We Reveal Them: The Trendiest Baby Names of 2017

American website Nameberry has released their predicted hot list for 2017 but the compilation of what they think will be trending could either inspire or horrify you…

Nameberry has confirmed what they believe will be “hotter, cooler and more visible’ in 2017 meaning that these monikers will emerge with greater popularity over the next 12 months. The science behind the predictions is based on the website traffic of names that have received increased traffic from January 2017 compared to the previous corresponding period.

Pamela Redmond Satran of the site commented that the results were surprising and that the data would demonstrate ‘A whole raft of hot new names’ for the next 12 months.

Trend wise they have identified that 2016 popular choices of names beginning with a vowel and more cross-gender choices (25 names appeared on both the make and female most popular lists) are diminishing.

International names have increased in popularity and the strong influence of popular culture (i.e. celebrity baby name choices) appears to be on the up.

So what’s a parent to do? Are you keen to be a hipster family with the hottest names of 2017? Or are you that mum that wants a truly unique name and will avoid the list like the plague? Or if it’s a name you truly love do you even care if it’s popular or not? There’s so much to think about when naming a baby…

Here’s the key findings from Nameberry:

The reign of the vowel name may be ending. Last year, 40 percent of the girls’ names and over half the boys’ names started with vowels. This year, only seven of the girls’ names and five of the boys’ names start with vowels, with A names still dominant.

Favourite first letters seem to be C and K for boys, R for girls, and S for both genders.

This year’s hot names are more gender-specific than last year’s, with fewer unisex names and boy-girl pairs…though Remy lies just out of sight at Number 5 on the unisex list.

The hottest baby names 2017 come from around the world, perhaps because people are more likely to look up unfamiliar names. The 2017 hot list includes the Russian Tatjana and Natasha, the Persian Alizeh, the French Lucien and Marcel, and the Hawaiian Koa, among others.

Pop culture continues to exert an outsized influence, with names making the hot list thanks to animated heroine Moana, Younger star Sutton Foster, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynold‘s infant daughter Ines, the late rocker David Bowie, and even television sleuth Sherlock.