Can you guess which of these Halloween-ready baby names made America’s official name popularity stats last year?
- Belladonna
- Chaos
- Dragon
- Grimm
- Leviathan
- Lucifer
- Nyx
- Riot
- Shadow
The answer is all of them! A generation ago those names were unheard of, but now they show up every year. Names are getting spookier.
On both the boys’ and girls’ popularity charts, you can see a new willingness to name on the dark side. Once upon a time, American parents liked to name their daughters Dove. The bird of peace was a top-1,000 baby name in the 1800s, and the diminutive Dovie was even more popular. Not anymore. For the past generation America’s favorite bird name has been Raven, the bird of ill omen.