The Mother of all Days

It's finally here. Mother's Day is first and foremost a day to celebrate the amazing women who raise children and sacrifice so much for the love of their kids. Each year on Mother's Day, the Social Security Administration releases name statistics from the year before. For people who love names and watch trends, this is a big day too.

The Top Ten
Click here for the Social Security Administration's list of top 10 names for 2007!

We waited to know whether Emily would be knocked out of the number one spot, which it has held since 1996, but Emily still reigns supreme for 2007. Some of us waited to see new names in the top ten, but there was only one: Elizabeth was number 10 for girls. It wasn't a surprise at all, since Elizabeth has been in the top 11 names since 1979, wavering in and out of the top ten but never falling below 11. Samantha, which disappeared from the top ten, didn't go far at all and only fell to number 12. Still, it was a low point for Samantha, since it hasn't been so far down on the rankings since 1986!

Boys names stayed practically the same as 2006, with the top ten names just trading places in the list. Jacob is still number one, as it has been for 8 years. Matthew is a slight surprise, since it actually fell four spots in popularity from number 5 in 2006, to number 9. The last time Matthew fell in popularity was 1959, when it fell only three spots.

Typically the top ten names are not a shock to anyone. After all, they are America's favorite names and the most common choices for the year. The list this year is just what we expected, and it is filled with lovely names, some of which I have already chosen to feature in my blogs.

Names I've Blogged About

Since I started blogging about names last December, I've mentioned a few times whether I expected a particular name to rise or fall in popularity. Here's how I did with those:

• Myla did rise, as I'd hoped and predicted, a total of 47 spots, from 912 to 865 for 2007.
• Roman rose just two spots, but it's in line with the name's growing popularity.
• Giselle rose 34 places, which I credit entirely to the new Disney princess.
• Avery, which I expected to "climb considerably for 2007," rose just 4 places.
• Charlotte is a name that I'd thought was "poised for a comeback," and it rose 21 places for 2007.
• Callie rose 47 places for 2007. That's a pretty big rise in popularity.
• Yasmine or Yasmin fell by 34 spots.
• Lucas rose six places, which is not as much as I thought it would, but it is still climbing in popularity nonetheless.
• Lyric, which I mentioned in my last post, rose in popularity by 94 spots.

Standout Names in the Top 1,000
It would take a lot of time to compare a list of 1,000 names with years' past to do this perfectly. I would love to do that, but it's just not feasible for me. So here is my imperfect list of a few names I noticed made great strides or newly appeared in the top 1,000:

• The newly created name Miley is already number 278, thanks to the Disney pop star. An alternate spelling, Mylie, came in at 861. It's also interesting to note that the male name Milo made a leap of 127 spots to number 548.
• Kingston, the name of Gwen Stefani's son, made a gargantuan leap of 587 places to number 355, proving the power of celebrities to start new name trends.
• Shiloh, the name of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's daughter, newly appeared in the rankings at number 804.
• The male name Grady shot up 133 places. That's a huge rise, especially for a name not directly associated with a superstar.
• The name Adelaide, one of my new favorites last year, shot up 188 spots. This name is definitely on the rise.
• The girl's name Willow rose in popularity by 94 spots. It's a nature name, the name of several characters on TV and movies, and of course, the name of Will Smith's daughter.
• The name Kanye, brought to our attention by the rap star, fell 403 spots! That could be due to the controversy that surrounds Kanye West and the public outbursts that he made in 2006.