Baby name trends for 2013 inspired by climate change and ancient Roman gods

THE babies of 2013 will have names inspired by an apocalyptic mix of climate change and the gods.

Thor

"STORM, can you give Thor a hand while I change Winter's nappy, please?''

Believe it or not, that sentence could become quite commonplace in a few years time.

And it will be normal to receive an invitation to Persephone's fifth birthday or be asked to watch young Augustus for a couple of hours as a favour to his mother.

According to US name analysts Pamela Redmond Satran and Linda Rosenkrantz, baby name trends for 2013 will be inspired by an apocalptic mix of wild weather and the gods.

The authors of ten bestselling books on baby name trends over the past 25 years, the pair have given their forecasts for the coming year:

WEATHER NAMES

According to Satran and Rosenkrantz, while Superstorm Sandy is unlikely to start a wave of Sandys or Sandras, the endless repetition of the name is statistically likely to increase the use of S names (as was the case for K names after Hurricane Katrina).

Aside from the obvious Storm, there will be a spike in names that sound like Sandy, such as Alessandra, Cassandra and Sander.

Winter (used by actress Gretchen Mol on her baby daughter last year) is sounding "fresher" than Summer or Autumn and May and June are are being replaced with March and January. Sharp crispy names like Snow, Frost and even the direction North are also trending - particularly as middle names.

ANCIENT NAMES

The authors say Russell Crowe’s Gladiator and HBO’s Rome sparked an interest in ancient Roman names but The Hunger Games made it a trend.

"We predict that names of old world gods and goddesses, mythological heroes and leaders will dominate birth announcements," the authors say.

"Choices we’ll be hearing more of include Augustus and Atticus, Persephone and Athena, Juno and Julius, Thor and Maeve. The appeal transcends the pop culture influence: These names are as powerful as they are deep, arming a child to triumph over earthly challenges (the parents hope)."

Other baby name trends for 2013 include:

LEONINE NAMES

Leo has been on the rise since the emergence of Leonardo DeCaprio but other leonine names popular in Europe are set to cross borders, Rosenkrantz and Satran say.

Leon has been a top name in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia and Ireland for a decade. Other leonine names taking on the world include Leonie, Lionel and Lev, along with Leopold and Leonora, which don’t mean lion but feel as if they should. Australian Hawaii Five-O actor Alex O’Loughlin recently named his son Lion.

VINTAGE NICKNAMES

Rosenkrantz and Satran predict that the last wave of grandma and grandpa nickname names – Annie and Molly, Ben and Max – will turn to vintage nicknames from the Mad Men era, with the most fashionable choices for boys. They say a new generation of kids with names like Hank and Hal, Ray and Fay, Millie and Monty, is emerging.

NON-NAME MIDDLE NAMES

"Using a word, any word with personal significance, as a middle name takes the trend toward using an adventurous and meaningful name in the middle to new heights of quirkiness and creativity," the authors say.
Examples include Ballerina, Bear, Sweetheart, Seven, Song, Star and Saint following a more conventional first name.

SCANDINAVIAN NAMES

Thanks to Siri and Stieg Larsson, people are naming their children Stellan, Viggo and Liv, or Kai, Magnus and Axel. Other popular choices include Freya, Linnea, Signy, Astrid, Soren, Leif, and Lars. In the Christmas 2013 Hobbit movie, one of the major characters is named Thorin.