Popular Baby Names of 2013

Nameberry tallies which names attract the most views among the 14 million page views for all of the names on its site.  The Nameberry popularity list measures which names parents are considering for their children in the future.

Celebrities have a powerful influence on the new popularity lists.  North, the name chosen for the newborn daughter of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, ranks Number 7 among unisex names, its first appearance on that popularity list.  And for boys, Kieran, the name of Mitt Romney’s newly-adopted grandson, attracted considerable new attention on the site.

The Top 10 names for girls for 2013 so far, with asterisks marking those moving up fastest, are:

1. Imogen
2. Charlotte
3. Harper
4. Eleanor
5. Amelia*
6. Evelyn*
7. Isla
8. Violet
9. Penelope
10. Cora*

The Top 10 names for boys for the first nine months of 2013 are:

1. Asher
2. Finn
3. Declan
4. Atticus*
5. James
6. Oliver
7. Henry
8. Emmett*
9. Owen
10. Django

And the Top 10 unisex names are:

1. Rowan*
2. Quinn
3. Kai
4. Sawyer
5. Avery
6. Charlie
7. North*
8. Elliot
9. Finley
10. Emerson

Nameberry is the creation of baby name experts Linda Rosenkrantz and Pamela Redmond Satran, coauthors of ten bestselling books on names including The Baby Name Bible and Cool Names for Babies.  The five-year-old site attracts more than two million unique visitors a month from around the world.

Facebook Christmas Tree App Virus ~~ FALSE

Facebook Christmas Tree App Virus

Claims:   A Facebook Christmas tree app harbors a virus that will crash your computer.

FALSE

Example:   [Collected via e-mail, November 2010]

Just saw on facebook the following:

WARNING!!!!!!.....If you are using the Christmas tree app. please be advised it will crash your computer. Geek squad says its one of the WORST trojan viruses there is and it is spreading quickly. Re-post and let your friends know!

 

Origins:   This warning about a Facebook "Christmas tree app" that supposedly harbors a trojan virus has been making the rounds of the Internet every holiday season since at least 2010 and follows a pattern found in several common computer virus hoax messages  (such as the Invitation warning): it identifies a supposedly highly destructive virus which is currently being widely circulated, and it asserts credibility by invoking the name of some authority who has allegedly certified the referenced virus as the "worst" ever.

True to that pattern, this warning is also a hoax: a search of Facebook reveals numerous applications with names related to Christmas trees, none of which has generated any noteworthy number of complaints about its harboring a virus, nor has the Geek Squad (a tech support service chain) issued any warning or statement about such an application. Indeed, in a 22 November 2010 blog post, the Geek Squad denied any such action:

A security alert about the Facebook “Christmas Tree” application is circulating online now that states:

"Warning !!!!!!!!!!! Don't use the Christmas Tree App. Be advised it will crash your computer. Geek Squad says it's one of the Worst Trojan Viruses there is and it is spreading quickly. Please repost to friends & let them know !!!"

In actuality, Geek Squad has not officially investigated this particular application, nor have we identified it as the source of any infections in any cases we have supported.

In general, widely circulated Internet-based viruses are typically engineered to perform illicit functions useful to their creators, such as gaining control over other computers, gathering passwords and other personal information, or sending out spam, rather than wantonly crashing or destroying users' computers.

Last updated:   24 November 2013 

It's a 14-Pound Baby Boy

A Utah mom has been shopping for larger diapers after giving birth to a 14-pound baby boy.

Sara Brandon gave birth to her son, Joel Brandon Jr., or “J.J.,” by cesarean section last May and was shocked by his size, especially since her last ultrasound estimated his weight as closer to 11 pounds.

“When they stuck him on the scale he was 14 pounds even,” Brandon told ABCNews.com. “The doctor said it was the biggest baby he had ever delivered.”

The delivery was a bit different from Brandon’s previous birth experience with  twin girls. Each girl weighed 4 pounds, and together they still weighed 6 pounds less than J.J.

“I had to have two [obstetricians] deliver him instead of one, because they knew he was going to be big,” said Brandon. “They struggled to get him out.”

According to Dr. Robert Barbieri, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, J.J. was more likely to be oversize because  Brandon has type 1 diabetes.

“An interesting effect of insulin, if it’s not taken in a sufficient amount,  the glucose remains high, and the baby’s glucose starts to rise,” said Barbieri. “It’s like giving the baby fertilizer and it grows very large.”

Barbieri said approximately one out of 1,000 babies could weigh 11-pounds, and one out of every 100,000  could weigh 14 pounds. A 14-pound baby, he said,  is extremely rare, because usually a doctor will induce labor if a baby appears oversize.

J.J.  spent the first 10 days of his life in the neonatal intensive care unit because of  lung problems, said Brandon. But since he’s left the hospital, he’s thrived.

“He’s very calm, content and giggly. He sits with his sisters all day. He only cries if he’s hungry or tired,” Brandon told ABCNews.com. “He’s an awesome little guy, or big guy.”

Brandon said that J.J. and the now 3-year-old twins can all  wear the same size diaper in spite of the age difference.

Cases of women delivering large babies vaginally appear to be grabbing  headlines in recent years. A 13-pound baby was born vaginally in Germany in July, and a baby weighing nearly 14 pounds was born vaginally to an Iowa woman in 2012.

But these hefty newborns pale in comparison to the baby born to Guinness World Record-holder Anna Bates of Canada. Anna was 7 feet 5.5 inches. In 1879, Bate’s newborn weighed in at a whopping 23 pounds, 12 ounces, and measured in at 30 inches long!