Names on the Cusp - Girls

Seal of the SSA via Wikipedia

The waiting is such torture. Whether it's the reason or not, it's nice to honor mothers by releasing the data near Mother's Day. But I wish the list would come out sooner. You know what I'm talking about.

Yes, I'm interested in the Top 10 and Top 100, but I also like to see what falls out of and what makes its way into the Top 1000. What's the new name on the block? Finding out is like Christmas in May.

It's hard to say what will make the jump into the published list and what will not. In 2011, Hattie reentered the Top 1000 at #993 with 253 births, up from 157 births in 2010 (which would have put it at #1444). I thought I would peruse the 100 names after the Top 1000 and see what jumps out at me. I am only listing names that do not have a varied spelling in the Top 1000. We will look at the girl names here and the boy names in the next post.

GIRLS - #1000 in 2011 was Damaris with 250 girls given the name. There were two other girl names with the same amount of births, India and Reina, that were left off the list due to its initial's lower place in the alphabet. Here are the names of interest from the next 100:

#1006 Ireland 248
#1019 Charlize 243
#1022 Tania 243
#1023 Essence 242
#1025 Monserrat 242
#1027 Roxanne 241
#1030 Lyra 240
#1031 Mercy 240
#1034 Aurelia 239
#1037 Noor 239
#1038 Amaris 237
#1039 Colette 237
#1041 Winter 237
#1042 Belinda 236
#1047 Ellison 234
#1048 Xiomara 234
#1049 Ashanti 233
#1051 Estella 233
#1053 Dallas 232
#1054 Naima 232
#1055 Antonia 231
#1056 Astrid 231
#1057 Azul 231
#1059 Gretchen 231
#1063 Katrina 230
#1064 Milena 230
#1065 Noa 230
#1070 Kayleen 229
#1071 Alaysia 228
#1073 Tinsley 228
#1078 Ivana 227
#1079 Jamiyah 226
#1084 Emmaline 225
#1089 Coraline 224
#1092 Maren 224
#1093 Raylee 224
#1094 Remi 224
#1095 Selina 224
#1099 Everly 222
#1100 Frida 222
#1101 Jessa 222
#1102 Lorena 222
#1103 Luisa 222
#1104 Shreya 222

Six names I think have a chance to appear in 2012's Top 1000:

Lyra - Along with its space-cousin Luna, this stellar name is making strides. It is pronounced "leera" and is a constellation in the northern sky that contains the star Vega. Edit: While I got my main information from my husband who studied astrophysics and other online sites, there are also a lot of sites that say the pronunciation is lye-ra, so we'll say it's both and parents will probably have to explain how they want it pronounced. ;) Lyra made a pretty big jump in 2008 and has slowly been increasing in number ever since.

Aurelia - I first became aware of this beautiful name after seeing the movie Love Actually. The character in the movie was Portuguese, but the name is from Ancient Rome... remember Marcus Aurelius? 2011 saw the most girls given the name Aurelia in the United States since records have been kept (239 births) and I hope to see the number increase in 2012.

Ellison - Similar to Allison, but mostly a surname, and traditionally a boy name, like other -son names (son of Ellis), that has been overtaken by girls. If parents want the cute nicknames Ellie or Elle but don't want to use the popular Elizabeth, I see a good reason for Ellison to join the ranks in 2012.

Milena - I heard this name a lot while living in Poland and I love its quiet beauty. It is fairly popular in most Central and Eastern European countries and could be compared to Mila, which is similar in sound and origination and growing tremendously in the United States. I hope Milena follows the same path.

Tinsley - It is not found on most name sites, but does have an entry on Nameberry. It was brought into the social realm by socialite Tinsley Mortimer, is a character in The It Girl series, and is a place name in England. With the help of trendy names like Ainsley and Kinsley, Tinsley has made big strides over the past couple of years and could possibly enter the Top 1000 in 2012.

Everly - It came very close to becoming the name of my daughter. To be honest, I am surprised this particular spelling is the highest ranking of the name. It first came to my attention when I was on name forums back in 2005. Several people brought up the name Everleigh and I fell in love with the sound, but preferred the simpler Everly. Unfortunately, my husband was not as enthusiastic about it as I was and in the end we chose a different name, but it will always be a favorite of mine. Everly is increasing in number more and more each year and I think it has a great chance to break into the Top 1000 in 2012.

What names do you think will make their way into the Top 1000? We only have about four months until we can find out for sure.

Thank you to Behind the Name and Nancy's Baby Names for a lot of the above information.