‘Neutral’ names a sign of new ideas
BABY names are changing again with a new, unusual twist coming next year.
More names that are seen to be gender neutral are predicted to be popular in 2018 across the world, as parents consider more fluid ideas about identity and gender.
Mother and Baby in the UK reports that names including Max, Alex, Charlie and Andy are all trending right now.
Max is now being used as a girl’s name too, Alex is gender neutral and means ‘defending men’, while Charlie means ‘free man’. It can either be given to a girl named Charlotte or a boy named Charles. Andy is also a popular option for boys and girls.
Names like Amelia and Ella are also predicted to be popular for girls, while Reuben or Theo are expected to be popular for boys.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s recent engagement has also sparked interest in Royal-inspired names. Meghan and Harry are also in the list as popular name choices.
This trend is also reflected in the annual Baby Name Predictions report from parenting site ChanneMum.com which identifies the most popular names in the next three to five years.
This study of more than 1500 expectant parents also found that space-themed names, ‘bad’ boys and girls names, bird names, virtuous names, botanical names, names that mean wealth or money and Shakespearean names look set to be most popular over time.
Space-themed names include Luna, Stella, Nova, Orion, while ‘ bad’ boys and girls names include Harley, Quinn, Ronnie and Reggie.
Popular bird names were Wren, Phoenix and Paloma, while some were still interested in virtuous names like Saint or Hope. The botanical names set to take over from flower-inspired names were Ferne, Basil or Sage and the names parents like that related to wealth were Rafferty or Cash. Other names inspired by Shakespeare included Hero, Balthazar, Ophelia and Juno.
Olivia, Zara, Zoe, Addison and Ava were the top five names for girls in Australia this year.
For the boys, there was a four-way tie for first place between Harrison, Henry, Oliver and William.