Toddlers & Tiaras Baby Names

Extreme makeover: Brooklyn has gone from jokey Borough Boy name in the 1990s to a leading girls' name starting with B. The status of New York's Brooklyn as hipster heaven is ironic as few bona fide Brooklyn hipsters would choose this name.

Emerald is the intriguing color and jewel name of the deep green stone treasured as far back as ancient Egypt — it's supposed to open one's heart to wisdom and to love and be good for strengthening relationships — which could make for an interesting, unusual name, particularly with the popularity of so many Em-starting names.

A widely used name, Kaylee pulls together something from Kayla and something from Hailey, yet somehow loses something in the process. It has surpassed cousin Kayla on the charts and is one of three girls' names starting with Kthat ranks in the US Top 100.

This variation of Jordan entered the Top 1000 in 1989. Jordyn as well as Jordan trended throughout the 90s and early 2000s, but are beginning to fall slightly on the girls' side. While the Jordan spelling reached the highest point in popularity out of the 2, making it into the Top 50 in the late 90s and early 2000s, today Jordyn has taken the lead.

This most proper form of the name shot up the charts in the nineties, only to sink just as precipitously, supplanted by upstarts Makayla and McKayla ad infinitum. The Michaela version retains some elegance as the closest feminine form to the original.

Halia is one of Hawaii's top baby names, in the Top 50 for girls in 2021. Rare yet quietly on the rise outside of Hawaii, it was given to around 64 girls in a recent year. With its appealing meaning and approachable sound, Halia may see more use in the future.

While Alivia may not have achieved the megapopularity of its mother name, it's still a widely used choice. Alivia combines the trendiness of A names with the trendiness of Olivia to create a choice that's slightly off the beaten track -- slightly being the operative word here. Is the distinction the initial A earns you worth a lifetime of explaining, "No, it's Alivia, with an A, not Olivia"? Your call, though ours would be no.

A simple, unusual word name with an evocative meaning, Ever feels similar enough to Eva, Evelyn, and Everly that it shifts easily into name territory. Actor Robert Carradine was ahead of the trends when he named his now grown-up actress daughter Ever back in the 70s, while more recently, it was used by both Milla Jovovich and Owain Yeoman.

A Scottish surname name, more popular as the Presidential McKinley, meaning "son of the fair hero".

Mercedes is one of the few names attached to luxury living that we can wholeheartedly recommend, it being a legitimate Spanish appellation stemming from one of the epithets given to the Virgin Mary--Santa Maria de las Mercedes, or Our Lady of the Mercies. The car, by the way was named after the eleven-year-old daughter of the Daimler company's French distributor in 1901.

Malina is a synthetic-feeling name that may be a feminization of the Scottish Malcolm or a spelling twist on the Greek Melina and that also has a fruit meaning in several Eastern European languages. For all that it's a little bit of lots of things, Malina doesn't feel very much like itself.

Lexi and Lexie, pixie-ish offshoots of the prolific Alex family, have come into their own, remaining in the Top 1000 for more than 20 years now.

State name Alaska stems from an Aleutian word for the land mass itself. The number of baby girls named Alaska has doubled in the past five years, and is sure to continue increasing as more place names are annexed as baby names. Wilder but as habitable as Dakota or Cheyenne, Alaska is a girls' name choice for the future.

Associated with poetry, pop music, and the Greek lyre, Lyric has a light and zippy sound to it and joins the likes of Melody, Harmony, Cadence, and Aria as musical names that have become baby names. A unisex name, it is currently three times more popular for girls in the US where it sits in the Top 600. It has declined in use since its 2014 peak, but was still given to around 560 girls in a recent year.

An international possibility, heard from England and Israel to Poland, Latvia, and Albania. It is a name with a vast range of possible meanings and origins, including: a Polish variation of Jane, meaning "God is Gracious"; a Croatian, Bosnian, and Serbian short form of Susanna, meaning "lily"; a Persian name meaning "woman"; a Mongolian name meaning "bullfinch"; and a Shona name from Zimbabwe meaning "a hundred".

Now the best-selling version of this infinitely varied name, Makayla incorporates the also-popular Kayla. Makayla and Mikayla have now left the original Michaela far behind.

Annabella is one of a constellation of names that include Anabella, Annabelle, Annabel, Anabel, Annabelle, and Annabell -- all lovely names that have suffered from their association with the eponymous horror movie. Annabella fell off the US Top 1000 in 2021, and ironically, the only version of the name that hangs on in the Top 1000 is Annabelle, the spelling used in the movie.

Kids love Bob the Builder, but do they want to be Bob the Builder? Bob and Bobby have been out of style since the 1960s, but as vintage nickname-names -- Fred, Archie -- come back into vogue, Bob may tag along. Charlie Sheen used it for one of his twin sons.

So sweet it makes our teeth hurt. It has appeared in the US Top 1000 every year since 2006, though it dropped a significant 136 places from 2014 to 2015, and kept dropping to Number 974 in 2016.

This Anglicized spelling of Irish Aislinn or Aisling has enjoyed some popularity in the US as an updated Ashley.