US top 20 names revisited

[ouronlylight.livejournal.com]

So I'm not sure if anyone else has done this already, but I was bored over the weekend, and I went over the SSA's list of top 100 baby names for 2012 and combined all of the homophonic names together for a more accurate idea of what the most popular names in the US actually are right now. The whole list would be ridiculous to post, but I thought you all might be interested if I shared the top 20 names per gender with you. :)

As a disclaimer, though, I'd like to add that deciding whether or not to combine the totals for two names was sometimes tricky. Take, for instance, Aiden and Adan. Adan may very have been used by some parents as a variant spelling for Aiden, but Adán is also the Spanish form of Adam, so the name may also have been used in that way by some Latino and other parents. Take also Camila and Camilla. Camila is presently a very popular name in the Hispanophone, and I have a feeling that the name is most popular in the US with Spanish-speaking parents, to whom the pronunciation would be kah-MEE-lah. However, the name could also have been used by English-speaking parents as a variant spelling of Camilla, pronounced kə-MIL-ə. So, in instances of doubt like those, I erred on the side of caution and kept the names separate in my list.

Listed is the new ranking of the name, the most common form of the name, the alternate forms in parentheses, the total number of babies born with those names in 2012, and then the original SSA ranking.

Female
1. Sophia (Sofia) ................................................................... 29,925 (SSA #1)
2. Isabella (Izabella, Isabela) ..................................................... 21,346 (SSA #3)
3. Emma ............................................................................. 20,791 (SSA #2)
4. Olivia (Alivia) .................................................................. 18,823 (SSA #4)
5. Layla (Laila, Leila, Laylah, Lailah, Leyla) ...................................... 16,837 (SSA #31)
6. Ava (Avah) ....................................................................... 15,743 (SSA #5)
7. Emily (Emely, Emilee, Emilie, Emmalee) ........................................... 15,587 (SSA #6)
8. Zoey (Zoe, Zoie) ................................................................. 14,303 (SSA #20)
9. Chloe (Khloe) .................................................................... 13,887 (SSA #11)
10. Madison (Maddison, Madisyn, Madyson) ............................................ 13,466 (SSA #9)
11. Aubrey (Aubree, Aubrie, Aubri) .................................................. 13,347 (SSA #15)
12. Abigail (Abbigail) .............................................................. 13,039 (SSA #7)
13. Mia (Miah) ...................................................................... 12,434 (SSA #8)
14. Madelyn (Madeline, Madilyn, Madeleine, Madelynn, Madalyn, Madilynn, Madalynn) ... 11,516 (SSA #67)
15. Lily (Lilly, Lillie) ............................................................ 11,263 (SSA #16)
16. Hailey (Haley, Haylee, Hayley, Hailee, Haylie, Haleigh, Hayleigh) ............... 10,537 (SSA #32)
17. Addison (Addyson, Addisyn) ...................................................... 10,211 (SSA #14)
18. Riley (Rylee, Ryleigh, Rylie) ................................................... 10,114 (SSA #47)
19. Elizabeth (Elisabeth) ........................................................... 10,054 (SSA #10)
20. Natalie (Nataly, Nathalie, Natalee, Nathaly) .................................... 9,623 (SSA #17)

Falling out of the SSA's original top 20 are Ella (12->24), Avery (13->22), and Charlotte (19->35).

Male
1. Aiden (Ayden, Aidan, Aden, Aydan, Aydin, Aidyn, Aaden) ........................... 26,458 (SSA #10)
2. Jackson (Jaxon, Jaxson, Jaxen) ................................................... 22,725 (SSA #22)
3. Jayden (Jaden, Jaiden, Jaydon, Jadon, Jaeden, Jaidyn) ............................ 21,736 (SSA #7)
4. Jacob (Jakob, Jaycob) ............................................................ 19,864 (SSA #1)
5. Mason (Mayson, Masen, Maison) .................................................... 19,716 (SSA #2)
6. Ethan ............................................................................ 17,547 (SSA #3)
7. Noah ............................................................................. 17,201 (SSA #4)
8. William .......................................................................... 16,726 (SSA #5)
9. Liam ............................................................................. 16,687 (SSA #6)
10. Michael (Micheal) ............................................................... 16,350 (SSA #8)
11. Kayden (Kaden, Caden, Kaiden, Cayden, Caiden, Kaeden) ........................... 15,870 (SSA #99)
12. Alexander (Alexzander) .......................................................... 15,429 (SSA #9)
13. Matthew (Mathew) ................................................................ 14,487 (SSA #12)
14. Elijah (Alijah) ................................................................. 14,314 (SSA #13)
15. Daniel .......................................................................... 14,143 (SSA #11)
16. James ........................................................................... 13,271 (SSA #14)
17. Anthony ......................................................................... 13,105 (SSA #15)
18. Caleb (Kaleb) ................................................................... 12,844 (SSA #32)
19. Benjamin ........................................................................ 12,695 (SSA #16)
20. Christopher (Kristopher, Cristopher) ............................................ 12,589 (SSA #23)

Falling out of the SSA's original top 20 are Joshua (17->21), Andrew (18->22), David (19->23), and Joseph (20->24).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, girls' names have far more alternate spellings in the SSA top 1000 than boy's names do. In all, once I did the condensing, I had 681 girls names and 778 boys names. I suspect this has something to do with many parents' assumption that girls can be given cutesy, kr8yvli-spelled names, and that will work out fine, but boys must have more serious, normally-spelled names so that they can grow up to be president or CEO one day, though I have no evidence to say conclusively.

Anyway, what do you guys think? Any surprises or shockers?

Comments

[kitchen-poet.livejournal.com]

Funny, I don't know any Laylas under 16 (although there seem to be an ever-increasing number of Lilas!) but I run into an Ava/Avah/Aava almost every week. But really, Layla was the only one on the list that really surprised me.

[roseofjuly.livejournal.com]

Same! I don't know any small Leilas but I know so many small Avas.

[jeweledvixen.livejournal.com]

Layla and Natalie surprised me. I hadn't realized Natalie was that popular right now.

I'm surprised Joshua and David dropped out of the top 100.

[madeyemads.livejournal.com]

I'm so done with Ava, Lily, Bella etc. soooo overdone! Avas will be like Sharon in thirty years!

And all the kreative spelling ... ugh. Madysyn, Addysyn, Rylee etc. BLEUGH.

The boys names (aside from your every day Maysin, Jaydin, Aydin) were quite good!

[how-obscure.livejournal.com]

It is AMAZING that you did this. It's really interesting to see. Some of these names made incredible jumps, which I guess goes to show that parents can't always just look at the ranking of their preferred name; they should check to see the prevalence of alternate spellings. I don't have any data either, but I would suspect your analysis regarding creativity in girls' vs. boys' names of having a sound basis, which irks me.

[how-obscure.livejournal.com]

I mean, it doesn't bother me that you've drawn that conclusion but that society is such that it is probably correct. Just wanted to clarify the "irks me" comment. :)

[smallandneedy.livejournal.com]

It always amuses me to see Emilie as a different spelling of Emily, because to me they're two different names. (eh-sound at the end of Emilie and ee-sound at the end of Emily) But I know that's due to variations in language.

Thanks for the list though! This is pretty awesome!

[bohemianvegan.livejournal.com]

I am not surprised that 'den' endings for boys is still popular.

[roseofjuly.livejournal.com]

This is really interesting! I didn't realize that Leila/Layla and Aubrey were so popular. They just knocked Ava, Chloe, and Charlotte out of the top 20.

I was always surprised that Aiden was only at #10 and Jayden at #7. It's still really interesting to me that the somewhat non-traditionl names of Jackson, Jayden, and Kayden are higher than perennial favorites like Daniel, James, Anthony and Matthew, since people tend to be more conservative with their boys' names. Actually, it's just interesting in general that the girls' list is more traditional/conservative than the boys' list.