Linda Rosenkrantz

With over 33,000 baby names on the new national roster -- a full 50 percent more than were in common use a quarter century ago -- you figure there have to be some weird choices among them. Nameberry's friend Brooke Dowd Sacco at

Unless you follow every reality series on the Oxygen and Style networks, Spanish soccer, country singers and the wives of early twentieth century authors, you might be hard pressed to figure out the sources behind some of the names that are suddenly rising in popularity. Yes, you may...

Boys' names have gone wild. You can hear a sudden growling on the popularity and star-baby lists, with sweet little babies being given such fierce animal appellations as Wolf and Puma, born-to-be-bad names like Bandit, Wilder, Maverick, Rogue and Rebel, Gunners with Colts, and others suggesting such heavy...

A few weeks ago we asked the Nameberry moms and dads to tell us their best baby names rules. What followed were hundreds of suggestions, from the idiosyncratically individual (all middle names must be Celtic and begin with R) to rules so universal they might apply to everyone.

It's National Poetry Month, the perfect moment to celebrate the bards and bardesses of the past and present, a surprising number of whom just happen to have been born with birth-certificate-ready surnames. In addition to those below, there are other great choices like Auden,

Baby names 2012 are already proving themselves to be very different from last year's choices, with "The Hunger Games" taking over from "Twilight" as the primary cultural influence on names, the hottest boys' names taking a cue from the girls, and musical names trumping Hollywood for inspiration.

When it comes to finding an Easter-themed baby name, you don't have to limit yourself to hopping down the Bunny Trail. There are more subtle options related to the name and time of the holiday itself, to relevant Biblical characters, symbolic animals -- bunnies, chicks, and the lamb -- plus...

Yes, "The Hunger Games" may well bring in a billion dollars at the box office, but at Nameberry the bigger question is, how will it affect baby naming? Will it, like the "Twilight" franchise, spur the revival of classics like Edward and Bella? Or bring to the fore...

Irish names have been making the trans-Atlantic crossing for centuries, beginning with easily assimilated ones like Patrick and Kathleen, Kevin and Brian and Ryan. But recently, thanks to a few high-profile celebs in both the entertainment and literary worlds, we've been introduced to some authentic Gaelic names we...

Pop open the champagne: It's Middle Name Pride Day! In celebration, everyone's supposed to reveal their middle names to three people who don't know it. What if you learned, probably the hard way, that your middle name might make other people laugh, gasp, or punch you in the...

Which people over time have had the greatest influence on baby names? We've collected the top dozen individuals who've inspired millions of namesakes, often in unexpected ways. Sometimes it was an actual name that went viral; in other cases these people set off a wider-ranging trend. Here, the...

If the Academy can hand out their Oscars for Best Actors, it seems only fair for Nameberry to bestow its own Berry awards on Best Actors' Names. But unlike the Academy, we're not limiting ourselves to the year just past. Instead, we are considering all the Best and...

Ever since the first American baby was christened Washington Smith, there has been a tradition here, just as the Brits honor their Royals, to draw inspiration from the surnames of U.S. presidents, with Grant, Tyler, Taylor, Madison, and now Jackson...

Beyonce and Jay-Z took unique celebrity baby naming one step further last week when they moved to trademark infant daughter Blue Ivy Carter's name. Parents have a right to trademark their minor children's names, according to U.S. law, but the name has to be both distinctive and connected to some...

A baby born around Valentine's Day automatically gets an extra measure of love, which can also be boosted by choosing an apropos name. Options include shooting straight to the heart of the matter with something like Valentine or Valentina, or picking a name that embodies love...

If you're shopping for New Year's baby names, there are several possible ways to go. You might choose January, à la Ms. Jones, or Eve à la New Year's. Or you could pick a name whose meaning celebrates the hope brought by a new year, like Nadia or...

Looking for Christmas names for your holiday-season babe? Well, you can forget about those old chestnut choices like Noel/Noelle, Holly, Natalie, Eve, Merry, Carol and Claus. A much more original idea might be to look at some of the classic and current Christmas movies for interesting character names...

2011 was quite a year for celebrity baby names, but then again, you could say that for every recent year. Some stars this year mined old-fashioned sources of inspiration, while others went wild with inventions of their own.

Here, the Nameberry Awards for the best, the worst,...

When Mike Myers recently named his son Spike, there were several comments on Nameberry.com and on our Facebook page along the lines of: "Did his wife have a puppy?" and "Bit doggy for me." Not very kind, perhaps, but it does bring back the subject of...