Annual List of Most Popular Baby Names 2020 Revealed
This has been a brutal year for obvious reasons and an equally brutal political season at all levels of government. So, we went looking for a little joy and a diversion from the usual fare, We found it in the most popular baby names for 2020.
We hope it brings a bit of joy to your home, too.
BabyCenter this week debuted its annual list of the most popular baby names of the year.
We found some interesting trends. First, Sophia and Liam continue to top the list as the most popular baby names. This marks Sophia’s 11th consecutive year as the top name for girls. Liam came in at No.1 for a second consecutive year for boys.
Riley moved from ninth place to third on the girls list (the biggest gain of any top 10 name), while the increasingly popular Mateo broke into the boys top 10 list for the first time.
Outside of the top 10, the names Kobe and Gianna both saw significant increases in popularity, likely inspired by the deaths of Kobe Bryant and his daughter.
Turns out politics might have played a role in baby names, too. Kamala and Liberty experienced a sizable increase in popularity,
Kamala — the first name of Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ nominee for vice president — is up 100% year over year.
Meanwhile, Liberty, the name political commentator Meghan McCain of The View gave her baby daughter, jumped by 69 spots.
There were a couple of comical nosedives, Karen dropped 153 spots and Alexa fell 121 spots. “Karen” has, in recent years, become a widespread meme referencing a specific type of middle-class white woman, who exhibits behaviors that stem from privilege. Alexa is Amazon’s cloud-based voice service available on hundreds of millions of devices from Amazon and third-party device manufacturers.
Without further delay, following are the most popular baby names for boys:
1. Liam (Ranked No. 1 for the second consecutive year)
2. Noah
3. Jackson
4. Aiden
5. Elijah
6. Grayson
7. Lucas
8. Oliver
9. Caden
10. Mateo (New to the top 10 this year)
And, now for the most popular names or girls:
1. Sophia (Ranked No. 1 for the 11th consecutive year)
2. Olivia
3. Riley
4. Emma
5. Ava
6. Isabella
7. Aria
8. Aaliyah
9. Amelia
10. Mia
Image Sources
- Baby booties: Shutterstock
