What are America’s favorite baby names?

nameberry.com

What are America’s favorite baby names? Not the top names on the Social Security list, not even Nameberry’s own favorites, but the most well-liked names chosen by popular opinion.

Recently we collaborated with Huffington Post Parents to create a brackets challenge, asking readers to vote for America’s favorite baby name. We picked the 16 contenders for each sex from the ranks of Nameberry favorites, pitting Henry against James, Scarlett vs. Charlotte, Hudson against River (how could we resist?).

Through a series of elimination rounds, thousands of parents voted for their favorites. And today we have the winners! Read on to find out which the finalists were, and the identity of America’s favorite baby...

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Stop the complaining and feet-dragging at chore time

By Robert Nickell, McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Are you sick of battling your children in hopes they will happily do their chores while beds remain unmade and toys seem to rule your living room floor? Have those midnight walks to the kitchen become treacherous journeys complete with landmines and hidden traps? If so, I’m here to help.

I have created, with time and experience (plus a few headaches), a foolproof method for making chore time an enjoyable time for the kids and me.

Make it a game

Figuring out creative ways to turn chore time into game time works wonders; kids enjoy games, puzzles and thinking. And they love a good challenge. Here are a few ideas to make chore time a bit more interesting – you’re going to...

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Always and never

By Traci Arbios, herdingsquirrels.com

I’ve been a working mom for almost 20 years. I’ve been an obsessive mom for about the same length of time.

I find it ironic that, as a single person without kids, I was the perfect parent. I knew everything there was to know about raising children and my parenting vocabulary was peppered with the words “never” and “always.” Example: “I will never let my child eat in front of the television,” and “My kid will always behave in stores,” and “I will never work once I have kids and I will always be there for them when they come home after school.”

I also find it ironic that, as a working mom, I was both impressed by a woman’s ability to become a stay-at-home mom (as it drove me crazy)...

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Helping your child through the stress of toilet training

By Priscilla J. Dunstan, McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Toilet training is one of the major life skills we all master in order to lead a normal life. Approaching this lesson with patience, compassion and understanding will go a long way with helping your child master this skill. By understanding how your child’s dominant sense affects their mastery of toilet training, you will be able to understand their learning process better, and achieve the goal of an end to diapers more quickly and with little upset.

Tactile children are resistant to being forced into change, especially a change as personal as toilet training, which affects them in such an intimate, physical way. Therefore, they are often the last children to officially cast off the shackles of a...

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Snow Shoveling 101: advice and gear

The Associated Press

Although much of the country has been relatively flake-free this winter, snow removal woes are just one storm away.

So here are some strategies, and the latest tools.

First, have a plan before the flakes start falling. If you’re not physically up to shoveling, arrange for a plowing service or enlist some kids to at least do your walkways; many communities mandate that sidewalks be cleared within 24 hours of a storm.

If you are taking on the snow yourself, take it easy.

Warm up, start slow and cover your mouth if the air is very cold, according to Dr. Grace Cater, a cardiologist in Cleveland. “Snow shoveling can be more strenuous than exercising full throttle on a treadmill,” Cater says on MetroHealth’s...

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10 things I wish I knew

By Marla Jo Fisher, The Orange County Register

My 13-year-old daughter recently began asking some of the big cosmic questions that the philosophers have pondered forever, such as: If God is all-powerful, how come he didn’t make her hair straighter?

I explain that life is an eternal mystery that we will only decipher after we’ve left it behind. But, meanwhile, I have a few more prosaic questions that I ponder regularly myself, especially late at night when I can’t sleep:

How is it that my son, Cheetah Boy, is doing better this year in his Spanish class than in English — his native tongue?

Why do adolescent children sit in the same room and text each other?

Why do my kids only want to talk to me when I pick up the phone and...

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Couple built their family through adoption

By Amy Bertrand, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

When attempts to get pregnant failed, Colleen Carlton and her husband, Rob, did something they had always wanted to do: adopt. Little did they know at the time that their decision would lead to two children, born just two months apart.

Question: Why did you and your husband decide to adopt?

Answer: Rob and I always knew we always wanted to adopt. Our original plan was to have a biological child of our own and then adopt. When our attempts to have a biological child through fertility treatments, IUI (intrauterine insemination) and finally IVF (in vitro fertilization), failed, we stopped beating ourselves up about treatments and went straight to adoption.

We first did research online, which just made me sad and...

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Overcoming a fear of bugs and other creepy crawlies

By Priscilla J. Dunstan, McClatchy-Tribune

Last week we looked at bad dreams and night time monsters, so this week I thought we would look at the common fear of creepy crawlies.

Mild phobias can start to slow at a very early age, and can grow into larger issues, if not dealt with effectively. The link between a child’s dominant sense and the child’s not only affects the way the child expresses the phobia, but also the way the fear is best addressed for that child.

As a first step to helping your child deal with their nervousness is to desensitize them to it. This does not mean by having them hold what they fear in their hands, but rather, by changing the focus, from something scary and unknown to something that is odd and funny...

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Greek yogurt all the rage

By MICHAEL HILL, Associated Press

SOUTH EDMESTON, N.Y. — Chobani is making Greek yogurt as fast as Americans are eating it.

Its plant in upstate New York farm country already pumps out 1.5 million cases of the thick yogurt every week, and pallets are stacked four stories high in the chilled warehouse.

But like other Greek yogurt makers, Chobani is expanding.

Greek yogurt now accounts for a quarter of the total yogurt market after a dizzying growth spurt that is especially apparent here in the heart of upstate New York. The nation’s No. 1 and No. 2 Greek yogurt brands — Chobani and Fage, respectively — are both expanding plants within 60 miles of each other, and another company is building a plant in western New York. The expansions come...

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12 fresh Biblical name choices for boys

nameberry.com

Are there really any good unusual boys’ names left in the Bible? Old Testament names for boys have been fashionable for going on half a century now, from the 1960s Adam to the present day Asher. Could there possibly be any obscure-yet-usable choices left?

Hundreds of them, in fact. The Bible is so full of unusual boys’ names that the choices seem nearly infinite, and as a new generation moves from hoary to hottie, others that once seemed to strange to consider start to feel possible.

Here, a dozen unusual Biblical names for boys you might want to consider.

Addar, “mighty one.” The name of a son of Bela (a Biblical king, not the Twilight heroine), Addar might make a good substitute for Aidan or Asher.

Ara, “lion.” Ara...

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