When Brad and Angelina announced the names of their boys Maddox, Pax, and Knox, we took notice. Yes, every male Jolie-Pitt child has a name with an X in it.
Actor Robert Downey Jr. and wife Susan welcomed Exton Elias Downey. Exton joins older brother Indio, who is from Downey’s first marriage.
The Sherlock Holmes star announced the sex of the baby back in December, but kept the couple’s name choice mum until the birth. We had high hopes for an original name and we were not disappointed. The name Exton is unique, but it does follow a few recent trends.
Like so many other popular boys names, exton has two syllables and ends in “n”. It’s a place name like America and Brooklyn, and it’s got that high-Scrabble value letter X, just to shake things up. In fact, while Exton is rather rare, English surnames that include the letter X are enjoying a steep ascent: Braxton, Paxton, Jaxon are all climbing the popularity charts.
Exton is reminiscent of the popular Easton, which has also been rising sharply over the past few years. Exton could be a new, stylish variant of Easton. But unlike nickname-friendly names like Daxton (Dax) or Paxton (Pax), Exton doesn’t lend itself to a cute shortener (Ex?).
We love this trend because we’re drawn to the letter X. It looks and feels unique. It’s not used very often in day-to-day life, and it seems to combine several consonants in one package with its ecks sound. Here are the top baby names with the X-factor.
