Nymbler Trendspotting #2: A History Lesson

The second trend we're going to look at takes us to many different places. The first stop may be your very own town. But before we can go there, we need to go back in time.

When cities and states were being colonized in “The New World,” many places were named after the people founding them or someone close to them. For example, Georgia was named after King George I of Britain. Louisiana was named after King Louis XIV of France. Pennsylvania for its founder, William Penn. And Maryland for Henrietta Maria de Bourbon, wife of Charles I.

Nowadays, we aren’t naming places after our loved ones or our contractors who build our homes. But, we are seeing a little bit of history repeating, only this time, in reverse.

Today we see names such as Brooklyn, Boston and Dallas appearing more and more. With the popularity of Paris Hilton, maybe city names will be the new trend.

If you’re thinking place names might be the way you want to go, Nymbler a few to find out. Get started with our short list: Camden, Trenton, London, Aspen, Austin. And be sure to let us know if your favorite place is missing.

Happy New Year Nymbler!

It’s 2008, and Nymbler is ready to see what baby names will be on top this year. But before we try to forecast what name will earn the #1 spot in 2008, let’s look back at some of the top names of 2007.

And 2007’s top names are… (drumroll, please…) Jack & Ava! Here’s a look at the overall top 10, broken down by gender:

Male
1. Jack
2. Benjamin
3. Owen
4. Noah
5. James
6. Reid
7. Max
8. Nathan
9. Finn
10. Hayden

Female
1. Ava
2. Charlotte
3. Elizabeth
4. Hannah
5. Sophie
6. Ella
7. Anna
8. Lily
9. Olivia
10. Abigail

We had a feeling Jack and Ava would take the top slots on our list. As far as the boys go, we see some trends including some Biblical names ¬– Benjamin, Noah, James – and some good, strong names that have stood the test of time – Jack, James, Reid. The girls also have a trend toward the Biblical – Elizabeth, Hannah, Anna – and some old-fashioned names – Sophie, Olivia and Charlotte.


With each name that’s added to the “Favorites” list, the overall rankings change. We’ve compiled the list of the fastest movers from Nymbler during 2007. These are the names that jumped in the rankings, some by more than 3,000 places!

Male
1. O’Rourke
2. Wright
3. Morton
4. Weaver
5. Milford

Female
1. Shawn
2. Ray
3. Joey
4. Marsha
5. Lois

It sounds like the boys are going more toward surnames and first names. And it looks as though the boys’ names are creeping over to the girl’s list. We’re anticipating some of these trends might hold for 2008.


We’re anxious to see if our names will match up with the US Social Security Data from 2007. Either way, we know our Nymbler statistics represent what you are looking for. And who knows, maybe our 2007 list, will match the 2008 data.

Happy New Year and Happy Nymblering in 2008!

November's Most Popular Baby Names

We've done it again! We looked what all Nymbler users were searching for during November. We're seeing some overall trends of 2007 here, but you'll have to wait till after the holidays to see what Nymbler's top names of 2007 were.

During November, there were more than 25,000 Nymbler users emailing, adding, blocking and seeking more information about names. Here's our overall Top Ten:

1. Ava
2. Jack
3. Benjamin
4. Hannah
5. Elizabeth
6. Sophie
7. Owen
8. Olivia
9. Charlotte
10. Abigail

Where are the boys at? It looks like everyone is expecting (or hoping for a little girl.) Other boys' names that just missed out overall top ten are Noah, James, Reid and Gabriel.


So what are the top blocked names? Well the leader is a boy's name that just missed the top ten. Here's our blocked names Top Ten:

1. Reid
2. Brayden
3. Lena
4. Victoria
5. Anna
6. Kenyatta (male)
7. Brady
8. Jack
9. Kwame
10. Hayden (male)

Again, it looks like girls' names are getting more love than male names. Maybe we're all just pickier when it comes to our little boys. We were surprised to find Jack in the list of the top blocked names. He was #1 last month for the guys!


Lastly, we've found that many Nymbler users start off knowing the names they'd like to use for inspiration. We add those to our "User Inspiration" list. Here's our inspired Nymbler users' Top Ten:

1. Grace
2. Ava
3. Elizabeth
4. Olivia
5. Jack
6. James
7. Henry
8. Emma
9. William
10. Noah

Looks like Nymbler users know what they want. And your own inspirations have factored into our Top Ten list overall. It just may be that the Nymbler karma of adding your own name is rubbing off on other Nymbler users.


Is your favorite name missing from the Top Ten? Or is there a name you hate on our top ten that you can't wait to see on the blocked list? Get over to Nymbler right away and start e-mailing those names around.

It's time to get (un)inspired

We blog a lot about where to look for baby name inspiration. From football stars to relatives to celebrities, it seems name ideas are everywhere you look.

But what about those times you’re not looking for your baby name muse to put the perfect name in your head? What about those times when you want to knock names out of the running?

To help out with this, we put together a list of un-inspiring situations. It’s those times you’ll want to listen up for names you might want to weed out of your potential name collection.

The New Neighborhood. You just moved in, so the neighbors, and their new baby, swing by with a Jello Mold to welcome you. Listen closely to the name of that little one. It could get plain confusing when Kate comes over to play with your Kate. Or Justin is out back playing ball with your Justin. We’re confused already!

Your Favorite Places. When you’re out at the mall or walking by the local playground, listen up for those names that are shouted out as little ones bounce too far away from mom. “Davis, come here!” “Madison, stay with Mommy!” You can’t change other children’s names, so if you’re seeking a unique name, don’t look for inspiration by the jungle gym.

Your Morning Read. Whether on the train or on the back porch, look at that newspaper. Most newspapers publish birth announcements weekly, so check out who’s who in your hospital’s nursery. (If you can’t find it in the paper, some hospitals have online nurseries you can peek into.)

The Dirty Dog Salon. You may really like the name Roman. Just remember, as a child your spouse had a puppy called Roman. And that four-legged stigma will probably always go right along with the name. Besides when neighbors holler “Lassie!” from the front porch, you don’t want your little one to run to their doorstep.

Where do you look to get uninspired? Old yearbooks? History documentaries? Let us know!

(Also, be sure to check in next week. We’ll be recapping November’s top names. It might be a close race! See if you can predict Nymbler's most popular names.)

October's Most Popular Baby Names

It’s the first Friday of the month, so we’re going to check on some favorite names (and some not so favorite names) according to you, the Nymbler community.

Here at Nymbler we hope everyone had a great October. As far as names go, just like last month, Ava had the best month among female names. And fighting his way back to the top spot is Jack, who was slightly edged out by Benjamin (#2 in October) in September. The runner-up in female names is Elizabeth, followed by Hannah, Anna and Sophie. For the boys, Benjamin is trailed by James, Owen and Simon.

Our top blocked names were mostly male in October, with only two female names (Anna and Rachel) making the top 10. The male-dominated blocked list includes Reid, Brayden, Vaughn, Levi and Brady.

The top emailed names in October were Benjamin, Ava, Jack, Noah and Owen. And names most often suggested by Nymbler include Rachel, Sarah, Anna and Max.

Another "Top 10 Names" list we compiled is made up of the names that are manually added to inspirations, but Nymbler doesn’t have enough information about quite yet. That top 10 list looks like this:

Lilah
Zach
Mila
Cate
Sloan
Zara
Gray
Tegan
Scarlet
Scout

We can only guess that Mila is becoming popular because of actress Milla Jovovich (and she’s due this weekend!) Zara might be gaining speed because of the clothing line of the same name that is becoming more popular. Gray might be rising because of television's Grey's Anatomy. And we have a feeling Tegan is requested because of the sister-singing sensation Tegan and Sara.

What names do you wish Nymbler knew? Let us know so we can add them to our "Names to teach Nymbler" list.

A Busy September

Results are in from our September Nymblers – that is, folks who have visited the site. Once again we have some interesting data to share…

The top names last month were Ava and Benjamin. These are the names marked as a favorite the most times. Ella was more than 100 votes behind Ava. For the boys it was a tighter race, with Jack only 11 votes short of the top spot.

We saw some new names jump in the popularity ratings as well. For the girls, the biggest gainers were Sanne, Farrah, Peggy and Clotilde. The boys’ fastest movers were Konner, Sven, Tyme and Nigel.

New names that had never been marked as favorites before included Missy, Sotiria, Wilhelm, Milan and Peta. In contrast, those that saw no love include Corey, Justice, Sandrine and Chancellor.

Our most recent feature addition was the “Blocked Names” list. From the looks of it, either we’re all searching for girl names or we’re just more picky about them.

So what names end up on that list most often? (The number after indicates the total number of times blocked.)
Reid (655)
Victoria (644)
Anna (641)
Ivy (606)
Lena (602)
Naomi (599)
Rachel (599)
Antonia (598)
Sarah (581)
Rebecca (579)


The true measure of names that must be the top favorites are those e-mailed to friends and family. Most often the top names are the most e-mailed, and they are:
Charlotte
Ava
Benjamin
Jack
Olivia
Nora
Audrey
Owen
Reid
Caleb

We were surprised to see Reid end up on both the “Top Blocked” and “Top Emailed” lists. We figured it would be one or the other. But that’s the best part of Nymbler, you never know what names you’ll end up with.

What Nymbler suggestions have surprised you most? Finnegan? Arwen? Whisper? Let us know!