Top Baby Names of 2020 Revealed!

Updated Sat Dec 19 2020

Drum roll please… the Nameberry top baby names of 2020 are here!

These are the names that got the most views on our site this year. They’re the ones on name-savvy parents’ (or future parents’) minds, so they’re a pretty good measure of what will be hot in the year ahead.

The big news is that we have a new number one girl! Luna takes the top spot from four-year champion Olivia… just as Olivia finally tops the official US rankings. This shows that Nameberry readers are often a step ahead of the national trends. Harry Potter-inspired Luna entered our Top 100 in 2012, and broke into the US Top 100 in 2016. If she reaches number one nationally in a few years, you heard it here first.

For boys, Milo remains the most popular name for a second year running. Two more O-ending boy names — Leo and Arlo — have entered the Top Ten, proving that this is one of the coolest endings of the moment.

Here are our most-viewed names (you’ll find the full Top 100 at the end).

Top Ten Names of 2020

Girls

Boys

Fun fact: girl names are way more popular than boy names with our readers. Of the top 50 name pages, 41 are female and only 9 are male.

Coming in, going out

Baby Girl Names

Girl names new (or returning) to the Top 100:Athena, Ayla, Celeste, Daisy, Daphne, Edith, Eliana, Ella, Ellie, Eva, Jasmine, Kiara, Nova, Persephone, Sophia

Girl names dropping out of the Top 100:Abigail, Adah, Claudia, Emily, Gemma, Hannah, Harper, Isabel, Juliet, Lila, Madeline, Margot, Naomi, Posie, Willow

The new entries show that names beginning with El– remain popular, as does the ever-growing interest in names from mythology (Athena, Persephone), and sweet vintage names that are favorites in the UK but lesser-known in the US (Daisy, Edith).

Baby Boy Names

Boy names new (or returning) to the Top 100:Caspian, Enzo, Ezekiel, Luca, Lucian, Lucifer, Lucius, Magnus, Malachi, Micah, Nathan, Nathaniel, Orion, Rhys

Boy names dropping out of the Top 100:Abel, August, Austin, Beau, Beckett, Charlie, Cole, Graham, Harry, Ian, Noah, Nolan, Ryker, Simon

A lot of the names dropping out have a cowboy style: could this be the beginning of the end for Wild West names? It also looks like there’s a new wave of biblical boy names rising to replace familiar favorites like Noah.

Names starting with Luc– are more popular than ever before (Luke and Lucas were already in the Top 100) — and the “Lu” sound is also there in Louis, Luna and Lucy. A few years ago we would have said the interest in Lucifer was purely theoretical, but between the TV show, the rise in mythological names, and the fashionable sound, this controversial name has been rising steeply on real birth certificates.

Nameberry charts versus US charts

We won’t know the official US name data for 2020 until sometime next year, but let’s compare our charts with the latest American figures for 2019. (We see you and love you, international Berries, but most of our readers are in the States.)

The two charts have a lot of names in common, but also some big differences. For both sexes, 49 names appear in both the Nameberry Top 100 and the US Top 100, and 51 are different.

The most nichely Nameberry names are melodic girls Imogen, Cordelia and Seraphina; and for boys, Lucifer, Cassian, Caius, Lucius and Elio. They are all below the Top 1000 in the States.

Other names batting well above their real life ranking include Astrid, Aurelia, Elodie, Mae and Wren; and Ambrose, Amias, Lachlan, Magnus and Soren.

Nationally-popular baby girl names 2020 missing from the Nameberry list are Harper, Abigail, Emily, Camila, Sofia and Avery. From the official list of top baby boy names 2020, Noah, Mason, Michael, Logan, Jackson and Aiden are missing from Nameberry's list of top names.

Some of these have been around for a long time and are beginning to gently fall, so probably don’t feel so fresh to those of you seeking cool new names. The absence of Spanish Camila and Sofia may reflect that our readers lean more anglophone.

Nameberry’s Top 100 Baby Names 2020

Girls

Boys

Want to see even more? The most popular names on Nameberry are updated regularly, so you always know what’s hot.

About the Author

Clare Green

Clare Green has been writing for Nameberry since 2015, covering everything from names peaking right now to feminist baby names, and keeping up-to-date with international baby name rankings. Her work has featured in publications such as The Independent and HuffPost. Clare has a background in linguistics and librarianship, and recently completed an MA dissertation researching names in multilingual families. She lives in England with her husband and son. You can reach her at clare@nameberry.com

View all of Clare Green's articles