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First there was Apple, and then, the flood gates opened. Celebrities have been giving their babies weird and wacky names for years – from Kulture to X Æ A-12. But not every country allows parents to be quite so free and easy with their children’s monikers. In New Zealand, for example, you have to comply with a strict set of rules when picking that all important name. Each one is reviewed by the government, and parents are allowed to present a reasoning for it before a decision is made. When registering a baby, the rules are: •Don’t use official titles...

BOSTON, Sept., 28 — When Vonnessa Goode gives birth in a few weeks, one of her first decisions could be among the toughest: whether to give her daughter a distinctively black name.

(CNN)For the first time, Muhammad is one of the top 10 most popular baby names for boys in the United States, according to data from the parenting website BabyCenter. Muhammad ranks at No. 10, up four spots from last year. The name has been climbing steadily on BabyCenter's rankings over the years and first entered the top 100 in 2013. "Muslim families often choose Muhammad for firstborn sons to honor the prophet and bring blessings to the child," Linda Murray, BabyCenter's global editor in chief, said in a news release. "The name also has multiple spellings, and that helps a...

The first couple of reality TV has named their child, wait for it. Psalm West! Psalm was born through a surrogate. He is the second child that Kim and Kanye have had through surrogacy. Kanye had shared the image of their newborn baby sleeping in the cot and nicely tucked and he had written, "Beautiful Mother's day. With the arrival of our fourth child. We are blessed beyond measure. We have everything we need."

Naomi Tomky was still laid out on the operating table after an emergency C-section when the earliest pangs of regret kicked in. “The baby was being lifted over my head,” the 34-year-old freelance writer remembers, “and the anesthesiologist was like, ‘what’s her name?’ I started explaining and was like, oh God, what have I done?” Tomky’s now 8-month-old daughter is Tove (pronounced TOH-vah), a Swedish moniker that’s typically said like TOO-vah, but in this case, the expectant parents from Seattle changed the pronunciation for a twist. “My husband has Swedish heritage and then Tova, or Tovah, is a common Hebrew...

"Melania” was among the top five baby names in rising popularity last year, the first year of Melania Trump’s time as first lady of the United States. The name “Melania” came in just behind “Ensley,” “Oaklynn,” “Dream,” and “Oaklyn” in rising popularity for 2017, according to the U.S. Social Security Administration. The name Melania flew 720 spots up the chart from 2016 to 2017.....A CNN/SSRS poll released this week revealed the rising popularity of Mrs. Trump. Fifty-seven percent of Americans viewed her favorably in the new poll – a ten percent jump from a January poll, according to Politico. Mrs....

Muslims in Xinjiang region can no longer use names such as Mecca, Imam and Saddam. Chinese authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang have banned dozens of baby names with religious meanings that are widely used by Muslims elsewhere in the world. Sources in Hotan, in the southern part of the region, had previously detailed a list of banned names in 2015, but the ban now appears to have been rolled out region-wide, Radio Free Asia reported. Islam, Quran, Mecca, Jihad, Imam, Saddam, Hajj, and Medina are among dozens of baby names banned under ruling Chinese Communist Party's "Naming Rules...

Muhammad and Freya are among the most popular first time baby names on Irish passports in 2016, the Irish government has revealed. The rise in Arabic names is a reflection of the increasing multicultural nature of Ireland and where new immigrants are coming from. The 2011 census showed 50,000 Muslim migrants living in Ireland, up from 36,000 in the census taken in 2006. Freya means “beloved” in Arabic, while Muhammad means “praiseworthy” and is also, of course, the name of Islam's founder. They ranked at numbers 42 and 117, respectively. …

Mohammed is the most popular name for boys in England and Wales- but it doesn't top the official list because there are so many different ways to spell it. There were 7,361 children born last year called Mohammed, Muhammed, Mohammad or Mohamed, according to the Office for National Statistics, which would have made it the number one boys name if the variations were taken into account. Instead it is Oliver that tops the boys' list while Amelia dominates the girls' figures, with 6,941 and 5,158 children given those names respectively.

WASHINGTON – When it comes to baby names, Emma and Noah reign supreme. For the second year in a row, Emma and Noah top the annual list of top baby names in the U.S., according to the Social Security Administration. That’s the third year on top for Noah and the second in a row for Emma, which was also No. 1 in 2008. One major change was the girl name Isis, which had remained steadily in the middle of the pack of the country’s top 1,000 names for the past 15 years. In 2015, after the name had emerged as...

Last year’s most popular baby names were Benjamin and Emma, but this year the top boy and girl names could actually be the same. 2015 is looking like the year of the gender-neutral baby names, according to a midyear report by BabyCenter.com. Currently, names like Amari, Karter, Phoenix, Quinn and Reese have been making the largest leaps in popularity. “As usual, baby names are reflecting a larger cultural shift,” says BabyCenter’s Global Editor in Chief Linda Murray. “Millennials are an open-minded and accepting group, and they don’t want their children to feel pressured to conform to stereotypes that might be...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Emma and Noah were the most popular baby names in 2014. Among girls, Emma was followed by Olivia, Sophia, Isabella and Ava, according to the list released Friday by the Social Security Administration. For boys, Noah was followed by Liam, Mason, Jacob and William.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the most popular names for newborn boys in Israel this past year was Yosef, followed by Daniel, Uri, and Itai, while girls were most popularly named Tamar, Noa, Shira, and Adelle. But in a story on Monday, Israeli daily Haaretz disputed the accuracy of that data – because it ignores the names of infants born in the Arab sector. According to the newspaper, the CBS “neglected to mention that the list only included Hebrew names.” The real most popular name, Haaretz said, was actually Mohammed.

(CNN) -- Michael and Jacob, your reign has ended. In 2013, for the first time since 1960, a new name unseated Michael or Jacob as the most popular for newborn boys. That's according to the Social Security Administration, which releases the list of most popular baby names each year. American parents want unique baby names The new king's name? Noah.

Just over a month ago, we chronicled the efforts of the North Carolina House and Senate to reform the states uncompetitive tax code and move towards a pro-growth tax system. At that point, the House and Senate had two competing bills and were attempting to broker a compromise that also had the approval of the North Carolina’s Governor, Pat McCrory. Last week, an agreement was reached and both the House and the Senate passed an outstanding tax reform package designed to super charge the economy. The Governor has signed that bill this afternoon, ushering in a game changing tax reform...

The top baby names for 2012 were a pretty unsurprising bunch: Jacob (taking the No. 1 spot for the 14th consecutive year), Mason, and Ethan for boys; Sophia (for the 2nd year in a row), Emma, and Isabella for girls. More interesting: the fastest rising names, which include Major, Messiah, King, and Maverick, reports the AP. One baby name expert says this trend of "aggrandizing names" is part of a long American tradition. "We've pretty much run out of presidential names, all the Jeffersons and Jacksons and Madisons," she said, "so we're moving on to the aristocracy, I guess, or...

What does the 2012 crop of New Year's babies foretell? A quick glance will confirm that when it comes to the new generation of American baby names, creativity rules there's no longer such a thing as "normal." The first babies of the year include an Daytona, an Akier and an Envy (yes, Envy), but nary a John or Mary to be seen.

One of my longstanding pleasures when visiting Hawai'i is to read the birth announcements in the local papers, to savor the ethnic melange that results in truly distinctive baby names (unlike my own fairly plain-Jane handle.) Often these newborns' monikers can be summed up as "first name also popular on the Mainland" plus "descriptive Hawaiian middle name that's too long for most blanks on official forms" (among Native Hawaiians, this name may have come to the parent or another relative in a dream), plus "one to two surnames from plantation-era immigrant cultures" -- but not always. Sometimes a mellifluous Hawaiian...

When it comes to names, everybody's got an opinion. But while figuring out what names people like is pretty simple -- the U.S. Social Security Administration keeps a list of the most popular baby names each year -- figuring out what people hate is trickier. It turns out that in the case of names, love and hate aren't mutually exclusive. A new informal survey of the most disliked names in America finds that popularity often breeds backlash, as a quick track to baby-name fame seems to also trigger hate for that name. Among the most-hated "trendy" names are Jayden, Brayden,...

There are few things more thrilling in life than having your first baby. But newbie baby namers are prone to making some mistakes that more experienced name choosers are able to avoid. If you're choosing a baby name for the first time, don't make one of these seven common mistakes: 1. Believing that the names that were popular -- and creative -- when you were a kid still have the same status. Name tastes have changed radically over the last decade or two. Goodbye, Jessica and Josh, hello Layla and Serenity, Landon and Tristan -- all top 100 names. 2....