A topic that comes up over and over again with readers is how to choose names that aren’t going to be too common. I’ve blogged in the past about ways to prevent choosing a name that will be popular in the future.

Here’s another great tool from Social Security to help parents. They’ve put out a handy ranking of the names that moved up the chart the most in the previous year. The 2009 stats aren’t due out for another couple months, but here is the data from 2008.

These are the names that showed the biggest increase in popularity from the previous year.  What can this information tell you? In the post I mentioned earlier about predicting what names are going to be popular, one of my tips is to avoid names that are quickly rising on the popularity chart. This list helps you figure out what those names are!

So, if you’re looking for a name that will be unique, avoid the names on this list because they might be destined for even greater popularity in the years to come. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a trendy or stylish name, you might want to use one of these names.

No matter your goal, this is a list you need to know about.

Here goes…the top 20:

GIRLS’ BABY NAMES

KHLOE

MARLEE

MARELY

AUDRINA

MARLEY

DANNA

JASLENE

LILAH

PAISLEY

MILEY

LYLA

HARPER

DAYANA

VALENTINA

LONDON

MYLEE

JIMENA

LYRIC

KAYDEN

EMERY

BOYS’ BABY NAMES

JACOBY

KANE

BECKETT

PAXTON

KALE

AUGUST

BRAYLON

RYKER

KINGSTON

KOLTON

ZAYDEN

BRYCEN

RIVER

MILO

LANDYN

ALIJAH

CASH

ALVIN

JUDE

BYRON

What jumps out at me the most is that on the girl’s list there are three spelling variations of the name MARLEY and two variations of MILEY. These are names to avoid (no matter how you spell it) if you want to avoid popular names.

There’s some celebrity inspiration on this list — obviously MILEY Cyrus. We also have AUDRINA — it’s a beautiful name brought into the spotlight by Audrina Patridge of The Hills fame. No surprise that it caught the attention of parents. PAISLEY may be inspired by Brad Paisley (quite a creative baby namer himself with sons Huckleberry and Jasper).

On the boy’s side we have CASH — the snazzy name of Jessica Alba’s husband, Cash Warren. KINGSTON is the name of Gwen Stephani’s oldest son and it’s probably no accident that his name made it onto this list.

Follow the trends… the –en/-on sound at the end of boys’ names is quite hot and this list shows that loud and clear. There’s PAXTON, BRAYLON, KINGSTON, KOLTON, ZAYDEN, BRYCEN and LANDYN. That’s a little more than a third of all the names on the list.

Another trend we see represented here is the popularity of location names with LONDON on the girl’s list. Ditto for KINGSTON on the boy’s list.

Other names that made the list that may increase in popularity next year:

GIRLS’ BABY NAMES

AUDREY

CORA

DELILAH

FIONA

LILA

MALIA

PENELOPE

PEYTON

STELLA

VIOLET

BOYS’ BABY NAMES

EASTON

ELI

ELLIOT

FINN

GRADY

GRAYSON/GREYSON

HOLDEN

HUDSON

JASPER

KELLEN

LEVI

MADDOX

WESTON

WYATT

What names dropped in popularity? Here are the 20 names that took the biggest slide:

GIRLS’ BABY NAMES

ANGELIQUE

YOSELIN

JADEN

KIRSTEN

ANAHI

ALISSA

JULISSA

ASHLEE

MEREDITH

PAULINA

DAYANARA

DIAMOND

JAIDEN

RACHAEL

JOSELYN

ABRIL

PARIS

MEGHAN

JADYN

RYAN

BOYS’ BABY NAMES

ALDO

BRANDEN

OSVALDO

LELAND

BILLY

NOE

RODNEY

JAYLIN

FELIPE

TOBIAS

CAMRON

NATHANAEL

ORLANDO

TERRANCE

JALEN

JADON

CYRUS

SCOTT

JESSIE

CARL

We see some celebrity backlash here (which always happens eventually) — ORLANDO, CYRUS, PARIS, ASHLEE, JADEN/JAIDEN/JADYN.

Now it’s your turn! What do you think?

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♥  Amanda

If you have baby name questions for me, email me at amanda@amandabarden.com.

Your question might appear in a future edition of Ask Amanda.

For more information on baby names and their meanings check out

BABY NAMES MADE EASY: THE COMPLETE REVERSE-DICTIONARY OF BABY NAMES