A topic that comes up over and over again with readers is how to choose names that aren’t going to be too common. I’ve blogged in the past about ways to prevent choosing a name that will be popular in the future.
Here’s another great tool from Social Security to help parents. They’ve put out a handy ranking of the names that moved up the chart the most in the previous year. The 2009 stats aren’t due out for another couple months, but here is the data from 2008.
These are the names that showed the biggest increase in popularity from the previous year. What can this information tell you? In the post I mentioned earlier about predicting what names are going to be popular, one of my tips is to avoid names that are quickly rising on the popularity chart. This list helps you figure out what those names are!
So, if you’re looking for a name that will be unique, avoid the names on this list because they might be destined for even greater popularity in the years to come. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a trendy or stylish name, you might want to use one of these names.
No matter your goal, this is a list you need to know about.
Here goes…the top 20:
GIRLS’ BABY NAMES
KHLOE
MARLEE
MARELY
AUDRINA
MARLEY
DANNA
JASLENE
LILAH
PAISLEY
MILEY
LYLA
HARPER
DAYANA
VALENTINA
LONDON
MYLEE
JIMENA
LYRIC
KAYDEN
EMERY
BOYS’ BABY NAMES
JACOBY
KANE
BECKETT
PAXTON
KALE
AUGUST
BRAYLON
RYKER
KINGSTON
KOLTON
ZAYDEN
BRYCEN
RIVER
MILO
LANDYN
ALIJAH
CASH
ALVIN
JUDE
BYRON
What jumps out at me the most is that on the girl’s list there are three spelling variations of the name MARLEY and two variations of MILEY. These are names to avoid (no matter how you spell it) if you want to avoid popular names.
There’s some celebrity inspiration on this list — obviously MILEY Cyrus. We also have AUDRINA — it’s a beautiful name brought into the spotlight by Audrina Patridge of The Hills fame. No surprise that it caught the attention of parents. PAISLEY may be inspired by Brad Paisley (quite a creative baby namer himself with sons Huckleberry and Jasper).
On the boy’s side we have CASH — the snazzy name of Jessica Alba’s husband, Cash Warren. KINGSTON is the name of Gwen Stephani’s oldest son and it’s probably no accident that his name made it onto this list.
Follow the trends… the –en/-on sound at the end of boys’ names is quite hot and this list shows that loud and clear. There’s PAXTON, BRAYLON, KINGSTON, KOLTON, ZAYDEN, BRYCEN and LANDYN. That’s a little more than a third of all the names on the list.
Another trend we see represented here is the popularity of location names with LONDON on the girl’s list. Ditto for KINGSTON on the boy’s list.
Other names that made the list that may increase in popularity next year:
GIRLS’ BABY NAMES
AUDREY
CORA
DELILAH
FIONA
LILA
MALIA
PENELOPE
PEYTON
STELLA
VIOLET
BOYS’ BABY NAMES
EASTON
ELI
ELLIOT
FINN
GRADY
GRAYSON/GREYSON
HOLDEN
HUDSON
JASPER
KELLEN
LEVI
MADDOX
WESTON
WYATT
What names dropped in popularity? Here are the 20 names that took the biggest slide:
GIRLS’ BABY NAMES
ANGELIQUE
YOSELIN
JADEN
KIRSTEN
ANAHI
ALISSA
JULISSA
ASHLEE
MEREDITH
PAULINA
DAYANARA
DIAMOND
JAIDEN
RACHAEL
JOSELYN
ABRIL
PARIS
MEGHAN
JADYN
RYAN
BOYS’ BABY NAMES
ALDO
BRANDEN
OSVALDO
LELAND
BILLY
NOE
RODNEY
JAYLIN
FELIPE
TOBIAS
CAMRON
NATHANAEL
ORLANDO
TERRANCE
JALEN
JADON
CYRUS
SCOTT
JESSIE
CARL
We see some celebrity backlash here (which always happens eventually) — ORLANDO, CYRUS, PARIS, ASHLEE, JADEN/JAIDEN/JADYN.
Now it’s your turn! What do you think?
Subscribe to the RSS feed so you don’t miss any future baby name posts.
You can also follow me on TWITTER to get up-to-the-minute celebrity baby name news, name trivia, interesting names I come across and so much more…don’t miss out! I’m @babynameauthor!
♥ Amanda
If you have baby name questions for me, email me at amanda@amandabarden.com.
Your question might appear in a future edition of Ask Amanda.
For more information on baby names and their meanings check out
BABY NAMES MADE EASY: THE COMPLETE REVERSE-DICTIONARY OF BABY NAMES
