The next wave on popular baby names

[lilhen]

I am due my first baby in December. We had a short list of names but after reading an article on the fastest rising names of 2016...they are all on it! I thought I had chosen names that were a little individual but clearly not and everyone has the same idea lol.

So I was just wondering, to try help inspire some new names, what people's thoughts were on trends for names going forward for the next few years. Not the most popular names of the moment but what might be next - I realise this is probably impossible to do

Margaret nn Maggie
Jean
Joan

I'm less sure on the boys. I think they're a bit less faddy.

I firmly believe that you should use a name you love though, rather than trying to be ahead of some trend or other. What names did you have in mind before you saw the article?

If we have a boy we would definitely stick with the name we love But girls names are so are tricky. I like all of the popular soft sounding names with vowels if that makes sense - Ava, Amelie, Bella/Arabella, Mia etc - like them all but don't love any! So hoping for some inspiration...despite looking through pages and pages of names hoping I've yet to hear the girls name I love!

It's hard to tell because lots of people will base this on internet chatter, which in my experience doesn't reflect strongly on the number times a name is actually used in real life. Babynames, for example, even release yearly/monthly lists of the "most popular names" based only on which ones have been visited the most on their website! And they certainly aren't reflected in the official ONS stats. Just goes to show that people look up and talk about a lot of names online that they don't go on to use, for whatever reason. I expect most people prefer to pick a safer choice than the vast range they consider online.

The ONS data for 2015 is released tomorrow morning, btw. So that might give you some ideas!

I've seen Margaret mentioned on here quite a lot recently but thinks it's a horrible name. Other names I've been a bit surprised at are
Margot
Miriam
Meredith
Maud
Elspeth
Vivien

Maybe it's a regional thing but I find them quite old fashioned and not in a good way.

Amy.
Delia
Celia
Heidi

Thanks monkeygone I'll have a look! And I agree Vinegartitsvera ... you're name made me almost choke on a grape

What names were on your list out of interest?

I seem to have a knack for picking the next big thing (have a Noah and a Sophia both named about 2 years before a huge surge in popularity!) so my guesses are:

Penelope
Juliet/te
Georgia
Florence
Thea
Still loads of A ending names.

Boys I'm not so sure, they don't fluctuate as much but defo more biblical names rising up eg Jonah, Saul, Elijah etc.

Cara, Lara, Lydia, Ottilie, Lena, Ada, Sadie, Molly, Effie, Elodie, Eloise, Meredith,