It’s only day three of 2018, but baby name sites have already predicted the hottest names of the year.
According to Nameberry and BabyCentre UK, the biggest trends include strong names inspired by heroes, athletes and royalty.
Since female empowerment was so big in 2017, thanks in part to the release of ‘Wonder Woman’ and newsworthy events like the Women’s March, Nameberry predicts that female names with strong meanings will grow in popularity this year.
Matilda (meaning “battle-mighty”), Pallas (meaning “wisdom”), and Freya (the name of a Norse goddess) are just a few unique monikers that will likely flourish in 2018.
The site also predicts that parents will be attracted to powerful names inspired by superheroes for both genders. While this is not a new trend - Harley (“Suicide Squad”) and Kylo (“Star Wars”) have been on the rise since 2016 - new monikers such as Odin (“Thor”), Bishop (“X-Men”), and Darcy (“Black Scorpion”) are predicted to steal the spotlight this year.
Continuing the theme of strength, 2018 will also see more monikers inspired by athletes, BabyCentre reports. Specifically, the FIFA World Cup in Russia this summer will probably prompt more parents to name their babies Raheem, Marcus and Jamie after the professional soccer players.
We bet the Winter Olympics in South Korea will also contribute to this trend, considering the 2016 Summer Olympics created a huge spike in interest over the name Simone, after Olympic gold medalists Simone Biles, a gymnast, and Simone Manuel, a swimmer.
And nothing screams strength and power more than naming your baby after a member of the Royal family. With the third royal baby on the way and the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle coming up, all eyes are on the royals, sparking renewed interest in traditional, regal names.
Currently, Alice and Arthur are the favourites among bookies for the royal baby, and if either of these are chosen, they will undoubtedly rise to the top of naming charts this year.
This happened with both Prince George and Princess Charlotte after the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge announced the birth of their son in 2013 and the birth of their daughter in 2015.
Today, the name George sits at Number five on BabyCentre’s list of top boy names, while Charlotte sits at number 15 on their list of top girl names.
Finally, Nameberry predicts that parents will continue to move away from gendered names, as they’ve been doing these past few years.
“It used to be that feminism in names was a one-way street: It was cool for girls to get more masculine or powerful names, but not for boys to get more feminine or decorative names,” Nameberry’s Pamela Redmond Satran explained. “Now we see these qualities going both ways, with girls’ names getting more serious, boys’ names getting more decorative, both meeting on a more equal level.”
Frankie and Juniper for girls and Ari and Kennedy for boys are just a few examples. For a full list of the predictions of the hottest baby names of 2018, visit Nameberry and BabyCentre UK.
This story was originally published on the Canadian version of HuffPost.
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