Photo: Silver Screen Collection

by Pamela Redmond Satran

Atticus makes major baby name news by topping Nameberry’s count of Most Popular Names for the first half of 2015, on the publication day of the new Harper Lee novel casting the inspirational namesake Atticus Finch as a racist.

The ancient Roman boys’ name Atticus, which indicates a person from the region around Athens, first came to notice in the US via Harper Lee’s 1960 novel To Kill A Mockingbird and its hero attorney Atticus Finch, played the following year in the movie by Gregory Peck.

But it wasn’t until 25 years later that the name Atticus even registered on the Social Security roster of US baby names, given to a mere nine boys in 1986. Atticus did not appear on the US Top 1000 baby names until 2004, skyrocketing in the decade since then to an official Number 370.

And now Atticus is the Number 1 boys’ name on Nameberry, attracting the most searches by our visitors in the first half of 2015. It trumps Asher, our longtime Number 1, as well as Ezra, another Biblical favorite.

Charlotte is the Number 1 girls’ name on our 2015 half-year count, catapulted to the top by the newborn British princess. In second place for girls is Amelia, Number 1 in England, with US favorite Olivia in third place.

The big question is whether Atticus can retain his popularity as a baby name in the light of the racist, ranting Atticus Finch portrayed in Go Set A Watchman, published today as the long-awaited followup to Mockingbird. In the original book, Atticus Finch is a sensitive single father who defends a black man against a trumped-up charge in a bigoted world, but this heroic image is shattered in the current work. How many baby namers enchanted with the name Atticus will choose the name anyway….or even be aware of the new negative portrayal of the once-saintly Atticus Finch?

To Kill A Mockingbird has been an unlikely influencer of baby names half a century after its publication, with not only Atticus but Harper rising up the popularity list. Harper stands at Number 56 on the 2015 Nameberry list but all the way up at Number 11 on the official US popularity list for girls.

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The Nameberry popularity list tallies the most-visited of the nearly 40 million views of our baby name pages since the beginning of 2015. Rather than tracking names given to babies last year as the official US count does, it registers which baby names are attracting the most interest from expectant parents right now – which may translate to popular usage over the coming years.

The Top 100 baby names of 2015 on Nameberry are:

girls’ names

1. Charlotte

2. Amelia

3. Olivia

4. Isla

5. Ava

6. Violet

7. Cora

8. Eleanor

9. Lucy

10. Penelope

11. Evelyn

12. Adeline

13. Hazel

14. Imogen

15. Aurora

16. Alice

17. Claire

18. Adelaide

19. Elizabeth

20. Arabella

21. Khaleesi

22. Scarlett

23. Emma

24. Rose

25. Evangeline

26. Genevieve

27. Ivy

28. Lila

29. Nora

30. Beatrice

31. Quinn

32. Caroline

33. Eloise

34. Harlow

35. Grace

36. Luna

37. Esme

38. Matilda

39. Aria

40. Aurelia

41. Mia

42. Ella

43. Clara

44. Everly

45. Iris

46. Anna

47. Mae

48. Mila

49. Thea

50. Maeve

51. Isabella

52. Maya

53. Ellie

54. Seraphina

55. Poppy

56. Harper

57. Clementine

58. Emily

59. Sophia

60. Josephine

61. Ruby

62. Jane

63. Isabel

64. Wren

65. Chloe

66. Elodie

67. Hadley

68. Willa

69. Nova

70. Audrey

71. Julia

72. Stella

73. Eden

74. Eliza

75. Juliet

76. Hannah

77. Cordelia

78. Sienna

79. Lydia

80. Olive

81. Piper

82. Evie

83. Lily

84. Sloane

85. Sadie

86. Willow

87. Margaret

88. Emmeline

89. Annabelle

90. Lola

91. Madeline

92. Ada

93. Gemma

94. Eliana

95. Daisy

96. Zoe

97. Emilia

98. Florence

99. Abigail

100.Mabel

boys’ names