The Results are In!!!....

for the best baby names of all my "friends" on Facebook.

I decided to do this as an activity to keep me off my farmville farm... and since I consider myself an expert in the baby name field, I thought it would be nice to give a shout out to those who, in my opinion, are winning at naming their babies.

Here are the results:

Top 5 boys:
1. McKinley (Mac)
2. Julian
3. Holden
4. Leo William (new son of Jess Datillo)
5. Mason Alexander

Top 5 girls:
1. Pascale (Paz)
2. Alena
3. Landon
4. Leah Drew
5. (t) Nora, Liza, Sasha, Juliette, and Amelia

Okay, so the five way tie is a little odd, but I seriously couldn’t pick one out of these five that is the best. They are all great in their own way.

My favorite name of both boys and girls is Pascale. I don’t really know Kelly, but she was in my sorority back in the day so that’s how we’re Facebook friends. I heard somewhere along the way that she named her daughter after her father, using his name. This is by far the best way to name a baby if you can pull it off (Carrie, we will no longer be friends if you name your daughter Bruce. Although… Bryce???). Pascale is a feminine version of the boys' name Pasquale and is used a lot in Europe. So it’s not made up and she goes by an adorable nickname, Paz. Great work, Kelly!!

The rest of the girls on the list are also pretty great. Alena is one of my all time favorite names, not just because of my sister Elena, but because it sounds beautiful, goes with most last names, isn’t made up, sounds classy, and is rarely used (maybe because of the different pronunciations? I just don’t understand it). Nora and Liza I love because they’re along that new trend of bringing back older names, but not the really common ones like Sophia, Grace, or Ella. Sasha just sounds amazing together, as does Amelia.

For boys, I chose Mac over my all time favorite human, Julian. Sorry, Lisa and Julian! But I just really like this name for a lot of reasons. I probably wouldn’t pick McKinley on my list if he didn’t go by the nickname Mac. It could be perceived as a bit feminine, but it is perfect with a masculine nickname. Also, I’m assuming this is a family name with some significance which gives it big points, but I still like it even if it’s not. I also like that his dad’s name is Matt which has the same sound as Mac, without naming them the same thing. Way to go, Lauren! Can’t wait to hear what she names #3 (2nd was a girl Anna called Annie).

Julian is especially great because I named him :) I love it like I love Elena. Just perfect in every way and I don’t understand why people don’t use it more. (although that’s what makes it special) Leo is amazing and would probably be higher on the list if I knew if it went with his last name (which I’m assuming isn’t Dattilo?) I’ve always loved the name Jason, so Mason is a nice twist to that overly-used-in-the-80s-so-no-one-uses-it-now name and with Alexander as a middle name, it’s a real winner.

A special shout out goes to Lindsay for getting both a boy and girl name on the top 5 list. I even like her third’s name, Luke, which has always been my favorite, but is becoming too popular these days to make my list.

Here are my honorable mention girls: Chloe Jade (I picked the middle name, but couldn’t choose it because Chloe is now in the top 10. Sorry Lisa!!), Avery, Bryn, Ellie, Camryn, Cecelia, Kendall, Riley, and Teagan.

And honorable mention boys: Callan, Chase, Mason, Nathan John, RJ, Thabo Sean, Tommy, and Wade.