‘Twilight’ and ‘Teen Mom’ influence baby names
The first baby of the year in the state of Hawaii was born at 12:01 a.m. at the North Hawaii Community Hospital in Waimea on the Big Island. The proud parents are Kahi Brooks-Richards and Layne Richards
The influence of the “Twilight” series is showing in the names given to newborns in the U.S. and Hawaii.
Nationwide, Isabella and Jacob, names of the female protagonist and her werewolf from Twilight, are the king and queen of the crib for second time in two years, according to the Social Security Administration’s annual list of top baby names for 2010.
In Hawaii, Jacob is the second most popular name. The most popular name for boys here is Noah. Elijah, Joshua and Ethan rounded out the top five.
For girls, Isabella is the top pick for girls followed by Sophia, Chloe, Ava and Emma.
The top names nationwide are Jacob, Ethan, Michael, Jayden and William for boys and Isabella, Sophia, Emma, Olivia and Ava for girls.
On the Social Security’s baby names website the names that showed the biggest jump in popularity were Maci and Bentley. Maci Bookout and her infant son, Bentley, were prominently featured on the television show — “Teen Mom” and its predecessor, “16 and Pregnant.”
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The federal agency said that second fastest rising name on the list is Kellan, the name of the actor Kellan Lutz, who plays Emmett Cullen in the “Twilight” series.
For girls, the biggest climber is Tiana, the name of the main character in Disney movie, “Princess and the Frog” and Disney’s first African-American movie princess.
The Social Security Administration also reported that the name Elvis slipped out of their top 1,000 for first time since 1954.
As for the most-maligned names, Times magazine on its website today released what it called a list of names to avoid.
For boys: it’s Jayden, Brayden, Aiden, Kaden, Hunter.
For girls, it’s Nevaeh, Destiny, Madison, Mackenzie and McKenna.
The magazine said the list was compiled by Laura Wattenberg, author of a book entitled The Baby Name Wizard: A Magical Method for Finding the Perfect Name for Your Baby, who conducted an informal survey to find out just what kind of names people dislike.
Wattenberg said people dislike “gender-bending names (when a boy’s name becomes a girl’s name like Addison) and names they can’t spell. Her survey also showed that a small minority disliked “ordinary names.”
The Social Security started compiling baby name list in 1997.
