The Social Security Administration has released their data for 2014! This is always a very exciting day.

I was just writing a post this morning where I wondered if the name Shannon would drop out of the Top 1000 in 2014 (it was at #922 in 2013), and it did do so.

I’d been wondering what the name Sloane would do, because it feels like it is mentioned in a lot more letters recently, and it has gone up again: from #405 in 2013 to #370 in 2014.

My daughter’s name is increasing in popularity, which I expected from the number of times it has been mentioned in letters. In theory, I am not bothered by this.

The name Charlotte finally hit the Top 10.

Madison is still in the Top 10, which surprised me: I think because the two Madisons I know are teenagers, I keep expecting it to drop. The name Addison dropped again (from #19 to #24, the fourth year in a row it has dropped), which surprised me because it feels as if that name comes up in letters more often than Madison does—but that could just be a perception error on my part, or coincidence, and in any case the drops are very small. Spelling variations could also contribute.

Emily, too, surprises me with its persistence: still in the Top 10, and it’s been there for well over two decades.

Elizabeth dropped out of the Top 10. It’s been hovering riiiiiiight at the age, ranking #9 or #10 for most of the years since 1980, with occasional dips to #11 or #12, and one year getting as high as #8. But now it’s down to #14.

Adelyn is up (from #212 to #197) and Adalynn is up (#173 to #128) and Adalyn is up (#178 to #152)  and Adeline is up (#233 to #219), and so is Hadley (#110 to #99). I think the -ad- sound of Madison and Addison and Madelyn is still popular, but that parents are looking for fresher versions. The many spellings of Adelyn may make it a stealth hit: people looking up one spelling will think it isn’t very popular, and then be surprised to encounter so many.

The name Emma is #1 for baby girls again: it hit #1 in 2008 for just that one year, but now it is back. Sophia was #1 for three years, but now is #3. Olivia hit #2—its highest ranking so far.

Look at the amazing jumps of the name Everly!

(screen shot from SSA.gov)

Not even in the Top 1000 until 2012, and now look at it! That’s faster than the name Isabella traveled.

Evelyn is also going up: #16 in 2014, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it in the Top 10 before long. (Though I also wouldn’t be surprised to see it continue hovering right around where it is now.)

I’d thought the name Avery might get to the Top 10 for girls this year, but it’s #13 down from #12 last year.

Aria is climbing quickly: it hit the Top 1000 in 2000, the Top 100 in 2012, and #31 in 2014.

Harper is #11. That was a fast trip from #887 in 2004.

Penelope, one of our frontrunners if Henry had been a girl, is up again: #42 in 2014.

Genevieve, our second favorite name for Elizabeth, is also up again at #210.

The spelling Zoey has beat out the spelling Zoe: #22 and #32, respectively.

Elsa took a big jump, which surprised me: I would have thought the movie would make parents reluctant to use the name. But it went from #528 in 2013 to #286 in 2014.

Noah is still #1 for boys, and Liam is still #2.

The name George is up a little bit more (from #166 in 2012 to #158 in 2013 to #134 in 2014), but nothing alarming yet: it goes up and down already, and was in the 130s (and even once in the 120s) in the first decade of the 2000s.

Henry is up again, from #37 to #33. I wonder if it’s headed very slowly for the Top 10.

Oliver is up from #52 to #32: I’m surprised to see it pass Henry! And Sebastian at #34: a little cluster of gentlemen.

I feel as if the name Theodore is mentioned more often in letters recently, and it has gone up again, from #169 to #126.

Jaxon and Jaxson are now both in the Top 100, but I see they were in 2013 as well (and Jaxon has been since 2010).

I want to get this posted because I’m eager to discuss, but I’ll keep adding to it as I think of more names I want to look up.

What did your favorites do? Up or down?

Hi Swistle,

I would love to have you weigh in on our second daughter’s name. Our first daugher is Rylan, and the longer she’s around, the more I love her name. I tend to like more unique names (nothing in the top 200) and my husband seems to offer up more traditional names, although he really likes our daughter’s name.

Our last name is typically a first name, and rhymes with Cannon. Therein lies a big problem. Many of the names on my list are surnames, and I feel like we can’t use them because I worry our child will have people calling her by her last name forever.

Some names that I love and think would work, that my husband has ruled out: Elliott, Ellis, Reese, Brynn, Finley, Hollis, Lane, Margot, and Rowan.

One other point to make is that our extended family is really big on nicknames – it’s one reason we rule some names out – for instance, I liked Rowan, but I’m not a huge fan of “Ro.”

Can you and your readers help us come up with some suggestions we haven’t thought of yet?

Thanks!!!

J.

I do think you’re wise to take your surname into account. On the other hand, I wouldn’t suggest choosing names you like less, just to avoid the swapping: even if you choose a commonly-first-name first name, some swapping is likely to occur from time to time.

It helps that your surname was a very popular first name awhile back (Top 100 from 1968 until 1997), and has plummeted in popularity since then: #922 in 2013, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it out of the Top 1000 when the 2014 data is released any day now. It won’t be an expected name on someone her age—though unfortunately, its recent popularity is what will make it a familiar name to the people handling paperwork. But if someone does switch the first and last names in the paperwork, it seems like a fairly quick and easy fix. And most people will be introduced to your daughter in person, and/or by first name.

It would help to know some of the names your husband has suggested. If, for example, he’s suggested Margaret and Elizabeth and Katherine, that would lead me in a different direction than if he’s suggested Jessica and Ashley and Samantha.

Working with your list of rejected favorites, I see a lot of modern unisex names; those seem like a very good fit with Rylan. Yesterday’s post had a similar style, so I wonder if any of those names from the post and comments would be useful.

For more possibilities to consider, I looked in The Baby Name Wizard, especially in the Androgynous and Celtic categories. I didn’t look up each one’s ranking in the Social Security Administration, partly because of the hassle but also because even a too-popular name might lead you to a less-popular version: for example, if you notice you like Emerson but it’s too popular, it might make you feel more warmly toward Emeran or Emery. I also left in names that had nicknames: I wasn’t sure if you were avoiding nicknames, or just avoiding unliked nicknames.

Brennan (maybe too rhymey with surname)
Camden
Campbell
Casey
Darcy
Delaney
Ellery
Ellison
Emeran
Emerson
Emery
Everly
Greer
Holland
Keegan
Kellen
Kieran
Lennox
Locklyn
Logan
Madigan
Quinn
Rory
Tamsin
Teagan
Teague
Wynn

Update (and photo!) on Baby Boy Polanco, Brother to Emmerson Grace!

Hi Swistle!
I have been reading your blog off and on for a while. My husband and I are expecting our first baby, a girl, at the end of June. We are having the hardest time agreeing on a name for her!! I think it’s because our naming styles are different. My name is Ashley and his name is Kent. I do not like common names, I was one of 4 Ashley’s in school. Our last name is Gooding. Here are some names we have both suggested but can’t seem to agree on:

Ellery- My top pick and favorite! I like that it’s not too common. Very cute and feminine.

Kenley- My husbands pick. He likes it because it combines both his name and mine. I don’t like it because it sounds too trendy to me. I’m also not big on combining names.

Cadence- Another name my husband suggested but I HATE it!

Sloane- I like this name but think I would prefer it as a middle name.

Obviously our styles are all over the place. These are just a few of the names that have been suggested. I can’t seem to find anything I like as much as Ellery. Do you have any suggestions on names similar to Ellery that I could possibly get my husband to agree on? Or any name suggestions at all?!?
If we were going to be having a boy, Kingston was at the top of our list. Other names that were possibilities were Sutton, Holden, and Emerson.

Any and all help appreciated! We are coming down to the wire!!

Sincerely
Ashley

Although you and your husband don’t agree on each other’s top favorites, your naming styles seem very compatible: both top picks (Ellery and Kenley) are modern surname names.

One suggestion I have is to change goals: instead of trying to find a name you like as much as Ellery (such a name may not exist), switch the focus to finding the name you like best of all the remaining names.

One possibility is to consider using Emerson from your boy-name list. Emerson is a unisex name currently used more often for girls in the United States; here are the 2013 numbers from the Social Security Administration (for spellings used as least 25 times that year):

Emerson: 1509 F, 973 M
Emersyn: 595 F, 16 M
Emersen: 45 F, 10 M
Emmerson: 170 F, 22 M
Emmersyn: 71 F, – M

Sutton is another that is unisex but currently used more often for girls (316 new baby girls and 183 new baby boys in 2013), so perhaps that could be considered for a girl.

Another possibility is Emery: similar in sound to Ellery, but perhaps enough different that your husband would like it.

Or Ellison, or Ellis.

Or Everly, or Waverly.

Or Brielle.

Holden makes me think of Hadley, Holland, and Hollis.

Cadence makes me think of Jade, Delaney, Braelyn, Gracen, Paisley, Campbell, and Teagan.

It sounds as if Kenley is not a likely choice for several reasons, but it interested me because we recently did another letter from parents who combined their names for the first child.

Kenley reminds me of Kinley, Kinsley, Brinley, Keelyn, Linley, Finley, Tenley, and Lennox.

Sloane reminds me of Simone, Fiona, Winslow, Quinn, Brynn, Jade, Laine, and Berkeley.

Hi Swistle. I have a pronunciation question for you. Since having another girl recently, my husband and I are on the hunt for the next perfect name in case the next babe is a girl.

I love the look of Esme. And I always assumed it was pronounced Ehz-me but upon further research it looks like that is more the UK pronunciation where most in the USA go with Ehz-may. I was wondering if you and your readers have met anyone with this name and which pronunciation they went by. Also, I live in Canada… We tend to see similar trends as the USA but I find that sometimes our accents/pronunciations are slightly different so not sure if there are other fellow Canadians reading that could comment?

Thanks!

I have been pronouncing it EHZ-may.

The Oxford Dictionary of First Names doesn’t offer a pronunciation, but lists Esmie and Esmee as variants. Esmie looks to me like support for EHZ-mee, while Esmee could go either way: fiancé and fiancée are both pronounced with a -SAY, and Esmée is the original female version of the name; but -ee would usually be an -ie sound in the United States, almost never -ay.

The Baby Name Wizard lists the pronunciation as EHZ-may. There are some further (differing and agreeing) remarks by commenters here.

Inogolo lists the pronunciation as ehz-MAY, but notes: “In English this name is sometimes pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, and sometimes with the first syllable as -es-“—in other words, as EHZ-may or ESS-may.

Esmé Raji Codell, whose book Educating Esmé I really enjoyed (and I think that was my first encounter with the name), pronounces her name EHZ-may.

Howjsay offers three pronunciations, in this order: ess-MAY/MEE, ess-sm (what), and EHZ-may/mee. I listened to it again and again, but the way he pronounces the first one (and to a lesser extent the third one) continues to escape me: he says the vowel almost completely between long-A and long-E.

Forvo has one of each: a speaker from the United Kingdom pronounces it ESS-mee, and a speaker from Australia pronounces it EHZ-may—or really more like ehz-may, with almost equal emphasis.

The name is unusual in the United States (in 2013, it was given to 271 new baby girls), and of course we can’t know from the Social Security data base how parents are pronouncing it, but I wondered if alternate spellings might offer clues. There were 53 new baby girls given the spelling Esmae, which looks to me like an attempt to make the -may pronunciation clear. Another 14 were given the spelling Esmay. Another 38 new baby girls were given the spelling Esmee, which could be an attempt to emphasize a -mee pronunciation, or could be parents who know that Esmee was the original female version (at this point, and in the United States, Esme is the more common spelling, and is used almost exclusively for girls). Another 8 new baby girls were given the spelling Esmi, and another 8 were given Esmie, both of which look like the -mee pronunciation. Another 19 were Ezmae, which looks like -may; 9 were Ezme, which is unclear.

I wish the polls still worked, because I’ve noticed from past similar posts that the percentages indicated by comments are not necessarily representative of percentages indicated in the polls. But the polls DON’T work, and I haven’t yet found a new one I like, so we will just have to go by comments.

Do you know an Esme? What country is she from, and how does she pronounce her name?

Update (and photo!) on Baby Boy S_____, Brother to William August!

Update on Baby Boy Sofeeoh, Brother to Ian and Reagan!

Update (and photo!) on Baby Naming Issue: Tucker Rhymes with, Um…

Hello,

My husband and I are completely stalled on a name for our second son. I am 6 months pregnant, and given that we had our first named even before we knew his gender, having no name this late in the game is causing some serious stress!

We have one child, a son named August. We are looking for a name for our second son that is uncommon (definitely not in the top 100 on the Social Security list), but not bizarre — one that won’t require him to spell or pronounce it for the rest of his life. I love the idea of a name that has sentimental value for us, is a traditionally English or Scandinavian name, or a name that has a nature feel. I despise the “modern” boys names: Jaden, Brayden, Jaxon, etc. I am not opposed to word names (I threw Author on the table at one point), but we are set on not using names that start with A or E so as not to double up on initials. We know the middle name will be Adam, after my brother.

Our last name starts with a true “E” sound, which I find really limits our options. For example, we loved the name Jude, but when said with the last name, it sounds like “Judy.” Same goes for “Louis” (French pronunciation) — it ends up “Louis-y.”

Here are some names we’re considering:

Lu (for my grandmother, Lucy, who was called “Lu” by my late grandfather) — I love it, but my husband thinks it looks Asian. Also a sweet nod to baby’s in-womb nickname, Moon. My husband suggested naming him Lune, the French word for moon, but I won’t do it because it sounds just like “loon.”

Wilder — This one evokes the image of the kind of boys I imagine having: free, happy, lovers of nature. Also a strong connection to literature, which is a positive for us. This was the first name that felt like the right fit to me, but my husband isn’t sold on it.

Theo/Theodore — This is my husband’s favorite name, but we fear it is becoming too common.

Holland — We thought we came up with this name out of nowhere, only to find out that it is becoming increasingly popular for girls. While I’m OK with being gender-neutral, I don’t want a name that is more commonly feminine.

Holden — This has been a lurker on our list and was originally bumped for Holland because we had stronger ties to Holland. I’m willing to consider bringing it back.

Lowen — This is the Cornish word for “happy.” It would be a nice way to bring in my heritage into play, since August is such a German name (my husband’s heritage and our strong German last name). I worry that it’s just too much like the common “Owen” but with an L.

Oscar vs. Otto — I like Oscar, my husband likes Otto. I’m concerned that Otto just pushes the German thing too far for us. I also have a distant family connection to Oscar, but fear it also may be gaining popularity.

Names we like but won’t use for one reason or another: Finn, Hugo, Linden, Truman, Atticus, Edison. If baby were a girl, she would have been Hazel, Lucy or June.

Please help!

Lu looks feminine to me: the short form of Lucy, Lucille, etc., sometimes doubled to make Lulu. Lou is the spelling more commonly used for boys, though can also be used for girls (short for Louise, Louisa, Marylou, etc.). Lu is not currently used as a given name in the United States, and it seems to me it goes beyond the level of unusual you’re looking for: with a brother named August, it’s a surprising and unfamiliar choice. With the surname, it is likely to be heard as Louie.

Wilder seems more what you’re looking for. My only hesitation is about names that seem to express a hope for a particular type of child. If your boys are instead indoorsy anxious introverts, the name August still works fine, but the name Wilder could feel like a misfit. This concern is a mild one (I use the word “hesitation” deliberately: only a pause, not necessarily a stop), but I do always feel it with a particular slim category of names I think of as “Expectation Names”: Maverick, Patience, Princess, Zeus, Serenity. Most parents have an idea or hope for the type of child they will have, and may put some of that idea/hope into the name when they choose Clarissa over Hayden or vice versa—but it isn’t particularly comical or startling if a Clarissa is athletic and hates pink, or if a Hayden is super-ultra girly. The name Wilder seems to me to be right on the edge: I think because of the literary association, it feels like it could still work on a skinny little guy in glasses who was the opposite of wild—but I feel just a little uneasy about it all the same.

The name Theodore is rising in popularity, but it’s my favorite from your list as a brother name for August. In 2013 (the 2014 data will be out in early May), the Social Security Administration shows the name August at #319 and Theodore at #170; but both names are rising.

Perhaps because of the nickname Holly, the name Holland is unisex-used-more-often-for-girls. In 2013, the name was given to 206 new baby girls and 44 new baby boys.

Holden is another nice literary choice, and good with August. It seems like a good alternative to Holland: all the same sounds, but currently used almost exclusively for boys. (Only 8 new baby girls named Holden in 2013; for comparison, there were 14 new baby girls named David.)

Lowen seems feminine to me, I think because of Lindsay Lohan—a mildly negative association for me, though one that will likely be an issue only for your peers and not for the child’s peers. The current usage is exclusively boy (17 new baby boys named Lowen in 2013; not in the data base for girls), probably because of the “Owen with an L” situation you mention. I might have suggested Lowell instead, but when I said it out loud I thought of LOL (said as one word to rhyme with “roll,” as opposed to saying each letter).

The name Oscar is currently dropping in popularity, and has been for the last decade. I find “August and Oscar” difficult to say together; they seem very similar in sound.

“August and Otto” is also a little difficult to say aloud, but less so—and of course, you won’t always be saying the names together. Otto is rising in popularity, but I think of that as a positive: it makes it easier to use.

From your list, my top three are Holden, Theodore, and Wilder.

So a baby boy is about to be born. He will be Anthony Steven B_______ the fifth.

My daughter wants to change the middle name to Scott. Does that take away the ability for this little guy to carry on the tradition?

I’m afraid so: the suffixes Jr., III, IV, etc., are only used if the name is exactly the same. However, I will note that the name police will not leap out and prevent her from doing it. And I think it’s sweet of her to want to honor her side of the family as well as her husband’s (if I’m making the correct assumption here based on your email address). It might make for a nice compromise and/or a gentle way to break the tradition: give the baby his father’s first name and surname, but use his mother’s father’s name for the middle and drop the V suffix.

Another option is to use the exact name and the suffix, but call him Scott. I went to school with a boy whose name was something like Howard Duke Polman IV, and he went by Scott. And I know a child whose name is something like Richard Paul Sampson IV, and he goes by Jack. When there are a lot of people in a family with the exact same name, nicknames get scarce and everyone gets more understanding of workarounds.

Another option is to use the exact name and the suffix, and save Scott for a possible future child. Maybe _____ Scott B_______ (for a boy or a girl), or Scott [mother’s maiden name, or another significant name from the mother’s side] B_______. I’d love to see it become a tradition that if one parent gets to use a naming tradition for one child, the other parent gets nearly full naming rights for the next child.