Most Popular Baby Names 2016

Most Popular Baby Names 2016

by Pamela Redmond Satran

Olivia has bumped Charlotte to become the Number 1 among Nameberry’s popular baby names for girls in 2016.

A Shakespearean name meaning “olive tree,” Olivia is Number 2 on the official lists for both the U.S. and England. While it’s unfailingly on the Nameberry Top 10, this is Olivia‘s first appearance at the head of the list.

Ezra continues its reign as the Number 1 boys’ name, a position the Biblical name meaning “help” first claimed last year. Ezra barely squeaked onto the official US Top 100 in 2015, but we predict it may take over for Noah at the top of the list within the decade.

Hottest New Names for Girls

The four top names for girls – Olivia, Amelia, Charlotte, and Ava – also held the top four places on our list in 2015, but five of the other six Top 10 names for girls are new: Isabella, Arabella, Aurora, Mia, and Adeline. Isla remains in the Top 10.

A is also the first initial of two other stylish girls’ making their first appearance on our top 100 list, Amara and Annabelle.  Other names worth watching that are new to our girls’ Top 100: Cecilia, Freya, Jade, Ophelia, and Willow.

The hottest names on the girls’ popularity list, with the number of places they’re up this year, are:

Sadie, +47

Elise, +47

Isabella, +39

Emilia, +35

Julia, +34

Astrid, +34

Thea, +27

Lydia, +27

Eloise, +27

Josephine, +23

Hottest New Names for Boys

On the boys’ side, the seven top-ranking names stay the same with only slight shifts in order. They are: Ezra, Asher, Declan, Atticus, Oliver, Milo, Silas. Numbers 8, 9, and 10 on the Top 10 are all new, with Jack, Levi, and Wyatt replacing Jude, Henry, and Jasper.

The boys’ names that have risen the furthest on the Top 100 include both masculine stalwarts and newcomers. With the number of places they’ve risen, the hottest boys’ names are:

Thomas, +67

Matthew, +58

John, +54

Xavier, +54

Aryan, +49

Maxwell, +45

Connor, +39

Elijah, +39

Julian, +35

Tobias, +34

There are some very interesting boys’ names new to the Nameberry Top 100 this year, notably Abel, Alistair, Bennett, Cassius, Harvey, Hugo, Killian, Knox, Landon, and Lucian.

Nameberry’s Popular Baby Names list measures which of our individual name pages received the most of our nearly 300 million page views in 2016. These names that attract the most interest from our visitors can reflect name trends and popularity in the years ahead. The full Top 100 for both genders are below and the Top 1000 can be found on our Popular Baby Names page.

Top 100 Names for Girls 2016

  1. Olivia

  2. Amelia

  3. Charlotte

  4. Ava

  5. Isla

  6. Isabella

  7. Arabella

  8. Aurora

  9. Mia

  10. Adeline

  11. Penelope

  12. Eleanor

  13. Cora

  14. Rose

  15. Aria

  16. Hazel

  17. Violet

  18. Luna

  19. Claire

  20. Emma

  21. Alice

  22. Thea

  23. Maeve

  24. Lucy

  25. Imogen

  26. Nora

  27. Scarlett

  28. Genevieve

  29. Elizabeth

  30. Audrey

  31. Ophelia

  32. Mila

  33. Ella

  34. Chloe

  35. Esme

  36. Sadie

  37. Evangeline

  38. Ivy

  39. Astrid

  40. Grace

  41. Khaleesi

  42. Eloise

  43. Caroline

  44. Aurelia

  45. Lydia

  46. Stella

  47. Emily

  48. Maya

  49. Jane

  50. Elise

  51. Lila

  52. Adelaide

  53. Emilia

  54. Maisie

  55. Iris

  56. Amara

  57. Ellie

  58. Clara

  59. Beatrice

  60. Sophia

  61. Anna

  62. Julia

  63. Elodie

  64. Mae

  65. Harlow

  66. Eliza

  67. Isabel

  68. Evelyn

  69. Josephine

  70. Zara

  71. Seraphina

  72. Jade

  73. Willow

  74. Zoe

  75. Matilda

  76. Sienna

  77. Hannah

  78. Madeline

  79. Poppy

  80. Abigail

  81. Elsie

  82. Ada

  83. Phoebe

  84. Willa

  85. Mabel

  86. Molly

  87. Margaret

  88. Eliana

  89. Evie

  90. Juliet

  91. Freya

  92. Naomi

  93. Cecilia

  94. Annabelle

  95. Leah

  96. Eva

  97. Lily

  98. Gemma

  99. Daisy

  100. Rebecca

Top 100 Names for Boys 2016

  1. Ezra

  2. Asher

  3. Declan

  4. Atticus

  5. Oliver

  6. Milo

  7. Silas

  8. Jack

  9. Levi

  10. Wyatt

  11. Henry

  12. Jasper

  13. Leo

  14. Elijah

  15. Sebastian

  16. Theodore

  17. Caleb

  18. Ethan

  19. Matthew

  20. Benjamin

  21. Oscar

  22. Bodhi

  23. Eli

  24. Xavier

  25. Liam

  26. Felix

  27. Zachary

  28. Miles

  29. Jacob

  30. William

  31. Thomas

  32. Austin

  33. Alexander

  34. Axel

  35. Luke

  36. Andrew

  37. Julian

  38. John

  39. Nathaniel

  40. Isaac

  41. Aryan

  42. Callum

  43. Finn

  44. Samuel

  45. Soren

  46. Roman

  47. Luca

  48. Maxwell

  49. James

  50. Daniel

  51. Josiah

  52. Isaiah

  53. Tobias

  54. Gabriel

  55. Ronan

  56. Charles

  57. Nolan

  58. Lincoln

  59. Gideon

  60. Harrison

  61. Connor

  62. Arthur

  63. Beckett

  64. Lachlan

  65. Jonah

  66. Harry

  67. Wesley

  68. Archer

  69. Lucian

  70. Grayson

  71. Graham

  72. Joseph

  73. Hugo

  74. Jude

  75. Ryker

  76. Owen

  77. Nathan

  78. Christian

  79. Jackson

  80. Simon

  81. Landon

  82. Kai

  83. David

  84. Griffin

  85. Maddox

  86. Alistair

  87. Abel

  88. Cassius

  89. Lewis

  90. Nicholas

  91. Zane

  92. Bennett

  93. George

  94. Theo

  95. Louis

  96. Vincent

  97. Ryder

  98. Knox

  99. Killian

  100. Harvey

Research by Esmeralda Rocha

Get this adorable birthday crown at Little Blue Olive on Etsy.

About the Author

Pamela Redmond

Pamela Redmond

Pamela Redmond is the cocreator and CEO of Nameberry and Baby Name DNA. The coauthor of ten groundbreaking books on names, Redmond is an internationally-recognized baby name expert, quoted and published widely in such media outlets as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Today Show, CNN, and the BBC. She has written about baby names for The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, and People.

Redmond is also a New York Times bestselling novelist whose books include Younger, the basis for the hit television show, and its sequel, Older. She has three new books in the works.