2011 Baby Name Predictions - Revisited (Girls Only)

Back in May I posted my predictions for the names that would be hot in 2011.  Here's the recap for girl names:


Girl Names
Adele
Adelina
Bennett
Finn
Marilyn
Philippa
Pippa
Rose
Suzanne
Tristan


For the reasoning behind this list, and the boys name list, check out the original post (here).  Now that 2011 is almost over, I'm going to revisit the lists.  Today is for the girls, tomorrow is for the boys.  Ladies first, of course.  I'll scratch a few off the list and add a few on.

Adele and Adelina, check and check.

Bennett....eh.  Maybe no for Bennett.  I still think that Masculine girl names will be hot, but Bennett might be too masculine.  Instead I'll add Avery and Emery to the list.  These are both masculine-ish names but with the "y" ending feel more acceptable as a baby girl's name and they both allow for nicknames that are super hot - Ava and Emmy.

Finn I'm keeping.  Call me crazy, but it's cute yet masculine and similar to Quinn, which has steadily climbed the top 1,000 list over the past 20 years (from 942 to 253).

I think I'm ahead of the times with Marilyn.  My guess is that Marilyn might be more popular in 2011 than 2010, but not noteworthy so.  However, I'd wager that Marilyn will be B-I-G in 2012.  In just a week, Michelle Williams will star as Marilyn Monroe in the upcoming film My Week With Marilyn (in theaters 11/23/11).  I suspect that she will remind everyone that Marilyn Monroe is a true icon and that Marilyn is an awesome name.

Philippa and Pippa definitely stay on the list.  Pippa Middleton continues to be an enigma, as does her name.

Rose.  I'm not sure Rose will be making a come back.  I'm going to scratch that off the list too.  People are digging traditional names and feminine names.  But not names that are both traditional and feminine, like Rose.  Traditional names have to be a little less flowery, like Charlotte.  And feminine names have to be a little more unusual, like Azalea.  So, I'm going to add Azalea, Dahlia and Daphne.

Primrose.  While I'm nixing Rose, I think the longer version Primrose might be a hit thanks to The Hunger Games.  If your counting, I've officially written about The Hunger Games three times this month.

Suzanne is a wild card.  I'm going to cross it off the list, though I may regret that.  Maybe Susanna instead?  Hmmm...nope.  I don't know why, but I've changed my mind on this front.

Tristan.  I'm scrapping Tristan too.  It's masculine, or at least gender neutral, which is good.  But, like my Bennett nix, it may lack intrigue.  Instead I'm adding a different category of masculine names - nicknames.  What were once nicknames for boys are now full names for girls.  Example, I have a friend who named her daughter Frankie.  Adorable!  So I'm adding Frankie and Joey.  (Not Franny and Zooey, which I openly admit went over my head.  I needed a book club for that one).



Girl Names
Adele
Adelina
Azalea
Avery
Bennett
Dahlia
Daphne
Emery
Finn
Frankie
Joey
Marilyn
Philippa
Pippa
Primrose
Rose
Suzanne
Tristan


Click here to watch the trailer for My Week With Marilyn.  Who plans to see it in the theatre?



UPDATE (11/18/11) - The Huffington Post (with a writer from nameberry.com, my favorite baby name website as you know) came out today with an article on the Top 12 baby name trends for 2012.  Let me say this: You read it HERE first!!!  Here is the article.