The Most Popular Baby Girl Names for 2020 Will Be Inspired by Nature
Names like "Rainbow" are joining the top baby name ranks.BY
- The SSA also keeps a list of the fastest-rising names for girls, informing what may be the most popular baby girl names in 2020.
- Parents are opting for baby names inspired by nature, including gemstones and food.
When it comes to popular baby girl names, Emma has been No. 1 in the United States for the last five years. (And from 1996 to 2007, it was the similar-sounding Emily.) The big question: Will Emma continue to be one of the most baby girl names in 2020? While nothing seems like it'll be able to break the cycle of Emma, Olivia, Sophia, and Isabella, there are a few names that are getting hotter each year. Here are five trends to look out for, along with the 100 most popular baby names for girls. (No girls in the family? You can find the list of the most popular baby names for boys here.)
The Fastest-Rising Names for Girls
The Social Security Administration (SSA) keeps track of what the most popular names are, going all the way back to the late-1800s. (Mary was the most popular girls' name in 1879, in case you were wondering.) And while you can see the SSA's current top 100 names for girls below, it also makes a note of the names that have the biggest jump in rank between years. This year, these are the top 10 names gaining in popularity for girls:
- Meaghan
- Dior
- Adalee
- Palmer
- Oaklynn
- Haisley
- Keily
- Novah
- Yara
- Ensley
As you can see, names that end in -ly or -ley are on the rise, and might be ready to challenge the dominance of girl names that end in -a, like the current top-five girl names do. Do you accept this news happily, or sadly?
Names That Are Bubbling Up
In addition to the SSA, baby naming website Nameberry keeps track of the interest in names among its users, catching names that are gaining in popularity before they hit the SSA list. According to the site, the hottest girl names for 2020 are Adah, Reese, Mika, Paisley, Amina, Teagan, Nova, Aura, Pearl, and Billie (thank you, Billie Eilish).
In addition, Nameberry compared its list of popular names to the SSA's, they found more girls' names popular among its users that didn't make it onto the SSA's list of the top 1,000 names in the country. These are the ones that are just about to hit it big, but aren't so popular that they'll be written on all the cubbies in all the daycares across the country. They are: Posie, Elodie, Imogen, Ottilie, Seraphina, Cleo, Cordelia, and Beatrix. Of those, Posie — also spelled Posy or Posey — was the number-one lookup in the first quarter of 2019. It's a flower, so it's right in line with other trends, too.
BabyCenter also tracks the interest in names among its users, found these on its list of the most popular names of the year, and a few also fell outside of the SSA's top 100: Camilla, Adalyn, Madelyn, Charlie, and Lila. Two other names, Isla and Eleanor, were BabyCenter's fastest climbers for the year.
Names.org, a site that uses SSA data to try to predict fastest-climbing names, also sees big things for Camilla (or, really, the variant Camila) and Isla. The site predicts that Camila, Luna, and Aria will crack the top 10 this year, and that Everly, Ivy, Emilia, Valentina, Willow, and Emery are on the rise — those 'E' names sure seem poised to be big.
Look to Birthstones
Another hot, hot trend the site has noticed for girls (and even some boys) are names inspired by gemstones.
- Liam, Noah, and William are currently the most popular baby boy names in the United States.
- The Social Security Administration has also released a list of baby names that are rising fast in popularity.
- International names and names drawn from pop culture are the biggest baby naming trends for boys.
If you look back at baby names over the past few decades, the rule of thumb used to be that boy names were relatively stable. According to the Social Security Administration (SSA) — which keeps track of these things, going back to the late 1800s — Michael was the most popular boy's name in the country from 1954 to 1998 (with a little blip in 1960 when David took the top spot for a year). That's 44 years of Michaels! After that, it was Jacob, which had a 13-year run from 1999 to 2012. (Thank you, Twilight.)
But things change more rapidly now. Since Jacob, Noah took the top spot for just four short years before it was dethroned. Liam has been the No. 1 name for the past two years, but will it stay there? Or will we cycle on to the next name — James or Oliver, perhaps, which are coming up fast? Here, we examine the trends around current baby boy names for 2020, along with the SSA's current top 100 baby names for boys. (Looking for girls? You can find the most popular baby names for girls here.)
These boy names are poised to be huge in 2020.
Since the SSA gets a record of every new baby in the country, it has the most up-to-date information about the popularity of names (its list of the most common names for boys are below). But in addition to that, it also keeps tabs on which names are climbing the charts. These 10 baby boy names may not be as common as Liam or Noah yet, but they saw huge increases, and they are headed towards the
- Genesis
- Saint
- Baker
- Kairo
- Watson
- Kenzo
- Jaxtyn
- Kylo
- Dakari
- Karsyn
Kylo is on the rise, can Ren be far behind? Right now, Ren isn't in the top 1,000 baby names. "Wren" is actually gaining ground — for girls.
It's also interesting to note that many of these fast-climbing names are really just alternate spellings, like Kairo for Cairo (currently #518 on the overall list), Jaxtyn for Jaxton (#346) or Jackson (#17), and Karsyn for Carson (#70).
International names are a big hit.
In addition to the SSA, baby-naming site Nameberry keeps track of interest in different baby names among its users. When it compiled its list of the hottest boy names for 2020, these rose to the top: Austin, Alva, Acacius, Tate, Diego, Easton, Lucius, Cash, Ash, and Luca.
If you look at the list, it's right in line with the trend of taking names borrowed from other countries. And it's not just one country, either: People are going for Italian/Spanish names like Luca and Mateo, Hebrew names like Asher or Ezekiel, or a Hawaiian name like Kai. Scandinavian names, in particular, are gaining ground, with names like Soren (also a Game of Thrones name), Axel, Leif, and Stellan doing particularly well on the site. BabyCenter, which also keeps track of baby names among its users, notes that Arabic names like Muhammad are especially gaining ground — though it was a Latin name, Miles, that was the site's fastest climber.
Bachelor names are getting more popular.
BabyCenter also noted an uptick in lookups for names associated with The Bachelor — especially babies born to former Bachelor contestants. Brooks (born to Bachelor in Paradise stars Jade Roper and Tanner Tolbert) was the big one, jumping up 18%, but Hayes (son of The Bachelor's Whitney Bischoff) and Cruz (middle name of Zander, the son of The Bachelorette stars Desiree Hartsock and Chris Siegfried) also saw jumps in popularity.
Nicknames are taking over.
Call it the Baby Archie effect, but parents are choosing the shortened version of some baby names over their longer counterparts. BabyCenter has seen a big bump in popularity for the nicknames Izzy (up 36%) and Ricky (up 25%), with Leo, Randy, Mickey, Kit, Ted, Frank, Theo, Joe, Ronnie, Frankie, and Rudy not far behind.
These names haven't hit the list yet, but they will.
Nameberry came out with its own list of the 100 most popular lookups, and six of their names didn't appear in the SSA's list of the 1,000 most common names in the United States. This means the interest in these names is just starting to get going — and you can get in on the ground floor before they hit the big time. They are: Amias, Cassian, Kit, Aurelius, Caius, and Ambrose.
BabyCenter saw an increase in interest in Cassian, too. That's another Star Wars name — he's one of the main characters in Rogue One, and soon to be the star of his own Disney+ series — so if you want to keep abreast of what names are coming down the pike, keep your eye on the galaxy far, far away. (Are "Mandalorian" or "Mando" going to pop?)
Another site, Names.org, which uses SSA data to predict the rise of baby names, thinks that Sebastian will hit the top 10 this year. It also sees big gains for Theodore, Hudson, Ezra, Santiago, Elias, and Jack — all names that fit into the themes of borrowing from other cultures, using nicknames as full names, or — another big trend — bringing back "old man" names.
100 Most Popular Names for Boys (According to the SSA)
The SSA reveals that these are the current most popular names for boys (from the year 2018, the most recent year available).
- Liam
- Noah
- William
- James
- Oliver
- Benjamin
- Elijah
- Lucas
- Mason
- Logan
- Alexander
- Ethan
- Jacob
- Michael
- Daniel
- Henry
- Jackson
- Sebastian
- Aiden
- Matthew
- Samuel
- David
- Joseph
- Carter
- Owen
- Wyatt
- John
- Jack
- Luke
- Jayden
- Dylan
- Grayson
- Levi
- Isaac
- Gabriel
- Julian
- Mateo
- Anthony
- Jaxon
- Lincoln
- Joshua
- Christopher
- Andrew
- Theodore
- Caleb
- Ryan
- Asher
- Nathan
- Thomas
- Leo
- Isaiah
- Charles
- Josiah
- Hudson
- Christian
- Hunter
- Connor
- Eli
- Ezra
- Aaron
- Landon
- Adrian
- Jonathan
- Nolan
- Jeremiah
- Easton
- Elias
- Colton
- Cameron
- Carson
- Robert
- Angel
- Maverick
- Nicholas
- Dominic
- Jaxson
- Greyson
- Adam
- Ian
- Austin
- Santiago
- Jordan
- Cooper
- Brayden
- Roman
- Evan
- Ezekiel
- Xaviar
- Jose
- Jace
- Jameson
- Leonardo
- Axel
- Everett
- Kayden
- Miles
- Sawyer
- Jason
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