Bella & Jacob In Top 10 Of Baby Names For 2011

Phenomena such as Twilight and Teen Mom have shown the true, semi-shocking breadth of their influence in the government's analysis of baby-naming last year.
Isabella and Jacob, names of the female protagonist and her handsome werewolf from Twilight, reign supreme on the list for the second straight year. (Sorry, Team Edward.) True, Twilight's Jacob, played by Taylor Lautner — i.e. the first actor you think of when wondering whose abs you could do your laundry on — isn't entirely responsible for the popularity of the name. We know this because that appellation has been in the Top 10 for the past 12 years, but this is only Isabella's second year to make the cut in recent history, arguably courtesy of author Stephenie Meyer.

The list is put out by the Social Security Administration (who has to have something fun to do with all those birth records), and they have a feature which shows the change in the popularity for names, giving some limelight to those who did well for themselves without making it into the Top 10. The two with the biggest jumps were Maci and Bentley, just like the young mother and young son featured on Teen Mom, following their stint on 16 and Pregnant. Another fast-riser was Knox, the name of one of those seemingly thousands of kids in Brangelina's family entourage. Tiana, the name of the princess in The Princess and the Frog, saw a surge, as did Kellan, a name shared by Kellan Lutz, another actor from Twilight.

There was one particularly notable name that left the list, in what may be a devastating occurrence for some. For the first time since 1954, Elvis is nowhere to be found in the Top 1,000. (NewsFeed notes, however, that thousands of children not named Elvis are living easier lives, being able to introduce themselves to people without suffering through an annoying pop-culture reference.)

In the SSA press release, they note a return to girls' names that were hot in the mid-20th century, like Isabella, Ava and Chloe. Based on this occurrence, they venture a prediction about what the royal couple's first child will be called. "We note the excitement about the recent royal wedding and suggest there may be a Princess Elizabeth, Frances, Valerie, or Dorothy in the future," SSA writes. If those are the only choices, NewsFeed votes for Valerie (because it's not eye-rollingly predictable, or the kind of name you would give a kid who came out looking like Benjamin Button).

Source: Newsfeed