I enjoy publishing the Social Security Administration’s list of most-popular baby names each year. It’s interesting to see the changes, usually related to popular culture such as trendy TV shows or hot movies. Here is the latest list:
Teen Mom Moving Up While Elvis Has Left the Building
Jacob and Isabella are king and queen of the crib for another year. This is the twelfth year in a row on our list for Jacob and the second for Isabella, although 2010 has a new number two for girls, Sophia. The only new name to crawl into the top 10 on either list this year is Aiden, which replaces Joshua on the boys’ side.
For all the top baby names of 2010, go to Social Security’s website www.socialsecurity.gov. Here are the top 10 boys and girls names for 2010:
Boys:
- Jacob
- Ethan
- Michael
- Jayden
- William
- Alexander
- Noah
- Daniel
- Alden
- Anthony
Girls:
- Isabella
- Sophia
- Emma
- Olivia
- Ava
- Emily
- Abigail
- Madison
- Chloe
- Mia
A popular feature of Social Security’s baby names website is the “Change in Name Popularity” page. This year’s winners for biggest jump in popularity in the Top 500 are related to each other. Maci and Bentley had the biggest jumps in popularity. Maci Bookout and her infant son, Bentley, were prominently featured on the show “Teen Mom” and its predecessor, “16 and Pregnant.”
If you remember last year’s baby name craze around the “Twilight” novels and movies, it should come as no surprise that “Twilight” scores again this year. The second fastest riser on the boys’ list is Kellan, the name of actor Kellan Lutz, best known for playing Emmett Cullen in the “Twilight” series. Coming in third is Knox, one of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s toddler twins.
On the girls’ side, Tiana, the name of the main character in the Disney movie, “The Princess and the Frog” and Disney’s first African-American princess, is one of the biggest chart hoppers.
We’d like to send our best wishes to the newly married royal couple, William and Kate, along with this baby name information. A recent trend in the top girls’ names is a return to names that were popular in the early to mid-1900s. Names like Isabella, Ava, and Chloe, which had disappeared almost completely from the top 1,000 girls’ names, have surged in popularity in recent years, which suggests a trend in naming newborn girls after their grandmothers. So while we typically report only on American baby names, we note the excitement about the recent royal wedding and suggest there may be a Princess Elizabeth, Frances, Valerie, or Dorothy in the future.
There also is some sad news to report on what is usually a happy topic. To the dismay of Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue, Elvis has left the building. Quicker than you can eat a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich, Elvis slipped out of the top 1,000 for the first time since 1954.
“This news about Elvis has me all shook up,” said Commissioner Astrue. “But that’s all right mama. I’m confident that, next year, America’s new parents can’t help falling in love with Elvis again and moving it back into the top 1,000.”
The Social Security website offers lists of baby names for each year since 1880. Social Security started compiling baby name lists in 1997.
