Ten of 2014's top 10

| January 13, 2015 8:00 PM

They're about as meaningful as tinsel on a tree, but as Old Year fades to New, it's tempting to peruse those proliferating top 10 lists. So just for kicks, here are 10 Top 10 lists for 2014 (in descending order of popularity, unless otherwise indicated).

* From BabyCenter.com's annual report, representing an estimated half-million new American parents: Girl baby names - Sophia, Emma, Olivia, Ava, Isabella, Mia, Zoe, Lily, Emily, Madelyn.

Boys - Jackson, Aiden, Liam, Lucas, Noah, Mason, Ethan, Caden, Jacob, Logan.

* Google's most popular searches: U.S. - Robin Williams, World Cup, Ebola, Malaysia Airlines, Flappy Bird, ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, ISIS, Ferguson, Frozen, Ukraine.

Global - Robin Williams, World Cup, Ebola, Malaysia Airlines, ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Flappy Bird, Conchita Wurst, ISIS, Frozen, Sochi Olympics (wow - could man have more in common with fellow man than we acknowledge?).

* Scientific American's top 10 science story headlines: 10. Symbolic thought shown to exist in other human species. 9. Cyber attacks spell the end of magnetic stripe credit cards. 8. First synthetic chromosome of yeast made. 7. Botched handling of deadly germs at U.S. labs. 6. Catastrophes tarnish commercial spaceflight. 5. Worst drought in millennium hits California (and "2014 set to be hottest year ever measured"). 4. Big Bang gravitational waves - or not. 3. U.S. and China in historic climate deal. 2. First touchdown on a comet. 1. The Ebola outbreak.

* Dog names (from People Magazine's PeoplePets.com): Boys - Max, Buddy, Jack, Cooper, Rocky, Toby, Tucker, Jake, Bear.

Girls - Bella, Lucy, Daisy, Molly, Lola, Sophie, Sadie, Maggie, Chloe, Bailey.

* Cat names (VetStreet.com): Girls - Bella, Luna, Lucy, Kitty, Elsa, Daisy, Lily, Callie, Lilly (yes, Lily and Lilly), Gracie.

Boys - Oliver, Milo, Leo, Charlie, Max, Simba, Tiger, Smoky, Jack, Kitty.

* Novels/stories (Time Magazine): "The Secret Place" by Tana French (murder mystery), "The Bone Clocks" by David Mitchell (futuristic), "The Zone of Interest" by Martin Amis (Holocaust), "Redeployment" by Phil Klay (military), "Wonderland" by Stacey D'Erasmo (rock musician), "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" by David Shafer (technothriller), "Station Eleven" by Emily St. John Mandel (pre- and post-apocalyptic), "Euphoria" by Lily King (anthropology/romance), "A Brief History of Seven Killings" by Marlon James (Jamaican underworld), "The Laughing Monsters" by Denis Johnson (Africa/security).

Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Contact her at Sholeh@cdapress.com.