A professional baby namer has shared her predictions for naming trends in 2023, with "dark and moody" names rising in popularity.
Steph Coffield, 39, charges $50 for a list of name ideas based on the parent's specifications. She also shares her ideas on TikTok, which kickstarted her career as a naming expert.
The mum-of-three "stumbled into the career" after posting her thoughts about baby names on social media. She now has 214.5K followers and 10.1million likes on her account, @nameswithsteph.
When discussing names that could become popular next year, Steph suggested that "dark and moody" names could see a rise in usage.
She said: "I think romantic names like Argo, Draco, Knight, Raven and Zelda will be popular. Even Wednesday, like the show. Mystical names are doing well already."
The name expert has also predicted a rise in astronomy-based and celestial names, such as Luna and Aurora.
Steph also thinks that names which are traditionally nicknames - such as Libbie, Jack and Chris, will become more popular than the full length versions.
She said: "It's a trend that's already happening. Parents know they'll be calling their kid that name anyway, so they don't even bother with the full name."
As for names that could drop in popularity, longer names could begin disappearing in favour of shorter alternatives.
She said: "Longer ones like Anastasia, Elizabeth and Nicholas will be less popular in general. I'm always being told by clients that they don't want anything too long.
"But some will always be popular no matter what, like Benjamin, for example."
As for letters, E and L will be popular starting letters for names in 2023 based on current trends as these are "always popular".
But Steph predicts more unusual starting letters such as U, V and Y emerging as parents look to shift from the 'norm'.
Steph encourages people to try something a bit different - because "why would you want something that's already everywhere?"
Steph's recently-published book, 'Names Don't Have a Gender', is available on Amazon.
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