4real

I heard a report about a couple in New Zealand who tried to register the name of their firstborn child as 4real. 4real? Yes! I'm not making this up! However, it wasn't allowed because names must be chosen from letters (not numbers and symbols). I think it is a good thing. I don't want to see a generation of kids called Matt2, N8alie or Ant1.

But what names could we expect to be popular in the future? Levitt & Dubner have answered this question by studying names in California.

They started by comparing names to the education levels of the mothers. (Philippa ranked at number 8 on the list of names given by "smart" mums.) They also compared names to parents' socioeconomic backgrounds. Levitt & Dubner then compiled these indicators into groups- "high end" names and "low end" names. By comparing names given over time, a pattern began to emerge. Former "high end names" ended up on the list of "low end" names a decade or two later. In other words, once a name catches on amongst high-income, highly educated parents, it starts working its way down the socioeconomic ladder. Therefore, if we want to predict which names will be popular in the future, we can look at the "high end" names of today. So, L&D's picks for 2015 are as follows:

Girls: Annika, Ansley, Ava, Avery, Aviva, Clementine, Eleanora, Ella, Emma, Fiona, Flannery, Grace, Isabel, Kate, Lara, Linden, Maeve, Marie-Claire, Maya, Philippa, Phoebe, Quinn, Sopie, Waverly.

Boys: Aidan, Aldo, Anderson, Ansel, Asher, Beckett, Bennett, Carter, Cooper, Finnegan, Harper, Jackson, Johan, Keyon, Liam, Maximilian, McGregor, Oliver, Raegan, Sander, Sumner, Will.

Any other names you think will be cool in 7.5 years?