For Baristaville, It's Emma and Jacob

Phew, missed them all, although one of my twin girls came dangerously close to #8.

These are great dog names. Except, I would name the dog Jake, not Jacob.

Sophia and Chloe better grow up to have big bosoms. Those names require some DDs.

William needs to be Will. Love Will, not so much on the Bill.

Ella - good lord why? why? I have an evil aunt with this name. Evil ella - Evil Ella

Love Henry - what's not to love?

MIssed them all too. The little prof is safe.

But where are the black names?

Usually, like favorite TV shows, there is a HUGE disconnect between black and white folks.

Does Ms. Satran address this or offer ideas?

Why is Chloe reminiscent of that trip to France? The name is Greek, not French. It is popular in France, but they don't spell it that way.
And it means bloom, not green.

(And I'm sure we'll be seeing a bunch of little Barack's running around here soon. What? Oh, right. Too ethnic? Although, I do kinda like Barack McCain or Barack Bloomberg and Barack Giuliani.")

Wow... Would never in a million years think of giving any child of mine those names.

If we have a girl: Ophelia Karin
If we have a boy: Ian Donald

The middle names are her mom and my dad. Other than that, we wanted names that weren't likely to end up on lists like the one above and steal from any children we have the ability to create blog handles that start with "Generically named."

Neither of my kids' names are on there, but that girl list covers all my 12-year-old daughter's friends. Missing from the list: Isabelle/ Isobel, called "Izzy" for short. I know 3 of them between 12 and 16 in Montclair. Also, of the 3 Montclair kids I know called "Alex," 2 are girls, so that name should be on both sides.

GNMike, do you really want to give your daughter a name that contains "feel ya"?

Of course, suspiciously absent from this list is CHIKEZIE!!!

How about the Top 10 Dog Names? Cat Names?

sleepysleek,

I'd be more afraid of kids calling her "Oaffy" or something cruel like that.

But, one of the nice things about that name is you can call the kid "Lia" until they get to the appropriate club going age where she can decide for herself if she wants to follow in her parents' goth/punk club-hopping footsteps with a cool "scene" name or just stick with the more mundane knick-name.

In 2002, when I named my daughter Ava, it wasn't in the top 10 or even close. In fact, we never found anything in stores with her name on it and she used to wonder why she couldn't find her name on license plates or stickers and such. I guess that's gonna change...

sheesh, i'm named after a toilet...'excuse me but i have to go to the John".
yes, i still have issues.

I used to have a dog named "jake the idiot dog from oklahoma" who was the dog that replaced "gus" who was named after Gus Hall.

I hate all manner of lists of trends and things trendy, especially lists of trendy baby names.

Here's a thought: how about bestowing the fruit of your loins (or is that, "fruit of your groins"?) with an identity that expresses the uniqueness of him or her, your family, and your history, instead of picking a cutesy trendy name off a list?

And prof, what exactly is a "black" name? Is that a name with African origins, such as "Barack"? A person given to stereotypes might suggest a black name is any prefixed by "La" (i.e., "Laquan", "Lashauna") or suffixed with "isha" or "esha" (ex., Ayesha, Laquisha, etc.), among others. Of course, one not given to stereotyping realizes that there are plenty of black folks here and abroad who have what the prof would probably call "white" names (i.e., James Earl Jones, Harold Ford Jr, Morgan Freeman, Bob Marley, Clarence Thomas, et al). So then, what is a "black" name?

And for those of you who really want to be different and buck the trend (or start a new one), how about resurrecting some of those anachronistic names from the days of yore that were probably odd even back then, the kind of name that makes everyone scratch his or her head and think, "Who the hell would name their kid that!?

Think "Sargent Shriver" or "Husband E. Kimmel". Sure, your kid will get beat up a lot, but I guarantee there will be no other little Sargents or Husbands in his first grade class, and surely some sacrifice is worth such a unique name, no?