Hot Baby Names For 2013, Did Thor Really Make The List?

Earlier this month, a list of “hot baby names” for 2013 was released, leading many Americans to wonder if we’ve started putting hallucinogens in prenatal vitamins.

Outside the realm of mommy blogs and message boards, the topic is thankfully rarely discussed — but the list of hot baby names in 2013 was shared a fair bit because all the names on it were really freaking weird, distracting, and, with the exception of Christian (inspired by the BDSM-loving “Dom” in Fifty Shades Of Grey, natch), uncommon for a reason.

An earlier list released by Nameberry and posted on The Inquisitr included Marnie, Marlow, Severine, Severus, Phaedra, and of course, Thor as well as the aforementioned Christian. But are these really the most common “hot” baby names in 2013?

Depends on who you ask. Earlier, TIMEtook a crack at predicting what parents would be naming their brats in the coming year, saying that “Jacob, Max and Liam joined Isabelle, Millie and Sookie as the six most common name searches by expectant parents last year,” in 2012. But the mag added:

“But aside from the apparent inclusion of the True Blood–inspired Sookie — a statistical outlier, we think, if ever there was one — the overall trend of this year’s baby names is retro. Ann, Betty and Ellie are making a comeback for girls, while Ted, Bertie and Gus are newly hot names for boys.”

We supposed a case could be made for Severus, Phaedra and Thor being “retro,” but the Nameberry stats and the predictions of what amount to grandma/grandpa names didn’t seem to jive. So we checked over at the popular BabyCenter hub for expectant and current parents. and their list diverges a lot from Nameberry.

Hot baby names in 2013 there included Liam, Noah, Mason, Ethan, Jacob, Jack, Jackson, Lucas, Aiden, and Logan for boys. Girls names in the top ten were the far more reasonable Emma, Olivia, Sophia, Isabella, Ava, Mia, Emily, Charlotte, Amelia, and Ella.

Have you observed any hot baby name 2013 trends popping up, or do you stay away from baby-pinners on Pinterest?