When Pamela and Jason Clemenson learned shortly before Christmas they were expecting a third child in 2012, it took them no time at all to come to a decision about a name.
“We chose Bryson,” said the mother-to-be of Frontenac, Kan. “All of my boys, including my husband, have names that end in ‘on,’ so that was a requirement.”
She is expecting Bryson to make his arrival on July 16, joining big brothers Cameron and Landon.
Of the 562 babies born in 2011 at Via Christi Hospital in Pittsburg, Kan., the trend leaned toward unique spellings, according to Michael Hayslip, hospital spokesperson.
The four names for girls that were the most common, each appearing on the list four times, were Ava, Chloe, Emma and Eva.
Also appearing four times on the hospital’s list was the nationally favored name, Isabella. But it was spelled with a “z” instead of an “s” in three instances.
On the boys’ side of the list, it was a toss-up between variations of Braiden, Brayden and Braydyn, which appeared a combined six times, and Jaxen, Jaxon and Jaxson, which also appeared a combined six times.
Brody and Aiden were close behind, each appearing on the list five times with various spellings, Hayslip said.
“Also of note on the list for the somewhat unusual were two girls named Tymber, with a ‘y,’ three Remingtons, and we had one boy named Zen,” said Hayslip, who noted Friday afternoon that three more babies were expected to be delivered before the year was up.
While local spellings lean toward the unique, it appears nationally more parents have been turning to the silver screen for inspiration.
Parenting.com, which boasts a database of 35,000 possibilities, tracks the most popular names each year by reviewing those who register with Social Security.
In first place for girls is Isabella, which in Italian means “God’s oath.” It had taken a 40-year hiatus from 1950 to 1990, never cracking the top 1,000. Today, the name is the most popular, boosted in part by the use of it in the popular “Twilight” series.
Other famous Isabellas include actress Isabella Rossellini, daughter of screen legend Ingrid Bergman, and 22 different queens.
For boys, Jacob has been at the top of the list since 2000, and although its biblical origin may play a factor in its popularity, it, too, is the name of a “Twilight” series character.
Ranking second for girls is Emma, which has been in the top five since 2002, and happens to be the name of the actress Emma Watson, who plays Hermione Granger in the “Harry Potter” movies.
Coming in at No. 2 for boys is Ethan, which has been in the top 25 since 2000.
Parenting.com also tracks the number of times users search for each name in its database, and reported that the same names show up over and over again. For boys in 2011, they were Aiden, Jayden, Max, Riley, Liam and Ethan. For girls, they were Ella, Ava, Grace, Lolita and Emma.
Perhaps the most unusual on the list is Sookie, coming in at No. 14. It, too, is a name based in the fictional world of film. Sookie Stackhouse is the fictional protagonist — specifically a telepathic barmaid from Louisiana — in HBO’s “True Blood.”
Whether the Clemensons’ little Bryson will rank on the 2012 list of top baby names tracked nationally remains to be seen — it didn’t make the cut in 2011.
And if they have a girl?
“We haven’t even thought of a girl’s name because after having two boys, I’m pretty sure this is a boy, too,” said the mother-to-be.
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Baby names for 2012 reflect unique spellings
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