Ten Best Celebrity Baby Names
of 2010
This is the 5th year of our annual list of the best celebrity baby names. We started
back in 2006, in what was a banner year for celeb baby names. Remember the excitement
around Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie for Shiloh Nouvel? Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes
for Suri? Britney Spears and Jayden James? Those kids are probably in kindergarten
now!
Time certainly flies, but year in and year out, celebrities continue to come up
with baby names that frequently influence popular culture. Sometimes the names that
celebrities choose for their kids are way out, (think Bronx Mowgli) and serve just
to infuriate most people. But more often, in subtle ways, celebrity baby names are
usually just a little ahead of the curve, and actually give us a clue as to which
baby names may gain in popularity in the years ahead.
In the ten years since Brooklyn Beckham was named after the New York borough, the
popularity of Brooklyn has jumped from around # 200 to # 37 on the list of Top 1000
baby names in the U.S. It's been about ten years since Reese Witherspoon named her
daughter Ava, and in that period, the name shot up from # 259 to # 5. And speaking
of Britney Spears, the name of her son, Jayden, has moved up the charts from about
# 50 to # 8 since he was named. It's impossible to pin down exactly how much influence
a particular celebrity baby name wields, but as I gaze over the lists from year
to year, it's clear that they play an important role in providing inspiration for
parents-to-be.
Moving on to the ten best celebrity baby names of 2010! As in previous years, "best"
is a subjective concept -- we look at factors like originality, trendsetting, shock
value, weirdest, popularity, elegance, and more. And as always, a tip of the hat
to our sister site, Celebrity Baby Names
Blog, which in our opinion is the most authoritative source on the internet
on this topic, and which provides the background for compiling our annual list.