Keeping Up With the Trends: Recent Favorite Baby Names
by Nicole Huppenthal
Are you a trendy person? Do you pride yourself in keeping up with what's popular and stylish this year? Do you want to make sure your incoming bundle of joy has one of the top names? Or, do you not want to end up with one of 40,000 Emmas born this year? Perhaps you do not want to choose the same thing that everyone else is because it's what is hot at the time. Let's take a look at the most popular names of the past several years to help decide which name might be the best to choose (or perhaps the best NOT to)
2016 Top 5 Boy and Girl Names
Boys: Noah, Liam, William, Mason, James
Girls: Emma, Olivia, Ava, Sophia, Isabella
2015 Top 5 Boy and Girl Names
Boys: Noah, Liam, Mason, Jacob, William
Girls: Emma, Olivia, Sophia, Ava, Isabella
2014 Top 5 Boy and Girl Names
Boys: Noah, Liam, Mason, Jacob, William
Girls: Emma, Olivia, Sophia, Isabella, Ava
2013 Top 5 Boy and Girl Names
Boys: Noah, Liam, Mason, Jacob, William
Girls: Sophia, Emma, Olivia, Isabella, Ava
2012 Top 5 Boy and Girl Names
Boys: Jacob, Mason Ethan, Noah, William
Girls: Sophia, Emma, Isabella, Olivia, Ava
2011 Top 5 Boy and Girl Names
Boys: Jacob, Mason, William, Jayden, Noah
Girls: Sophia, Emma, Isabella, Olivia, Ava
It is easy to see that trendy names do not stick around for a year and then disappear. They remain trendy for quite some time. From this information, we can see that of the top 30 boys' names over the past 5 years, there are only 8 unique names. And for the girls of 30 names, the same five repeated each year, just in a different order. Let's take a deeper look into the most popular names of the past five years.
Noah Clearly of biblical origin, Noah has Hebrew roots and means "to comfort." It has been around forever, but has taken off in popularity in the last two decades.
Liam An Irish name that began as a short version of William, means "resolute protector"
Mason An English and French name that means "stoneworker"
Jacob A classic and biblical names, means "supplanter"
William German in origin, this name is derived from words that mean "will" and "helmet."
James A common royal name, and the English version of "Jacob." In Hebrew, means "supplanter" or "heel grabber"
Ethan A Hebrew name that shows up in the bible 8 times, means "strong and firm"
Jayden Of Hebrew origin, a combination of Jay and Aiden, also an alternate spelling to Jaden.
Emma A German name that means "complete, whole, universal," this name lasts as a very charming and classic name.
Olivia Latin, meaning "olive tree," also a feminine form of the male "Oliver"
Sophia Greek name meaning "wisdom"
Ava Of Hebew origin, meaning "like a bird"
Isabella – Italian and Spanish variations of Elizabeth, which means "God is my oath"
In this collection we see some very classic and historic names, such as James, Jacob, William, Sophia, and Isabella. Even the less "classic" names, such as Liam and Isabella, have roots in more traditional names and origins. Most people would expect much trendier names to be on top of an annual popularity list. However, this collection continues to prove that older names continue to come around as new, and classic names will always have a spot in our hearts. And how can we disagree? With meanings such as "like a bird" or "complete and whole," you really can fall in love with every part of some of these names.
