It’s like Christmas morning for us around here. The Social Security Administration released its 2018 baby name rankings today! Since it uses the names from 2018 Social Security card applications, the SSA list is the official report of what people actually named their babies last year.
Here are the top 10 baby names of 2018:
POPULAR FEMALE NAMES
And the top five female baby names…drumroll, please….
Stayed exactly the same. Ha! Well, so maybe nothing terribly exciting there. But, Charlotte skipped over Mia to claim the #6 spot, and Harper jumped into the top 10 for the first time, knocking out the long-standing Abigail. So that’s something.
POPULAR MALE NAMES
For male names, Liam, Noah, William, and James remain in the top 4, and in the same order. Buuuut….Oliver zooms up the chart from #9 in 2017 to #5 in 2018. Logan drops from #5 to #10, and Lucas, which was absent from the top 10 in 2017 now takes the #8 spot.
FAST RISERS
It’s typical for the top 10 to stay fairly consistent for a while. So let’s dig in to the more interesting data: the names that had the greatest change in popularity in the one year from 2017 to 2018:
Leave it to Meghan Markle to make a name that doesn’t follow any of the current popularity rules suddenly popular. Peaking in popularity in the 1980s, Meghan’s rapid rise up the ranks in 2018 is clearly a direct influence of the Duchess, because of its spelling. We also know that the Kardashians put Saint on the map when Kimye bestowed the moniker on baby West in 2015.
And for many of the others in this chart, we can see 2018’s name trends at work. In 2018, the surname-name trend continued to have influence. Baker, Walker, Dior, and Palmer represent some off-beat options. The popularity of -lee and -lynn endings is on display in the above Adalee and Oaklynn, whereas Kairo picks up on the place-name trend and Genesis goes biblical.
For more, visit the complete list of 2018 baby name rankings on the SSA website.
And be sure to check back on Monday, when we share our picks for THE BEST names on the fast-risers list!