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The children of the future will have names straight out of The Bold and the Beautiful.

Charlotte? Oceana?

 

 

 

There’s a good chance if you take a peek inside a Prep classroom in around four years time, you’ll spy at least one Oliver. There’ll most definitely be a Charlotte and almost certainly a Jack or an Ava, and more than likely they’ll be friends with an Emily or a Noah.

All of these names made it into the top ten Australian baby names in 2013.

In years to come, just like my son, they’ll probably have to be identified by both their first and last names when addressed because there are just so damn many of them.

I fear my son will never be known as just ‘Jack’ but always, ‘Jack Morley’.

The trend of a popular name is nothing new; just the names themselves change over the generations.

When I was a kid, there were an awful lot of Matthews and Nicoles’. The Davids, Michaels and Amandas were also very common. In fact, in my workplace, we have three Mikes and just like primary school, when referring to them, we have to use their last initial, say ‘Mike L’ or ‘Mike D’, to avoid confusion.

Sophie? If only. Try ‘Everest’.

We are unlikely to see a rise in the popularity of Michael anytime soon but these things are cyclical and although eventually, just like Rose and Harry, the names of our generation will eventually be back in vogue, for now, we can only speculate on what the next generation of parents will be calling their own children.

Pamela Satran, the woman behind the website Nameberry.com and author of several name books, believes that the world map will be a major source of inspiration for parents in the next baby-naming ‘style wave’ – with nature-inspired monikers Everest, Beach, Nile and Oceana predicted among the top choices for the future.

Already this week, the boy’s name Beach witnessed a 60 per cent spike in popularity. Nameberry pegs it as the perfect pick ‘for parents who relish sun, sand, and surf’ while ‘forest lovers can spell it Beech, like the tree.’

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Meanwhile the unisex name Everest was up by nine per cent for girls. Jesus, I pity the poor kid whose parents go with Eyjafjallajökull.

Ms Satran, discussing this trend told ABC News:

‘There’s a growth in the popularity of ‘place’ names. ‘Place names that are popular today, like Savannah and Dakota, are paving the way to more adventurous place names in years to come.’

Also predicted to be popular in years to come, are names from ancient cultures. For example, Nero and Apollo for boys and Minerva for girls. Hey, no judgement and I love the idea of this but these parents might want to quickly Google Nero before settling on that particular name.

Ms Satran said her predictions have been pretty accurate to date.

In 1988 she said the name Adelaide would be popular among millennial moms.

Indeed, over the years it has risen up the charts and in 2012 actress Katherine Heigl selected it as for the name of her second daughter.

(Wait a minute. I didn’t even know Katherine Heigl had one child, let alone two. When did that happen? I digress.)

Would you call your child Joffrey?

‘Just like fashion forecasters are looking at what’s in style now and predict what will be coming up in 10 or 20 years, we do the same,’ Ms Satran concluded.

‘We look at origins of names, the sounds that are attracting people and pop culture influences.’

Well based on the pop culture theory, I’m guessing we’ll be seeing a lot of Tyrions and Daenerys getting about in 40 years time. Fun fact, there is an actual Joffrey at my son’s school.

So what will our descendants be called? Here are Nameberry’s predictions:

GIRLS: Columbia, Consuelo, Cordis, Delphi, Doon, Enid, Eulalie, Feodora, Freesia, Glory, Hebe, Hero, Ida, Ines, Kassiani, Leontine, Lettice, Malou, Minerva, Nile, Oceana, Persephone, Rhiannon, Rowena, Season, Sheba, Sybella, Thisbe, Turia, Ursuline, Viveca.

BOYS: Acacius, Anton, Apollo, Basie, Beach, Cassian, Cosmo, Cyprian, Enoch, Everest, Falconer, Florin, Freeman, Gower, Guthrie, Lazarus, Lowell, Lucius, Marlon, Nero, Oberon, Otis, Otto, Paladin, Percy, Ripley, Rocco, Romulus, Santiago, Smith, Willis.

I for one hope the prediction of Willis comes true.  Mainly just so I can pull out the ‘WhatchootalkinboutWillis’ when I’m a senior citizen.

So what do you think? Do you think these predictions are accurate? Any more to add? What are the most interesting names you’ve heard lately?

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