The most popular baby names in America have changed quite a bit from the names of the 1950s and 1960s. The Top 10 girl's names of 2006 and the Top 10 girl's names from the 1950s have no names in common! The Top 10 boy's names from 2006 contains only two names from the top 10 list of the 1950s-- Michael and William.
In the last two decades, several baby name trends from the 1970s and 1980s have continued. One continuing trend was the quick rise of names to the height of fashion. Before the 1970's, name trends were pretty constant for generations at a time; today, trends can change significantly over a five year period. Another continuing trend is the prevalence of Biblical names and other old-fashioned sounding names.
Here are the most popular American baby names in the 1990s, the 2000s, and in 2006:
Top girl's names of the 1990s-- Jessica, Ashley, Emily, Sarah, Samantha, Amanda, Brittany, Elizabeth, Taylor, and Megan
Top girl's names from 2000-2006-- Emily, Madison, Emma, Hannah, Abigail, Olivia, Ashley, Samantha, Alexis, and Sarah
Top girl's names from 2006-- Emily, Emma, Madison, Isabella, Ava, Abigail, Olivia, Hannah, Sophia, and Samantha
Top boy's names from the 1990s-- Michael, Matthew, Christopher, Joshua, Jacob, Nicholas, Andrew, Daniel, Tyler, Joseph
Top boy's names from 2000-2006-- Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Matthew, Andrew, Christopher, Daniel, Joseph, Ethan, and Nicholas
Top boy's names from 2006-- Jacob, Joshua, Michael, Ethan, Matthew, Daniel, Christopher, Andrew, Anthony, and William
(Source: Social Security Administration)
Baby Name Trends for Girls
- Over the last two decades, it's become common for girl's names to quickly rise out of nowhere and become trendy. In the 1990s, trendy names included Kayla, Brianna, Hannah, Alexis, and Taylor. In the 2000s, the trendy names of choice have been Emma, Madison, Hailey, Isabella, Ava, Abigail, Olivia, and Sophia. In particular, Madison has risen from obscurity to ubiquity in less than a decade. Here's a list and a discussion of some of the most trendy American baby girls names
- Emma and Emily have become incredibly popular. Could this be because Rachel named her baby Emma on Friends? Maybe, but variants have Emma have become very common names throughout the world.
- Names that are Biblical or old-fashioned have become increasingly popular throughout the 2000s. Favorite choices include Emma, Emily, Hannah, Olivia, Abigail, Isabella, Sophia, Ava, Ella, Chloe, Grace, and Anna.
- Another common trend has been the "AILEY" and "AYLA" trend. Variations of this include multiple spellings of Kayla, Kaylee, Bailey, Hailey, Jaylee, and Jayla. Kaitlin, a similar sounding name with many spellings, is very popular as well.
- Androgynous names have also become the rage for girls, including Taylor, Riley, Morgan, Jordan, Cameron, Ryan, Hunter, Tanner, and Addison.
Baby Name Trends for Boys
- In the 1950s and 1960s, there was not much variety in boy's names. Although there still is more variety for girls, parents have boys have expanded their name choices greatly since the postwar decades. After many decades, James, John, David, and Robert have finally fallen off of the top 10. Here's a list of some of the most popular trendy names for boys, including the "ADEN" trend (Aiden, Caden, Hayden, Braden, and so forth).
- Some of the "newly" popular names these days are from the Old Testament. Michael, David, and Daniel are still around, but the most popular Biblical names these days are Jacob, Joshua, Joseph, and (a big newcomer) Ethan. Jacob has finally dethroned Michael as the #1 name. Other popular choices include Elijah, Benjamin, Nathan, Nathaniel, Noah, Jonah, Caleb, Isaiah, and Isaac.
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