Names By Year articles

I recently read an article likening the act of choosing a baby name to choosing produce in the grocery store. You want to find the 'freshest and most colorful' name that you can find at the time. There is such a strong tendency toward choosing 'trendy names' that we see more and more unique names registering each year. But there is something to be said for choosing a name that sounds good now, but will also sound just as good in 30 years. There is something to be said for the classy and the timeless.

If you haven't already guessed it by now: we are still totally obsessed with the SSA's baby name archives. Goodbye, productivity! Today we thought we'd look at the big winners of the year: the names which rose the most through the rankings. Some of those listed below started from very humble beginnings, so we can't necessarily make any major assumptions about current trends and whether we're going to see any big shifts in the future. It's an interesting glimpse into flash changes in baby naming customs, but we don't expect seeing Kehlani knock Emma from its top spot any time soon!

Day 3 of us rooting through the SSA's baby name vault! This time looking at the ten most popular names 100 years ago. Plenty of classics to be found, but do any of them surprise you? John means 'God is gracious' and, if nothing else, it has certainly graced a lot of Social Security cards! After enjoying its first four or so decades at the top spot, the name has seen a very (very!) small, though consistent, drop in popularity. Last year just under 10,000 Johns were born; 100 fewer than the more recent J-name addition, Jayden.

Yesterday we saw the ten most popular names from 25 years ago, and today we're looking even further back, to 1966. One thing we've definitely noticed going through the historic statistics is that while the same names keep on cropping up in the boys' lists, girls' names are very much affected by the fashion of the time. Something we noticed looking through the statistics is that in the past parents seemed far more concerned with fitting in with the current naming trends. Take Michael: in 1966, nearly 80,000 baby boys were given this name.

Confession: we've been completely obsessed with the Social Security Administration's baby name page ever since they released 2016's 1000 most popular names early in May. (As a friendly warning from us to you, do not go onto the website unless you're OK with getting sucked into lists of baby stats for several hours!) After learning everything we could about 2016's list, we thought we'd delve a little deeper and look into the archives to see what's changed of the years. Today, we look back at 1991! Has much changed in the last 25 years?

The results are in and we have 2016's top 1000 baby names! And we've trawled through them all to find each letter's top pick! A is for Alexander – just outside the top 10, a name associated with strength and power over the ages and now seeing an added boost in response to the increased interest in the Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton.

Yesterday we brought you the A to Z of boys' names, but of course we didn't forget the girls! Here are the 24 (ahem, U and Y!) names that made their way to the top last year: A is for Ava – #3 overall in 2016, Ava now far outranks its original form Eve in popularity. It's simple, but beautiful and also extremely powerful: its meaning is 'life'.