As 2017 draws to a close, baby naming experts are reflecting on the year’s data. Nameberry released its annual list of most popular names, based on the number of visitors to individual name pages on the website.
Atticus is the number one name for boys on Nameberry’s list of Most Popular Baby Names of 2017, with Olivia is the top girl name for the second year in a row.
While girls’ names conventionally move up and down the fashion ladder more quickly, this year’s Nameberry list is more volatile on the boys’ side, with more new entries in the count of top 1000 baby names and more names making dramatic shifts up or down the ladder
That’s evidence of a sea change in how parents choose names for their sons, moving away from family names and traditional male choices and judging boys’ names the same way they do girls’ ― with style as the driving factor.
Nameberry’s popular names list measures which names attract the largest share of the site’s nearly 250 million page views versus how many babies actually receive that name. It’s a gauge of parents’ interest in baby names and a predictor of which names will become more popular in the future.
Three new names vaulted onto the top ten list this year for each sex: Cora, Maia, and Amara for girls, and Theodore, Jasper, and Henry for boys. Maia is the most surprising newcomer to the group, also new to the Nameberry top 100 and among the U.S. top 1000 baby names for only a decade.
Here are Nameberry’s lists of the top ten baby names lists for girls and boys in 2017 (with * indicating which names are new to the lists this year).
Girls
- Olivia
- Cora*
- Amelia
- Charlotte
- Isla
- Isabella
- Maia*
- Aurora
- Amara*
- Ava
Boys
- Atticus
- Asher
- Jack
- Theodore*
- Jasper*
- Milo
- Oliver
- Silas
- Henry*
- Wyatt
On Nameberry’s top 100 lists, new entrants besides Maia on the girls’ side are Rumi, the name of Beyonce and Jay-Z’s baby daughter, along with Alexandra, Allegro, Brielle, Celeste, and Elena.
There are more than twice as many new names on the boys’ top 100: Adam, Augustus, Caspian, Charlie, Dante, Edward, Emmett, Everett, Ian, Jonathan, Kane, Kian, Magnus, Maverick, Rhett, Winston and Xander.
The girls’ names vaulting furthest up the list in 2017 are Evelyn, Amara, Naomi, Ada, and Phoebe, all up more than 20 places.
For boys, names that rose 20 or more places are Leo, Harvey, Kai, Liam, Arthur, Cassius, George, Finn, Ryker, Louis, Harry, and Jude.
Names with ties to mythology, ancient cultures, and classic literature (which also topped Nameberry’s baby name trend predictions for 2017) also dominate the new popular names list.
Atticus qualifies on two counts. It’s the name of a Roman literary figure as well as the first name of the hero of Harper Lee’s beloved novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.
The number two name for girls, Cora, has mythological roots. It’s another name for Persephone, goddess of fertility and the underworld and is also the first name of the heroine of the classic American novel Last of the Mohicans. Maia is the Greek mother of Hermes and the Roman goddess of spring. Rumi is the name of a 13th century poet, and Phoebe is another name for the goddess of the moon and also figures in the New Testament, Shakespeare, and Catcher in the Rye.
On the boys’ side, Silas relates to the Roman god of trees, Augustus is the name of a Roman Emperor, and Magnus is a royal appellation meaning “greatest.” Caspian is a name from The Chronicles of Narnia and Dante was a medieval poet.
Other mythological and literary names on the rise include Ophelia, Freya, and Esme for girls; Cassius, Axel, and Felix for boys.
For more baby name inspiration, the full top 100 lists for boys and girls are below and the full 1000 most popular baby names of 2017 list is available on Nameberry’s website.
Top 100 Names for Girls in 2017:
- Olivia
- Cora
- Amelia
- Charlotte
- Isla
- Isabella
- Maia
- Aurora
- Amara
- Ava
- Rumi
- Penelope
- Evelyn
- Ophelia
- Rose
- Eleanor
- Violet
- Luna
- Arabella
- Hazel
- Imogen
- Esme
- Maeve
- Elizabeth
- Alice
- Audrey
- Adeline
- Genevieve
- Aurelia
- Thea
- Khaleesi
- Lucy
- Ivy
- Jane
- Emma
- Mia
- Eloise
- Claire
- Emilia
- Nora
- Iris
- Lydia
- Anna
- Astrid
- Lila
- Julia
- Sadie
- Elise
- Stella
- Isabel
- Scarlett
- Ada
- Evangeline
- Caroline
- Eliza
- Adelaide
- Matilda
- Aria
- Naomi
- Clara
- Phoebe
- Chloe
- Elodie
- Josephine
- Brielle
- Sienna
- Beatrice
- Molly
- Ella
- Mae
- Mila
- Allegro
- Hannah
- Celeste
- Seraphina
- Zoe
- Freya
- Sophia
- Maisie
- Gemma
- Willow
- Poppy
- Grace
- Margaret
- Madeline
- Emily
- Elena
- Daisy
- Maya
- Elsie
- Juliet
- Willa
- Ellie
- Jade
- Eliana
- Rebecca
- Zara
- Alexandra
- Evie
- Abigail
Top 100 Names for Boys in 2017:
- Atticus
- Asher
- Jack
- Theodore
- Jasper
- Milo
- Oliver
- Silas
- Henry
- Wyatt
- Leo
- Oscar
- Declan
- Xavier
- Felix
- Levi
- Finn
- Matthew
- Thomas
- Axel
- Sebastian
- Arthur
- Bodhi
- Alexander
- Kai
- Ethan
- Julian
- Benjamin
- William
- Caleb
- Zachary
- Aryan
- Liam
- Miles
- Elijah
- James
- Callum
- John
- Soren
- Charles
- Tobias
- Harvey
- Andrew
- Roman
- Eli
- Harry
- Harrison
- Ronan
- Ryker
- Ezra
- Nathaniel
- Cassius
- Jacob
- Jude
- Charlie
- Dante
- Isaac
- George
- Archer
- Samuel
- Lachlan
- Hugo
- Luke
- Magnus
- Isaiah
- Rhett
- Daniel
- Jonathan
- Gideon
- Lucas
- Graham
- Owen
- Wesley
- Louis
- Maverick
- Josiah
- Lucian
- Joseph
- Lewis
- Augustus
- Simon
- Gabriel
- Everett
- Kian
- Vincent
- Xander
- Kane
- Nolan
- Griffin
- David
- Emmett
- Ian
- Adam
- Caspian
- Nathan
- Winston
- Beckett
- Nicholas
- Edward
- Knox