Baby Names here! Come get your baby names!

Let's say you're pregnant.

"You're pregnant."

OK, now let's say you're stuck for a name for the forthcoming child.

I cannot help with the delivery of the baby. Your ob/gyn is really good at helping people out.

But I can help with the delivery of some name suggestions. I hold in my hand the list of Top 10 names for the 2020 crop o' tots.

Before we get started, stop and think about how Reese Witherspoon's parents and Billie Eilish's parents saw into the future when they named their daughters. "Reese" and "Billie" are names that will be called out in the first grade six years from now.

This list comes from the Nameberry  website, where they log all the names mentioned among their 11 million page views this year. The list might not square up exactly with the Social Security Administration's list, but I'm not about to agitate those good people who send me a check every month.

Nameberry co-creator and CEO Pamela Redmond Satran said this in a press release:

"The names here offer baby namers a heads up on trends and specific names destined to get more popular in 2020 and beyond."

Top 10 Girl Names

1.  Adah

Nameberry spots a trend of girl names starting with "Ad...," such as Adeline and Adele.  How about "Adventure"?  Most kids are!

2. Reese

Actress Reese Witherspoon seems to be all over the place lately. Name your little girl that way, and she will be all over the house!

3. Mika

"Morning Joe" cohost, Mika Brzezinski, whose sad fate it is to be married to her cohost, Joe Scarborough, has a name that people are taking for their babies.

4. Paisley

Social Security pegs this name at #52, but the name Paisley, originally Scottish, and generally applied to a swirly fabric pattern, was a favorite of the late Prince, the entertainer who stopped using his name in favor of using a logo.

5.  Amina

She was the mother of the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.

6. Teagan

This name is Irish and Welsh and it's one of those unisex monikers that will cause confusion forevermore.

7.  Nova

A nova is a celestial explosion on the surface of a white-dwarf star. A dwarf star is the small remnant of a star that burned out (e.g, Nicolas Cage). What a nova does is have gaseous explosions after getting close to a companion star.  Kids supply their own gas, you know.

8. Aura

That's the distinctive atmosphere around people.  See # 7.

9.  Pearl

Pearl is one of those old-timey names that are making a comeback, like Heloise, Murgatroyd, and Blanche.  A woman named Pearl attempted to teach me to play the piano for a time. She stopped coming around.

10.  Billie
When Baltimore-born Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan, but anyway...) was popular, so was her adopted first name. Current music hotshot Billie Eilish gets credit for bringing it back. Eilish's real name? Eleanora Fagan! No, I'm kidding. It's Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell.

I'm all for people naming a kid of either gender "Pirate."  Middle initial must be "Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrr."


Top 10 Boy Names

1.  Austin

Austin, Texas, is described as a cool city surrounded by Texas. Look for lots of little Austins.

2.  Alva

Ms Satran claims that every kid in school knows whose middle name was Alva. The lightbulb over your head will go off when you remember it was Thomas Edison, but I haven't gotten word of any form of Edisonmania sweeping the land...

3.  Acacius

Names ending in an "S" are cool now, which might explain why people think my name is Marcus. But it isn't. Acacius is old Greek and Latin name meaning  "thorny, or innocent, not evil."  That doesn't sound like me either.

4. Tate

It's a Norse name meaning Cheerful, but a good way to prove someone is from Baltimore is to say that name and wait for them to sing the car dealer commercial "Nobody has what Tate has, no sir!"

5. Diego

I think this is a character from one of those cartoons, right?

6. Easton

There's an Easton on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

7.  Lucius

It's the old Roman word meaning light. Some people might not be wild about it for a name, but as it happens, I love Lucius.

8.  Cash

Name your son Cash, and be prepared to explain forever whether is was for Cassius, a leader of the plot to kill Caesar, or for Johnny Cash, who was never photographed killing a Caesar salad. That might be too much to explain.

9. Ash

There was an Asher in the Bible and there are ash trees from which baseball bats are made. Wooden you rather choose something else?

Luca Brasi

10.  Luca 

Name your son this if you wish, but if the boy grows up to emulate Luca Brasi, don't blame me. A nice suggestion for a middle name would be Garrot.


Nameberry also lists these as trending unisex names: Piper, Indigo, Octavia, Harlow, Elio, Finn, Kit, Kieran, Phoenix, Remy and Rowan.