How notoriety beats tradition. America’s most popular baby names

Traditional baby names seem to be the last thing on the mind of young parents as they are searching for more modern variants. And last year, in particular, a strange name has registered the highest increase in popularity. Strangely enough, it is the name of a movie villain and not the hero that has inspired parents in the United States.

Choosing a baby’s name is not only an important step towards parenthood but for a lot of couples has become a favourite pass-time especially in this day and age when it seems that the only limit is the parents’ imagination. Trends are created, and there are countless articles that suggest name variants, from the most popular ones to the strangest and the more exclusive. While some names have achieved a somewhat universal status, other are more cultural specific but today, as diversity grows, so does the intertwining between tradition, modernity and ethnicity.

This is clearly shown by the U.S. Social Security Administration that each year releases the list with the most popular baby names in America. According to the 2016 ranking, for the third year in a row, Emma and Noah were the most popular baby names in America. And the top ten list seems rather stable given the fact that there is only one new entry: Elijah.

And each year, the list reveals the effect of pop-culture on naming trends. 2016 was no different but with one notable exception.

Overall, it was a girl’s name that registered the highest spike in popularity. Kehlani rose 2,487 spots, to number 872, from number 3,359 in 2015. Perhaps this can be attributed to Kehlani Parrish, a singer and songwriter who was nominated for a Grammy in 2016. She was named an artist to watch and clearly new parents agree her star is rising. Kehlani collaborated with Zayn Malik, the former One Direction star and current solo artist, on a song in 2016. The name Zayn also made the boys fastest riser list.

The biggest jump in popularity for boys was recorded by Kylo. It soared 2,368 spots for the boys, from number 3,269 in 2015 to number 901. Kylo Ren, the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia and the grandson of Darth Vader, was a character in the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The sudden preference for Kylo, a character that embraced the Dark side of the Force is somewhat surprising and might signal that things are changing for heroes, which have dominated the minds of future parents in other years.

The second fastest riser for girls was Royalty.This could be due to mother being enthralled with royal families and royal descent or by parents with Kansas City Royals fans.

For boys, the second fastest rising name was Creed, probably related to the release in 2015 of the Rocky sequel with the same name. This explanation has some merits as another fast rising name, Adonis, is also featured in the film.

In the top 1000 names for 2016, last on the list were Davian, Gus and Jonathon for boys and Alianna, Luz and Meilani for girls.

When looking at the last decade, the top three most popular names for boys were Jakob, Noah and Manson while for girls Emma, Sophia and Olivia are first. In the previous ten years, the most popular names for boys were Jacob, Michael and Joshua while girls were named Emily, Madison and Emma.

The agency began compiling the baby name list in 1997, with names dating back to 1880. When looking at the last century, James and Mary were the most popular names, followed by John and Robert for boys and Patricia and Jennifer for girls.