KEITH BEATY/TORONTO STAR

Little 6-month-old Olivia Marie seems to be considering her first name, one of the most popular for Canadians.

Jack is just slipping to the back. Mary is quite contrary, except as a middle name. And poor Lou Bega will be starved for affection if he plans on waiting around for Monica, Erica, Pamela, Rita or any of the others in his "Mambo No. 5" harem. There's no sign of them among the 100 most popular baby names.

It's only a matter of time, though. Because these days the biggest trend in baby-naming is staying off the top 20 lists.

"Popularity is becoming unpopular," says Amy McKenzie, co-author of The Best Baby Names for Canadians.

So while Madison, Olivia and Sophia head the female charts and boys' names ending in "en" and "an" Ethan, Ryan, Aiden and Kayden are the rage, the future may actually be the past. In Mary, Joan or Gail, for instance. And Gary, Norman or Ralph.

Among McKenzie's predictions of up-and-comers: Ava and Isabella, along with its variations Bella and Isabel; and for boys, Jack and Charlie.

But if you really want to be on the leading edge, how's this for an idea: Be patriotic. Consider Canadian places names for your wee ones.

With nursery schools full of U.S. destinations like Dakota, Brooklyn, Georgia and Phoenix, McKenzie says it's time to start honouring Canadian history and geography, and our aboriginal, French or Celtic heritage.

"There are so many beautiful place names in Canada," says McKenzie, who wrote the HarperCollins book of baby names with her husband Duncan. "If this became a trend, I'd be very happy."

Take Mattawa, for example. One couple in the book explains that they chose it as their son's middle name, in memory of the Ontario river they paddled on their first canoe trip together.

Shannon Grinnell, a mother of two from Toronto, was pleasantly surprised to discover she may be on the leading edge. Her son Preston, 3, was named for the southern Ontario town his dad is from which has since become part of the City of Cambridge.

They loved the name because it was unusual, though when Britney and K-Fed named their firstborn Sean Preston "we thought that might be trouble." (Preston isn't on the Canadian Top 60 list and squeaked into the U.S. Top 100 for the first time in 2007 in 97th spot.)

Another forward-thinker was recently spotted on the "Baby's Got a Bad, Bad Name" website (notwithoutmyhandbag.com/ babynames).

The expectant mother described a family tradition of naming kids after Ontario cities. "My brother is Barrie, my sister is Kingston, and my cousin is Markham. I am due in two weeks (it'll be a girl) and thinking about naming her either York or Orillia."

Diana Goodman, who operates the website out of San Francisco, and has spent five years culling baby names and surfing online bulletin boards, agrees that most parents' mission these days is to be original which yields mixed results.

"Weird beats normal by at least 2-to-1, increasing rapidly each year," she writes on her site. "In 2001, weird and normal were almost even; in 2003 there were usually four weird names for every one normal one."

Aisleigh, Brielle, Laken, Shyler, Brenner. The list of unusual, offbeat and unique names goes on.

Mac and Mc monikers McKate was recently sighted are big. Us Weekly and Entertainment Tonight still set the pace. Witness the recent surge in Addison and Callie (Grey's Anatomy), Sienna (Miller), Jayden (thank you again, Britney), Keira (Knightley), Ava (for Eva Longoria, who pronounces her name that way, and Reese Witherspoon's daughter).

In Canada, more parents are harkening back to their ethnic roots, says McKenzie, choosing traditional names from their cultures. Matteo, the Italian equivalent of Matthew, is popular. And so is the Hindi name Armaan.

The letters involved are a controversial topic. Goodman complains that parents who take already interesting names and "special them up" with odd spellings "really get my goat."

(No doubt she'd give the thumbs-down to Adyson, Macques, Mekenzie or Khaleb.) It's an attitude shared by other baby-naming gurus and authors, who implore the grown-ups to spell things properly.

Toronto mom Lianne Tapuska agrees. After a lifetime of spelling her name for people (no, not Leanne, or Lee-Anne or LeeAnn) she was determined not to inflict such hassles on her own offspring. Classic, tried and true names were the order of the day, and her husband was on board, too.

The result? Matthew Everatt is her 2-year-old and her 6-month-old daughter is Olivia Marie. They are second and fifth, respectively, on the list of most popular Canadian names. Both middle names are part of family tradition.

"Going to school and having someone else named Matthew in the class isn't a big deal for us," says Tapuska. And there's a flip side to being popular. "You know when you're a kid and everybody gets all those cool little toys with their names? I never found my name on any of them."

Today's hot names, however, won't necessarily be tomorrow's. Trends peak and fall quickly and popularity is enough to cause a nosedive. So just because you come across a lot of Emilys born in 2002 doesn't mean your newborn will have five in her preschool.

As the McKenzies note in The Best Baby Names for Canadians, choices have really diversified. In 1960, 40 per cent of boys and more than a quarter of girls had Top 20 names. By 2005, the most popular 20 names accounted for only 19 per cent of boys' names and 14 per cent of girls' names.

So, no matter what you choose, do babies ever suit their names?

"Truly no," says McKenzie. What cone-headed eight-pounder really suits anything other than E.T. after all? "But within a few weeks they will become that name."

And one more thing. Ignore the naysayers. Once you've chosen a name, any angst or criticism quickly falls away. "The name, like the child, becomes its own entity."