Baby names

From AJS.COM

Baby names are hard to settle on. The father and mother can have different goals in naming a baby, and it can be hard to select a name that's not so common that the child will feel lost in the crowd or so unusual that they'll be teased.

To help, I thought I'd compile some useful lists of Baby names from lots of sources, and allow parents to make a more informed choice. I'll break the list down by culture:

American

American boy names such as James, John, Robert, Michael, William, Kevin and David are the norm. Spellings vary for some names, such as Stephen vs. Steven. Girl names such as Mary, Patricia, Linda, Barbara, Elizabeth and Jennifer are the norm with spellings varying equally on names such as Deborah vs. Debra or Diane vs. Dianne.

One interesting aspect of a name is how it will or will not be shortened, or what nicknames might be used. The following names are appealing to some parents because they have no known shorter versions or nicknames:

Male

Aaron, Adam, Bruce, Carl, Craig, Eli, Fred, Gary, George, Henry, Jason, Jose, Juan, Justin, Keith, Larry, Mark/Marc, Martin, Paul, Ralph, Randy, Roy, Ryan, Scott, Shawn, Todd, Wayne

Female

Amy, Ann, Brenda, Carol, Doris, Heather, Helen, Jean, Karen, Laura, Linda, Lisa, Martha, Marie, Ruth, Sarah, Sharon

Here are the lists, sorted by how common the names are:

• U.S. Female names from the U.S. Census
• U.S. Male names from the U.S. Census

These come from the U.S. Census data, and there's even a page that the government maintains about common names from the Census:

• http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/