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Blake Lively pregnant: Let the baby name buzz begin

Blake Lively announced she is expecting on Monday. Will the actress and husband Ryan Reynolds go with a quirky name for their little one, something more traditional, or a modern gender-neutral moniker?

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Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
Blake Lively and husband Ryan Reynolds attend The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala May 5. On Monday Lively announced she is expecting her first child.

The news that Blake Lively and husband Ryan Reynolds are expecting brings a wave of speculation. What will Ms. Lively and Mr. Reynolds name their bundle of joy?

Will their child receive a unique celebrity moniker à, la Blue Ivy, Apple, and Suri? If the couple follows national trends, signs point to no.

According to BabyCenter.com, the US’s five most popular male names last year were Noah, Liam, Jacob, Mason, and William. For baby girls, Sophia topped the list, followed by Emma, Olivia, Isabella, and Ava. 

But a significant group of US-born babies had names that BabyCenter.com said could apply to a broader gender spectrum – like the names Blake and Ryan, for example. Of BabyCenter’s top 100 girls names, the website indicated that nine “work for boys and girls:” Addison, Aubrey, Bailey, Charlie, Harper, Kennedy, Peyton, Riley, and Taylor. For the top boys names, 12 of the 100 listed fall into the same category, including Alex, Jordan, Logan, Riley, and Ryan.

About 62,000 of every million US babies born in 2013 was given one of these popular, gender-neutral names, according to national data listed on BabyCenter’s site. The most popular name in this category was Logan – in 2013, 6,134 babies had the name. 

But even if Lively and Reynolds choose something uncommon, it may not remain unusual for long. BabyCenter’s database estimates that 54 babies per million births will be named Apple in 2014, the atypical name actress and singer Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin gave their daughter in 2004.

Lively revealed her news Monday in a post on her website, Preserve, creating such a sensation that the site was down for part of the day.

“Preserve at its core is about family,” the post began. “With family on our mind, we looked to the origin of it all — to the women in our lives who are right there, in that special moment, at the creation of family.”

After the text of the post, a series of pictures showed celebrating mothers-to-be. Lively is pictured with her hand resting on her stomach, a portrait taken by her brother, Eric Lively.

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