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Top Baby Names of 2016 (so far)

Top Baby Names of 2016 (so far)

by Pamela Redmond Satran

The most popular baby names of 2016 (so far) have been tallied, and we have a new Number 1 name for girls: Olivia.

This is the first time Olivia has taken the top spot in Nameberry’s popularity polls, unseating Charlotte. Olivia ranks in second place in the official US and British name standings, and at Number 1 in Australia and New Zealand. Olivia is a Latin name meaning “olive tree”; her male counterpart Oliver is also popular.

Charlotte was the Number 1 girls’ name for all of 2015, buoyed by the naming of England‘s baby princess, and also ruled the Nameberry charts for several previous years. Emma is the Number 1 girls’ baby name in the US for 2014, the most recent year counted by the Social Security administration.

The most popular boys’ name so far in 2016 is the Biblical Ezra, which also ruled Nameberry’s 2015 list. In fact, the first seven names on the boys’ Top 10 are identical to the full year 2015 results. There are only two new entrants to the boys’ Top 10, with Levi and Wyatt replacing Jude and Jasper.

In the girls’ Top 10 for 2016, there are three new A-starting names: Arabella, Aurora, and Adeline, taking over from Cora, Lucy, and Evelyn.

Our name rankings are based on the most-visited of the nearly 20 million views of our individual name pages in the first three months of this year.

The full Top 10 baby names so far in 2016, with their standings compared with 2015,  are:

[column1]

1.  Olivia, +3

2.  Amelia, =

3.  Charlotte, -2

4.  Ava, -1

5.  Isla, +2

6.  Arabella, +13

7.  Aurora, +4

8.  Adeline, +5

9.  Penelope, =

10. Eleanor, =

[/column1]

[column2]

1.  Ezra, =

2.  Asher, =

3.  Atticus, =

4.  Declan, =

5.  Oliver, =

6.  Silas, =

7.  Milo, =

8.  Levi, +4

9.  Henry, =

10.Wyatt, +5

[/column2]

The Top 10 furthest-rising names for each gender, with number of places they’ve risen over their standings in 2015, are:

[column1]

Astrid, +55

Sadie, +49

Elise, +47

Isabella, +33

Julia, +27

Thea, +26

Eloise, +24

Maya, +20

Aria, +18

Audrey, +16

[/column1]

[column2]

John, +44

Aryan, +43

Tobias, +43

Elijah, +39

Daniel, +38

Maxwell, +35

Xavier, +34

Julian, +30

Gabriel, +26

Samuel, +26

[/column2]

Baby names new to the Top 100 for 2016 are:

[column1]

Amara

Annabelle

Anouk

Freya

Jade

Juliet

Lily

Madeline

Molly

Ophelia

Phoebe

Willow

Zara

Zoe

[/column1]

[column2]

Abel

Augustine

Charles

Elias

Gideon

Hugo

Isaiah

Lewis

Lucian

Nathan

Nolan

Simon

Wesley

[/column2]

Research assistance by Esmeralda Rocha.

About the Author

Pamela Redmond

Pamela Redmond

Pamela Redmond is the cocreator and CEO of Nameberry and Baby Name DNA. The coauthor of ten groundbreaking books on names, Redmond is an internationally-recognized baby name expert, quoted and published widely in such media outlets as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Today Show, CNN, and the BBC. She has written about baby names for The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, and People.

Redmond is also a New York Times bestselling novelist whose books include Younger, the basis for the hit television show, and its sequel, Older. She has three new books in the works.