’s the shockingly close match-up: Sullivan brought in 50.27% of the vote, versus Soren’s 49.73%. That was close!
- Declan trounced Ayrton, 88% to 12%.
- And might Atlas surpassed Emrys, 64% to 36%.
As in real basketball, the seeds and match-ups matter. It’s crazy that rising favorite Wilder is out so early in the competition, and I’m hearing lots of love for Torin, lately, too. But they just couldn’t get past an even more appealing name in the opening round.
What will happen next? It’s tough to guess after such close matches.
Regardless, it’s time to move on to the Quarter Finals. Please vote!
The battle of the A names: Arlo v. Atlas
Retro Leo takes on Irish Declan
Another surname showdown: Reid v. Sullivan
Two sophisticated names face off: Lucian v. Huxley
Thanks for voting! Do you have any guesses about which names might win big this year? I have a few thoughts, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens over the rest of the month. After all, I can see Arlo or Atlas winning the entire tournament – except they’re facing each other in the Quarter Finals, so by next week, one of them will be gone!
Polls stay open through Thursday, March 16th, and the Semi-Finals go live on Saturday, March 18th.
I’m so excited to see Atlas on the list! I named my son Atlas this past November. It’d be funny if it won this year, being my other sons name, Archer, won for 2013 – his birth year. 🙂
Me too, I can comment again! 🙂 Arlo was a name finalist for me when I had my boy in 2015. I was worried that it might become too popular and it looks like I may have been right! I know a baby Torran (Torin), which is funny because I’d never heard of the name before him.
Oh, finally! The commenting section of this blog hasn’t been working for me for about 3 months, but suddenly it is again!
Note that the second match-up has Arlo in the poll rather than Leo.