Popular Baby Names for 2012

American-influenced names are seen to come by less with the entry of other foreign names such as Ichiro (Japanese), Feevrier (French) and Soairse ((pronounced seer-sha, Irish). Common names also got a new look, like Denyz for Dennis, Zander for Alexander, Eiron for Aaron, Eireen/Iryn for Irene, and Micayla for Michaella. 34-year-old Yna Alex, who is due to give birth in July, predicts that the selection of names will be greatly influenced as well by the Chinese zodiac, 2012 being the Year of the Dragon.

On nicknames, gone are the era of "forever young" staples such as Baby, Boy, Girlie, Totoy or Nene, the "edibles" like Apple, Cherry and other Pies, and repetitions like Jay-jay, Ning-ning and Bong-bong. These have given way to initials like JT for Juancho Timothy, AJ for Arkin Joachim, and JAG for Juanito Antonio Gabriel. Though initials are more appropriate for boys, girls’ nicknames are derived from their first names, on the other hand, such as Adie for Nadine, Jassy for Jaslene and Izzy for Isabella.

Young mom-to-be Pat Tria chose to stick to her baby's 1st name Cloud for his nickname. "This way, it will be easy for everyone to remember. In school, teachers and classmates call each other by their first names; Cloud wouldn't have to go through the trouble of answering to many names since his is unique." New nicks that will soon make their way into baby books Include Ryu, Aiah, Ish, Ysab, Gab, Rei, Zayn and Cer (pronounced "Sir", for Ceres).

The following baby names, sourced from over a hundred respondents* (mostly to give birth this year), are said to be the most popular names in 2012.

First names for BOYS:

Aedan

Aandrei

Anton/Antonio 

Arkin

Ashton 

Brave

Caleb

Caeden

Chrysler

Clark

Cloud

Cyrus

Denyz

Diandre

Diego

Draco

Elijah

Eljin

Enzo

Ethan

Gabriel

Gabrian

Gad

Gyan

Hugo

Hunter

Ichiro

Inigo

Jacob/Jake

James

Jeff

Jermaine

Jerome 

Joaquin

Jacob/Jakob

Joeven

John/Johann

Jose/Josef 

Juancho/Juan

Julian

Karl

Keenan 

Kevin

Kris

Kurt

Keiichi 

Kyle 

Lance 

Lauren

Lemuel 

Liam

Lorenzo

Louis/Luis

Lucas

Marek

Mark/Marcus

Mateo

Matteo

Mckyro

Miguel/Migs

Nathan/Nathaniel/Nate

Nealon 

Nikko 

Paul

Pio

Rafael

Raven

Roarke

Rodrigo

Rouvin 

Samuel

Sarkie

Santino

Sean

Sebastian

Seth

Tyler

Uriel

Xian

Yoseff 

Zach/Zachary

Zander 

Zion