The Most Popular Baby Names of 2016

The Most Popular Baby Names of 2016

There’s a new girls’ name heading the list of popular baby names 2016, with Olivia claiming Nameberry’s official Number 1 spot.

Ezra holds his place at the top of the popular boy names list, a position the Biblical name claimed in 2015.

Olivia replaces Charlotte, the girls’ top name for 2015, which slips to Number 3 on our list of popular girl names. Amelia, Ava, and Isla round out the girls’ Top 5. Five new girls’ names ascend to the Top 10 in 2016: Arabella, Aurora, Adeline, Isabella, and Mia.

The Top 5 boys’ names retain the order they claimed for 2015: Ezra, Asher, Atticus, Declan, and Oliver. Only two names are new to the boys’ Top 10 in 2016: Levi and Wyatt.

Nameberry ranks which names attract the most views of nearly 40 million visits to its name pages in the first half of 2016. The list gauges the baby names that are winning the most attention from parents-to-be right now, and may predict which names will be used most for babies in the future.

Aryan is the hottest boys’ name for the first half of 2016, rising 49 places. An Indo-Iranian name that means warrior or honorable, Aryan is Number 697 on the official US popularity list. But its controversial nature related to White Supremacy undoubtedly accounts for some of its attention.

Other hot baby names for boys, all up more than 40 places, are John, Tobias, Daniel, Xavier, and Maxwell.

For girls, the hottest name so far this year is Sadie, up 48 places. Other girls’ names up more than 30 places in 2016 are Elise, Astrid, Isabella, and Thea.

Newcomers to the 2016 Top 100 include several unusual names we may hear lots more of in coming years. For girls, these are Anouk, Cecilia, Freya, and Ophelia. For boys, they are Alistair, Hugo, and Lucian.

Here’s the full Top 100 for girls’ and boys’ for the first half of 2016.

popular girl names

1.     OLIVIA

2.     AMELIA

3.     CHARLOTTE

4.     AVA

5.     ISLA

6.     ARABELLA

7.     AURORA

8.     ADELINE

9.     ISABELLA

10.  MIA

11.  ELEANOR

12.  ARIA

13.  PENELOPE

14.  CORA

15.  ROSE

16.  VIOLET

17.  HAZEL

18.  THEA

19.  CLAIRE

20.  EMMA

21.  ALICE

22.  LUCY

23.  LUNA

24.  NORA

25.  MILA

26.  ELIZABETH

27.  SCARLETT

28.  ASTRID

29.  IMOGEN

30.  ELLA

31.  GENEVIEVE

32.  MAEVE

33.  AUDREY

34.  GRACE

35.  SADIE

36.  EVANGELINE

37.  CHLOE

38.  ESME

39.  EMILY

40.  IVY

41.  ELOISE

42.  OPHELIA

43.  CAROLINE

44.  AURELIA

45.  MAYA

46.  STELLA

47.  ADELAIDE

48.  KHALEESI

49.  LILA

50.  NOVA

51.  ELISE

52.  EVELYN

53.  JANE

54.  LYDIA

55.  MAISIE

56.  ELLIE

57.  BEATRICE

58.  IRIS

59.  ELODIE

60.  CLARA

61.  SOPHIA

62.  ANNA

63.  EMILIA

64.  ELIZA

65.  HARLOW

66.  AMARA

67.  JULIA

68.  MAE

69.  ISABEL

70.  JOSEPHINE

71.  JADE

72.  POPPY

73.  ABIGAIL

74.  SIENNA

75.  HANNAH

76.  MATILDA

77.  ELSIE

78.  ZARA

79.  SERAPHINA

80.  WILLOW

81.  ZOE

82.  MADELINE

83.  EVIE

84.  ADA

85.  WILLA

86.  JULIET

87.  PHOEBE

88.  MOLLY

89.  MARGARET

90.  LILY

91.  ANOUK

92.  MABEL

93.  FREYA

94.  ELIANA

95.  LEAH

96.  ANNABELLE

97.  DAISY

98.  EVA

99.  CECILIA

100.                 NAOMI

popular boy names

1.     EZRA

2.     ASHER

3.     ATTICUS

4.     DECLAN

5.     OLIVER

6.     MILO

7.     SILAS

8.     LEVI

9.     WYATT

10.  HENRY

11.  JACK

12.  JASPER

13.  LEO

14.  ELIJAH

15.  ETHAN

16.  THEODORE

17.  SEBASTIAN

18.  CALEB

19.  LIAM

20.  OSCAR

21.  ELI

22.  BENJAMIN

23.  BODHI

24.  AUSTIN

25.  FELIX

26.  MILES

27.  ALEXANDER

28.  JACOB

29.  ZACHARY

30.  WILLIAM

31.  LUKE

32.  AXEL

33.  THOMAS

34.  ANDREW

35.  XAVIER

36.  ISAAC

37.  JULIAN

38.  JAMES

39.  MATTHEW

40.  LUCAS

41.  ARYAN

42.  FINN

43.  JOHN

44.  SAMUEL

45.  NATHANIEL

46.  SOREN

47.  ROMAN

48.  DANIEL

49.  JOSIAH

50.  TOBIAS

51.  MAXWELL

52.  CALLUM

53.  GABRIEL

54.  LINCOLN

55.  NOLAN

56.  ISAIAH

57.  RONAN

58.  CONNOR

59.  HARRISON

60.  BECKETT

61.  CHARLES

62.  OWEN

63.  GRAYSON

64.  LACHLAN

65.  GIDEON

66.  JONAH

67.  ARTHUR

68.  CHRISTIAN

69.  RYKER

70.  ARCHER

71.  LUCIAN

72.  JUDE

73.  WESLEY

74.  JACKSON

75.  HARRY

76.  KAI

77.  JOSEPH

78.  GRAHAM

79.  NATHAN

80.  SIMON

81.  HUGO

82.  ABEL

83.  MADDOX

84.  GRIFFIN

85.  LANDON

86.  DAVID

87.  THEO

88.  LEWIS

89.  RYDER

90.  ZANE

91.  ALISTAIR

92.  DASHIELL

93.  KNOX

94.  BENNETT

95.  NICHOLAS

96.  RHETT

97.  VINCENT

98.  GEORGE

99.  EDWARD

100.                 LOUIS

Research 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.