Mac, Siri, Sky, Star, Luna, Skylar, Heaven, Stella, and Mars are among the baby names that grew in popularity in 2012, according to BabyCenter.

  • Charlie B

    Next thing you know people will be naming their kids “ponyboy” and “sodapop”.  What’s this world coming to, I ask you?

    • Philboyd Studge

      Ponyboy continues to stay gold.

    • Bottle Imp

      You joke, but one of the stylists where my wife gets her hair cut just did exactly that. She had the last name Curtis too.

  • Oliver Crosby

     I’m wondering where they get their sample for this study, and my hypothesis is that they’re just doing searches on YouPorn…

  • Patrick Hirlehey

    Any indication how “Heisenberg” is doing as a baby name?

    • TrevorSweet

       Maybe if Cory has a son.

    • oasisob1

      Uncertain. Also, thanks for the softball.

  • gellfex

    It’s funny, when we we naming our kids, we were remembering how you could get teased for just about anything in school, and didn’t want to set our kids up for that. But it apparently doesn’t happen at all, at least in our extremely diverse school, no matter how outlandish or evocative the name. Times do change, thank God. 

    Patrick: the frequency of ”Heisenberg” is still uncertain…

    • http://goodsharer.com/ Aloisius

      You need to have your priorities straight!

      Names should be about:

      a) What the kid’s signature is going to look like / how long it’ll take to write
      b) if their full name fits on IRS forms
      c) if they are going to have to constantly spell their name over the phone when calling customer support.
      d) likely google search uniqueness
      e) domain name availability

      (Seriously though, c is really really annoying and b is a huge problem with some people trying to fill out things like DMV forms).

      • SamSam

        I think (d) is most vital in this day and age. You can be damn sure I’m going to call my kid something that’s a Googlewhack.

        Actually, come to think of it, “Googlewhack SamSam” is a pretty great name for my kid. Damn, pity I I had to post it here on BoingBoing first, now it’s broken. :(

      • Antinous / Moderator

        c) if they are going to have to constantly spell their name over the phone when calling customer support.

        I guess that Jo(h)n is too exotic, then.

    • ChickieD

      I remember when I was naming my kid that her dad was obsessed with names not rhyming with any words kids would think were funny or having nicknames she could be taunted with. Yet, when I look back on it, I cannot remember one kid who was made fun of for having a funny name; in fact, in the South there were some kids with some really hilarious names (Bunny, Buffy, Brother) and everyone thought those kids were so cool. Why are people concerned about this?

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001443259034 David Davion

        Some people really get a kick out of making fun of my last name. I got tons of flak from it when I was a kid, and sadly I still get flak about it as an adult.  Some people never seem to grow up. 

        • ChickieD

          I bet you dollars to donuts my maiden name sucked way harder than your last name. But my name was so bad that people couldn’t believe it and left me alone; every now and then a person making cold calls would burst out in a surprised snort when they read my last name off the computer screen. My dad, however, got cranked called by people perusing the white pages who just thought the name was so funny they had to call and make fun of him. As a woman, I was NEVER at all into that feminism thing of keeping your maiden name – could not ditch it fast enough! So, I suggest that you marry a woman (or a man! I’m cool that way) with a name like “Smith” or “Jones” and you be all “I’m so down with the feminism that I’m changing my last name FOR LOVE.

          • Antinous / Moderator

            I had friends who both had names so ugly that they just made up a surname for their children.

  • Don Martin

    I’m waiting for the first W8, or as pronounced and ironic – WAIT.

  • http://www.pattayamail.com John Thomas

    @Xeni, is your headline misleading us again? I cannot see anything on the BabyCenter report which shows that the names you wrote are amongst the “top baby names”.

    • IronEdithKidd

      Babycenter tracks the top 100 names.

      • NateXT

        Mac is at position number 3949 and 593 (Girl v Boy)
        Siri is at 1644 and 3974
        Mars is at 13195 and 4556

        So Xeni misquoted.

    • noah django

       this.
      >top baby names
      >baby names that grew in popularity in 2012

      top=/=grew in popularity, unless the gain in popularity was great enough to push it to the top, which according to NateXT, it wasn’t.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1515015318 Missy Pants

    As an “Emma” that was born long long before it became the #1 baby name for the past DECADE, (I blame Ross and Rachel), I welcome all the new silly baby names, (I cackled with glee with “Emma” was supplanted by “Isabella” (BELLA!)), all these young ‘Emmas’ don’t know the pain and shame of never finding your name pre-printed on pencils or stickers or necklaces or anything that was NEEDED to be cool in grade six. THE SHAME! I had to rely on elderly relatives in the UK to send me stickers and they were never the right ones! THE SHAME!

    • Philboyd Studge

       I’m gonna write your name high on that silver screen.

      • bigmike7

        You deserve some hot cocoa for that!

  • James Mason

    Actually these are names that “grew in popularity” so by definition it will include lots of unique names that increased an infinite amount as n went from 0 to 1.

  • destroy_all_humans

    i’m still sticking with George, boy or girl.
    George Costanza Rodriguez

    • oasisob1

      Boy George is already taken. I hope you have a girl.

  • http://twitter.com/ErnestValdemar Ernest Valdemar

    Ha! I heard about this yesterday from my own kids, rec.folklore.urban and T1.

  • malgrep

    Then there are these people that named their kid Hashtag http://www.buzzpatrol.com/twitter-lovers-name-their-newborn-baby-hashtag/  Not sure it will become popular though.

  • Velocirapt42

    At least you can pronounce these names pretty easily. Nothing like seeing the name Jeezhayn and being told, “no, it’s pronounced Jayden”

  • http://www.darkphibre.com MrScience

    Little Bobby Tables always brings a smile to my face. :)
    http://xkcd.com/327/

  • Boundegar

    This damn baby doesn’t understand a word I say, let’s call her Siri.

  • Roscoe

    I hate that this story is getting press – these names are ONLY of the members who use Babycenter.com – how many non-white parents are registered there, really?  10%, maybe 20% of Babycenter users.  Aiden as the top boy name – that is the smoking gun: every WASPy 30-something woman — she watched Sex and the City, that name stuck.  I’ve love to see the comparison with an actual survey of names registered on birth certificates.

    • John Maple

       I must really question the sensibilities of anyone giving their kid a name that sounds like a porn industry alias – Aiden!

  • cdh1971

    i’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts 
    there they are a standing in a row
    big ones small ones some as big as your head
    give ‘em a twist
    a flick of the wrist…

  • bwcbwc

    WIth all the previous apocalyptic hysteria surrounding December 21, I’m surprised “Maya” wasn’t higher up.