Rising trend will see parents picking baby names starting with O in 2017… and naming newborns after gods
Nameberry co-founder Pamela Redmond Satran has revealed which baby names she thinks will be the most popular in 2017
CHOOSING a name for your baby can be a difficult decision but if you need some help, look no further because the most popular predictions for 2017 have been released.
Nameberry co-founder Pamela Redmond Satran has revealed which baby names she believes will be the most common next year - and some of them may surprise you.
Writing in Today, Pamela said we should "expect more baby names that defy convention: invented names with unique spellings and nontraditional gender identities.
"And parents are embracing names from a range of fresh sources - gods and wild animals, spiritual beliefs and childhood heroes - that all embody power".
Pamela also said many parents will look to multicultural mythology for name inspiration, such as Thor, Persephone, Odin, Freya, Jupiter, Luna, Atlas, Clio, Orion, Morrigan, Pandora, and Zeus.
Last year saw a lot of parents opt for righteous names, Messiah doubled in popularity to 1,500, while there were five boys named God, 20 named Lord, 27 called Saviour and 40 girls called Goddess.
And it's not just the 'good' mythical names that will be seeing a popularity surge, evil names likes Lucifer, Lilith (a Jewish folklore demon) and Kali (the Hindu destroyer) are also likely to see a rise.
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Here are the other categories expected to inspire parents:
O at the start:
- Girls: Olivia, by Olive, and now Ophelia, Octavia, Olympia, Oakley and Oona.
- For boys: Oliver, Owen, and Oscar have been popular and will be followed by Orson, Otis, Omar, Otto, Oberon, Osias, Osiris, Osmond, and Oz.
Literary names:
- Storybook characters: Eloise, Maisie, Sawyer (for both genders), Matilda, Ramona, Fern, Alice, and Holden.
- Shakespearean names: Juliet and Romeo to Cordelia, Ophelia, Cassio, Orlando, and even Puck
- Authors' names, last and first: Austen, Bronte, Poe, Wilde, and Angelou; Dashiell, Willa, Louisa, and Zadie
Inspirational names:
- Positive virtue names: Justice, True, and Grace.
- Serenity: Pax, Bodhi, and Zen.
- Virtue: Mercy and Patience
Feminist heroine names:
- First names and sometimes surnames of feminist heroines as honorifics: Ruth (Bader Ginsburg), Ada (Lovelace), Simone (de Beauvoir and Biles), Emmeline (Pankhurst), Bell (Hooks), Eleanor (Roosevelt), Rosa (Parks), Vita (Sackville-West), Zelda and Fitzgerald, Georgia and O'Keefe, Frida and Kahlo, Sojourner and Truth.
- Parents are also looking to first and last names of female ancestors on their own family trees.
Fierce animal names for babies:
- Place names, surnames, color names, and animal names: Bear has gone from Crazy Celebrity Baby Name (Alicia Silverstone, Kate Winslet, Jamie Oliver)
- Other fierce animal names on the rise for babies, mostly boys: Fox, Wolf, Lynx, Tiger, Falcon, Hawk, and Lionel. Coming soon: Puma, Jaguar, Python.
Downton Abbey names:
- Characters: Cora and Violet along with Sybil, Rosamund, Edith, Isobel, Daisy, Elsie, Marigold, and surprisingly all-Mary
Prepster names for boys:
- Sophisticated s-ending: Brooks, Hayes, Briggs, Yates, Ames, Oakes, Niles and Collins.
- Ancestral-sounding surnames: Anderson, Winston, Remington, Kensington, Montgomery, Whitaker and Winchester.
Water names:
- Bodies of water: Bay, Lake, Ocean/Oceane, Rio, Brook, and especially River for both sexes.
- Rrelated names: Harbor, Bayou, Aqua, Ford, Marin/Marina, and Delta.
- Specific waterways: Nile, Arno, Hudson and Caspian.
- Aquatic meanings: Tallulah, Mira and Kai.