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It’s been a few months since my first post, so I’ll recap the sites I’ve mentioned, allowing our New Members and Newly Expectant Moms to catch up.
POPULARITY
To avoid being surprised at  how many Sophias or Isabellas are in your daughter’s class, take a look at the Social Security site's Popular Names page. Every Mother's Day they update the site and list the Top 1000 names in the US.  http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/index.html
NAMES YOU’LL PROBABLY LIKE
You know how in some families the kids all have one syllable names - Jon, Dean, Tim and Beth? Other couples name their four kids Harmony, Liberty, Charity and Justice.  Of course in most families there is not such an obvious theme or pattern and mom and dad don't seem to like the same names. A good resource is www.nymbler.com You enter up to six names that you like, and it generates names that "fit" with the ones you entered.
7  TRENDS IN BABY NAMING
You Can't Call It "It" has listed "The 7 Deadly Trends" - deadly just meaning overused.  If you would prefer for your little one not to have a super popular name it behooves you to check these trends, which abbreviated are:  Mick,  Surnames, Aidan, Ella, K , Substytutes, and Geography.   What is helpful is that she offers suggestions under each category - what a relief, not just criticism, but helpful ideas.  http://youcantcallitit.com/7-deadly-trends/
TEST DRIVE A NAME
This website has a neat little tool that will insert your chosen name into a variety of sentences so that you can "test drive" the name in various circumstances.
Hello, Wellington Inc. this is Karissa.
Do you Karissa Elizabeth take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?
Karissa, it's not the end of the world. It's just a car. You are more important than a car.
A caveat: it asks for first and last name - in the sample I used first and middle.  Here's the link. http://www.babynamegenie.com/baby-name-test-drive.php
ADVANCED NAME SEARCH
Several baby name sites feature search functions which point you toward certain names. My favorite part of this one is that you can tell it what you do NOT want included. For example if your last name begins with G, you can request that it not give you names ending in G, so that the sounds don’t run into each other.  Let’s say you are looking for a boy’s name with: 3 syllables, no more than 8 letters, the string “in”, cannot contain the letters “h”, “x” or “z”, and you do not want the name to end with the letter “g”.  Voilà, you have a list!
http://babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com/search.php?p=asearch&s_gender2=3&s_copt2=1&i_search2=in&s_filter1=2&s_syllables=3&s_filter2=3&s_chars=8&s_top_country=1&s_top_nr=0&s_top_pyears=0&s_filter_=0&s_origins=&s_categories=&s_mfilter2=1&i_meaning=&c_lastname=on&s_lastname=71&i_letter=&c_nameswo_meaning=on&s_filter_rating=1&=aA MOUNTAIN OF NAMES
Appellation Mountain takes care of my name fix with its Name of The Day. Each entry is written in a lively style and gives historical and literary associations.   While many are not in the Top 1000, she does not shy away from the Top 100. In the past few weeks she featured 1-syllable names like Wren, Lance and Trent. Jubal, Titus and Zedekiah come from the Bible.  You want different?  Caradoc and Corisande, Araminta and Hamish fit the bill.  Classics like George and Alexander get featured as well.    http://appellationmountain.net/
NAMEBERRY
You will find lots of lists on this site!  Classic, Stylish, Avant-Garde, Vintage, International and Unisex are the six main categories.  Not sure what those terms mean or what kind of names you prefer?  I experimented by asking for a 3-syllable girl name starting with M.   http://nameberry.com/search/advanced
You can also go directly to Hot Lists: http://nameberry.com/hotlists and take it from there.