Nameberry’s list of top baby names 2018 features two established favorites at Number 1: Atticus is the top boys’ name for the second year in a row and Olivia ranks as most popular girls’ name for the third consecutive year.
The bigger news is that three new names have reached Nameberry’s Top 10: Finn on the boys’ side along with Genevieve and Rose on the girls’. The hottest names for both genders reflect the continued influence of celebrities and popular culture.
For girls, Charlotte’s popularity is inspired by the young Princess. The popularity of multicultural Amara was probably spiked by her presence as an immortal character on The Vampire Diaries, while Genevieve is a fresher replacement for the Jen-generation names.
Four of the Top 10 girls’ names begin and end in the letter A.
Number 1 boy name Atticus represents a growing trend towards ancient Latin names and literary heroes, Theodore is a second-tier classic making a strong comeback, while Silas is a name revived by Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake in 2015.
Nameberry’s popular name list measures which names attracted the largest share in our nearly 250 million page views. It’s a measure of parents’ interest in baby names and a predictor of which names will become more popular in the future. While the latest national list measures 2017 popularity, Nameberry’s list gives a more current sense of what parents are considering noe.
Here is the complete Top Ten baby names for each gender:
2018 Top 20 Names for Girls
- Olivia
- Isla
- Amara
- Cora
- Charlotte
- Aurora
- Amelia
- Ava
- Rose
- Genevieve
- Ophelia
- Maeve
- Eleanor
- Iris
- Ada
- Luna
- Penelope
- Eloise
- Violet
- Alice
2018 Top 20 Names for Boys
- Atticus
- Milo
- Jasper
- Asher
- Jack
- Theodore
- Silas
- Wyatt
- Henry
- Finn
- Oscar
- Oliver
- Declan
- Leo
- Aryan
- Felix
- Bodhi
- Levi
- Axel
- Ethan
The Top 100 Baby Names
On Nameberry’s Top 100, new entrants on the girls’ side are multi-syllabic Clementine, Anastasia, Emmeline and Cordelia, along with Florence, Lyra, Margot, Wren, and Mabel.
On the boys’ side there are ten new names in the Top 100. They are-- in addition to Aarav, Atlas, Ryker and Caspian—Elio, Desmond, Jayden, Wilder, Elias, Otto and Amos. Big gains were also seen by Charlie, Louis and Emmett.
Parents have become more and more adventurous with their boy choices: in 2018 there were more new boys’ names than girls’ entering the ranks of both the Top 100 and Top 1000 names. Nameberry boy favorites include fewer traditional male picks, with style becoming a dominant factor.
For both genders we now see a preponderance of charming vintage revivals, with Clementine and Cordelia, Otto and Amos, all entering the Top 100. Unusual names made a strong showing as well, with high rankings for Amara, Aurora, Lyra and Wren, Atlas, Aarav, Ryker and Caspian.