NAMEBERRY is predicting a baby naming revolution for 2017.
The US baby naming experts say parents are turning to invented names with unique spellings and nontraditional gender identities.
Others are embracing a range of fresh sources - gods and wild animals, spiritual beliefs and childhood heroes - that all embody power.
While the US is still waiting for the first female president, parents are adopting the first names and sometimes surnames of feminist heroines as for their daughters and sometimes sons, a number of Irish surnames among them.
Parents are also looking to first and last names of female ancestors on their own family trees.
Zelda AND Fitzgerald
Georgia AND O’Keefe
Frida AND Kahlo
Ultimate power names
Next year parents will skip directly to the head of the power line. Yes, we’re talking about gods, whose names will be conferred on an increasing number of babies. Expect to meet lots of little deities with names drawn from multicultural mythology.
Thor
Persephone
Odin
Freya
Jupiter
Luna
Atlas
Clio
Orion
Morrigan
Pandora
Zeus
Literary names
Naming your child after a favourite literary character gives you a lifetime’s worth of intellectual credibility without having to actually crack a book. Our own Oscar makes the list:
Matilda
Ramona
Alice
Juliet
Romeo
Ophelia
Austen
Bronte
Wilde
Downton Abbey names
Yes, this British period drama may have ended its six-year run, but its impact on girls’ names will only continue to grow in 2017.
The members of the Crawley family managed to resurrect some dusty Victorian names and give them new life. We expect to see more of the already-popular Cora and Violet along with the following:
Sybil
Rosamund
Edith
Isobel
Daisy
Elsie
Marigold
Mary
Fierce animal names
Baby names don’t have to be names anymore: They can be place names, surnames, color names, and yes, animal names.
Fox
Wolf
Lynx
Tiger
Falcon
Hawk
Lionel
Coming soon...
Puma
Jaguar
Python
Anything goes on birth certificates...
For 2017, we foresee a continual broadening of what can be considered a baby name. There will be more word names and place names and unexpected hero names (Bowie took off soon after the singer’s death this year), and every category will be stretched to its extreme.
Flower names have already moved beyond Rose and Lily to Zinnia and Azalea, so why not Chrysanthemum or Begonia?
For better or worse, it’s truly a time of anything goes.
