2016 Baby Names

In honor of Mother's Day, Social Security released the most popular baby names from the previous year. Here they are for 2016:

Rank	Male name	Female name
1	Noah	Emma
2	Liam	Olivia
3	William	Ava
4	Mason	Sophia
5	James	Isabella
6	Benjamin	Mia
7	Jacob	Charlotte
8	Michael	Abigail
9	Elijah	Emily
10	Ethan	Harper

Source: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/

Here are some comments about changes from 2015. We'll start with the boys.

Noah and Liam continue to hold the 1 and 2 spots. William, a rare traditional name on the list, moves up from 5th to 3rd. That was my father's name and is my brother's name. Mason drops from #3 to #4. James, another traditional name, rises from #7 to #5. Benjamin, a name I like, rises from #10 to #6. Jacob continues its fall from #4 to #7. Jacob was #1 from 2000 to 2012. I'm dismayed to see Michael rise from #9 to #8. A major reason I started this project was to kill the name Michael. Another biblical name, Elijah, rises from #11 to #9. Ethan falls from #6 to #10.

With the girls, the #1 and #2 spots also stay the same with Emma and Olivia respectively. Ava and Sophia swap positions, now #3 and #4 respectively. Isabella, a suspect a Twilight name, holds at #5. Mia also holds at #6. Charlotte and Abigail swap the 7th and 9th spots. Emily falls from #8 to #9. Harper holds at #10.

As usual, the boy names tend to end in a consonant and girl names a vowel. Surprisingly, there was about the same movement in both genders. Usually the girl names tend to rise and fall a lot faster than the boy names.

The question for the poll is which is your favorite boy's name?

LOL - all forms of the name "Caitlyn" had the biggest drops in popularity for girls' names. Wonder why? ;)

As for the poll, I voted for Elijah.

I picked William from among your choices. I think it's for Prince William, soon to be King of England. Surprised Catherine hasn't surged as well. They are both admirable.

My son would have been Zebediah Edward, Zed for short. My daughter would have been Alexandria Teresa, Andria for short. Neither very popular names, but I liked them.

Mike, any affiliation with Baby Name Wizard?

http://www.babynamewizard.com

It's one of the sites all these recent baby name articles are referencing.

Quote: gamerfreak

Mike, any affiliation with Baby Name Wizard?

http://www.babynamewizard.com

It's one of the sites all these recent baby name articles are referencing.

No. I'm very impressed with that site but, no, I have nothing to do with it.

I can't believe people are naming their boys Mason. Mason jar, Mason-Dixon line, bad connotations. Where are they getting that name from? I can see some of these names seem movie star related like Liam and Emma, but Mason must be blamed on lead poisoning in the water.

Quote: Wizard

In honor of Mother's Day, Social Security released the most popular baby names from the previous year. Here they are for 2016:

Rank	Male name	Female name
1	Noah	Emma
2	Liam	Olivia
3	William	Ava
4	Mason	Sophia
5	James	Isabella
6	Benjamin	Mia
7	Jacob	Charlotte
8	Michael	Abigail
9	Elijah	Emily
10	Ethan	Harper

Source: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/

Here are some comments about changes from 2015. We'll start with the boys.

Noah and Liam continue to hold the 1 and 2 spots. William, a rare traditional name on the list, moves up from 5th to 3rd. That was my father's name and is my brother's name. Mason drops from #3 to #4. James, another traditional name, rises from #7 to #5. Benjamin, a name I like, rises from #10 to #6. Jacob continues its fall from #4 to #7. Jacob was #1 from 2000 to 2012. I'm dismayed to see Michael rise from #9 to #8. A major reason I started this project was to kill the name Michael. Another biblical name, Elijah, rises from #11 to #9. Ethan falls from #6 to #10.

With the girls, the #1 and #2 spots also stay the same with Emma and Olivia respectively. Ava and Sophia swap positions, now #3 and #4 respectively. Isabella, a suspect a Twilight name, holds at #5. Mia also holds at #6. Charlotte and Abigail swap the 7th and 9th spots. Emily falls from #8 to #9. Harper holds at #10.

As usual, the boy names tend to end in a consonant and girl names a vowel. Surprisingly, there was about the same movement in both genders. Usually the girl names tend to rise and fall a lot faster than the boy names.

The question for the poll is which is your favorite boy's name?

I couldn't vote because your poll doesn't have the best name ever on it. AxelWolf.

Keep and eye on Chloe and Scarlett.

Also keep a close eye on names with the letters "R" or "S" in them.

I've also liked the name Katherine (with a K, not a C, what are we, neanderthals?), as well as Chloe. Scarlet is a little wonky, reminds me of The Scarlet Letter. But then again, Scarlett is a badass Starcraft II player. I used to play other games with Scarlett infrequently and it wasn't even remotely fair...

Top 6 girls names end with "a". Sounds like uh, weird. Harper, how in the? Never heard that one before.