Your name is the one thing which stays with you for life. So it’s nice when: a) you like it and, b) you have a nice story to tell about how it was chosen.

Some people name their children after special relatives, while others name theirs after significant places or flowers, but more often than not, people follow the trends of the time which means that a name will hold its popularity for about a decade and then fade.

The most popular names over the last 100 years, according to the Official Social Security website, are James and Mary while Jacob and Emily have been the most popular names of the ‘noughties’.

In 2016 the trend is towards names that are no longer defined by gender. Recently we have seen the birth of Max, daughter of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Priscilla Chan; James who is the daughter of actors Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively; and Lincoln who is the daughter of Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard. Other popular gender neutral names include Wyatt, Maxwell, Remy, Rory, Sasha, Ryan and Andy.

Another popular trend this year is towards simple, unfussy names such as Ed, Art, Liv, Eve, Bo, Ace, Dean and Van which may have come about to counteract our overly cluttered and busy modern day lives.

Popular naming website, Nameberry, predicts a rise in baby names related to the skies and heavens such as Luna, Nova, Orion, Celeste, Phoenix and Skye while the ‘50s are trendy in pop culture, art and design at the moment so that may translate into the rise of names such as Robyn, Frances, Audrey, Daniel, Anthony and Bernie.

But if following the trend isn’t your thing then you might like to choose a unique and interesting name for your little one like fashion sales manager Jenny. “We saw the name Hartlyn in a book and weren’t sure about it until we looked it up and found that it ranked as one of the least popular names ever,” explains the new mom. “Its uniqueness is what made us fall in love with it. It was like the last puppy in the pound!”

Popular or not, how do you know when a name is right for your baby? Try calling your bump by your favorite name for a few days and see how it rolls off the tongue. If it feels right and is a name which you can imagine your child answering to as a five-year-old and a fifty-year-old then you might just be onto a good thing.

Don’t have any ideas yet? Here are a few of the most interesting baby names around to help get the modern day mama’s inspiration flowing.

Girl names

Aada
Adelaide
Annisa
Aerin
Azalea
Bahati
Bea
Cleo
Dana
Darby
Delilah
Emersen
Farrah
Fleur
Harry
Hensely
Lake
Loyal
Lux
Magnolia
Macarthur
Nala
Olympia
Quinn
Ramsey
Sage
Sawyer
Snow
Serenity
Wren
Varina
Zuri

Boy names

Agustin
Alfred
Arlo
Benton
Bodhi
Crew
Demarcus
Devan
Deon
Elian
Freddy
Gibson
Graysen
Haiden
Hendrix
Houston
Kingsley
Kippling
Leighton
Miller
Malaki
Nixon
Quinten
Reid
Rey
Thaddeus
Vaughn
Valentino
Wilder
Wolf
Zackery
Zeke