Baby Name Trends 2025

Updated Thu Sep 26 2024

Baby name trends 2025 are influenced by social media, fast fashion, and a global sensibility that extends beyond our own world.

Today’s trendiest names value safe harbors, the natural landscape, rebranded country names for boys and femininomenal names for girls. Parents are dusting off names from the family tree to use as-is, and creating new names with personal meaning. And big news: Baby names are literally that.

Here, Nameberry’s top 10 baby name trends for 2025:

1. Fast Fashion Names

The churn of social media trends is ever-quickening, and baby name trends are deftly keeping up. Fast Fashion names synthesize a range of current styles to create original names that perfectly capture the flair of the moment. Like their apparel counterparts, Fast Fashion names are modeled on the genuine articles but with a unique twist that references neither the past nor the future but right now.

The appeal of these names is that they let parents pull together a variety of name trends in their own special way. Want a gender-neutral surname-name with an international feel and a hint of Ancient Rome? No problem. Or a name that simultaneously honors your grandmother, your ethnic heritage, and your favorite animal? You can make that!

These names do not exist, at least not in their current form, in the established lexicon. Part of the point of Fast Fashion names is varying the spelling, marrying elements from different names, and creating something totally unique that also perfectly captures the current name climate.

But while these names feel one-of-a-kind, they’re usually not invented from whole cloth like Elon Musk’s X Æ AXII. Nor are they obscure words or places repurposed as names. Banks and Scotland become Fast Fashion names only if you refashion them as Banx or Scottlynn.

Fast Fashion Names

2. Global Americana

The global stage of the Olympics and focus on American diversity this election cycle are contributing to a greater interest in international baby names.

It’s a trend we observed in our recent analysis of the Reddest and Bluest Baby Names. Our study revealed that baby names with strong ethnic and cultural ties are disproportionately common in Democratic-voting states. The proportion of distinctively-ethnic and pancultural Blue names is significantly larger than in 2016, suggesting parents are increasingly looking toward their heritage when naming babies today.

Global Americana encapsulates names unmistakably tied to a single culture, such as the Nahuatl Xochitl and Scottish Ewan, along with traveling lite names with origins in multiple cultures, including Noemi, Luca, and Ivo.

The parents using Global Americana names seek to establish their child’s cultural identity, blend ethnic backgrounds, or covet sophisticated international names that will serve their child in various contexts and countries.

Their roots may be elsewhere, but these names are indisputably American.

Global Americana

3. Baby Names, Literally

If the past few years have emphasized “you’re naming an adult, not a baby”, 2025 will embrace the inverse. Some of the trendiest baby names are clearly meant for babies.

Taking inspiration from notable influencer babies, including Nara Smith’s Whimsy Lou, Jaci Marie Smith’s daughter Benny, and Savannah LaBrant’s son Blue, parents are increasingly opting for nicknames on the birth certificate and nouveau choices with a playful sensibility.

Rhythm is an important factor. These spirited names are often paired with a single-syllable middle name to achieve a sing-songy effect, like Rio Rose, Klarity Doll, and Aero Lore — all recent celebrity baby names.

Baby Names, Literally

4. Country Rebrand

Beyonce’s album Cowboy Carter cracked open the country music genre and redefined an American classic. Much like country music, country baby names are getting a rebrand for 2025 and beyond.

Previous iterations of country names largely focused on the American West and the myth of the rugged cowboy — think last names as first names like Carter and Lawson, or place names west of the Mississippi such as Denver and Dakota.

The country names coming into fashion today are a more diverse set. Parents are embracing classic country names that once felt hokey for their children, as well as expanding the horizons of this once-limited category. In 2025, names from non-English backgrounds are joining the ranks of country baby names alongside new names that allude to outlaws, gauchos, and farming culture.

Country Rebrand

5. Safe Haven Names

After years of global conflict and political unrest, parents are reaching for names that evoke peace, comfort, and safety.

These Safe Haven Names are chosen for their incantatory power, both to protect children from harm and instill inside them peace-loving values.

In addition, this trend is a direct rejection of the aggressive boy names that have recently gained popularity. Names like Arson, Danger, and Cutter are on the rise. Weapon-inspired names like Gunner and Cannon are already in the US Top 1000. The parents concerned by these growing numbers of aggressive names are actively choosing Safe Haven Names, which have the opposite effect.

Safe Haven Names conjure a secure, cozy feeling. They include names of mythological and biblical havens, peaceful word names, and names that literally mean “peace”. Many have a soft spiritual bent, but this trend appeals to religious and secular parents alike.

Safe Haven Names

6. Femininomenal Names

Chappell Roan unleashed a Femininomenon in 2024, and the internet is speculating that both elements of her stage name will soar up the charts for baby girls. In reality, Roan’s impact on baby names will have a much broader reach.

Femininomenal Names amplify strength in femininity. They’re campy in their girliness, yet not cloyingly sweet. Many are drawn from myth, history, and other stories centered around female relationships and triumphs — themes Roan is drawn to in her music.

This builds off last year’s Feminine Feminist Names, a trend inspired by Barbie. Feminine Feminist Names embrace girly names as empowering feminist choices, as do Femininomenal Names. But the latter lean into the witchy and dramatic and have an overall grittier quality.

There’s a darkly powerful energy attached to many Femininomenal Names — a complexity appreciated by the parents who use them. Femininomenal namers want their daughters to understand the multiplicities of femininity, which is a lesson that can start with a name.

Femininomenal Names are fit for a Midwest Princess and beyond. They’re names you could use for your drag persona, but just as easily belong on the presidential ballot.

Femininomenal Names

7. Landscape Names

The new class of nature names goes back to basics. Sleek, streamlined choices connected to the landscape are populating seemingly everyone’s lists of “names we love but won’t be using.”

Cove is the catalyst. After influencer Aspyn Ovard used it for her daughter in 2019, Cove was poised to become an overnight sensation. But the similar-sounding COVID-19 pandemic stopped Cove in its tracks.

In 2025, Cove will finally get its due. It will be joined by dozens of other brisk names with ties to outdoor scenery, including Coast and Creek, Rye and Reef.

Landscape names particularly appeal to parents in search of frills-free names that are easily understood, but not endemically popular. They’re also inherently gender-neutral, a strong selling point for many contemporary namers.

Landscape Names

8. Otherworldly Names

In 2025, baby names will be out of this world.

Otherworldly Names transcend our earthly realm, but stop short of full-blown Space Age. They occupy the liminal space between two worlds — some might say the uncanny valley.

Otherworldly Names can be connected to specific characters, but overall, this trend is more about a name’s vibe. If it feels like it could be the name of a witch or a demon or a sci-fi hero, it fits the otherworldly aesthetic.

This trend most appeals to younger parents, who may exist in the metaverse and accept the limits of reality. They want their children to revel in the mystery of the universe and feel connected to something greater than humanity.

Otherworldly Names

9. Croc Names

On the surface, Croc Names are super uncool. But they just might become the next big thing. Their namesake shoes — foam, perforated clogs in loud hues — are now so ugly, they’re beautiful. Croc Names intend to make the same transition.

It takes a trained eye to see the potential of a Croc Name. Most parents — even those in search of vintage names — outright reject choices like Ethel and Isidore for being too crusty. But ahead-of-the-curve namers are looking for that diamond in the rough. They know that the next Eleanor and Theodore are lurking among the ranks of Croc Names.

Croc Names are often plucked from family trees — they’re the great-grandparents of this current generation of babies. But rather than modernizing grandpa’s name or shortening grandma’s name to a more palatable nickname, parents who truly embody the Croc Name ethos embrace names like Enid, Rita, and Virgil in all of their geek-chic glory.

It’s only a matter of time before Croc Names start showing up on suburban preschool rosters. But in 2025, expect to hear them on the playgrounds in the coolest pockets of Brooklyn, Austin, and other trendsetting US cities.

Croc Names

10. Gen "Z" Names

As Gen Z is becoming parents, we’re noticing a striking trend among younger moms and dads: Z is now the edgy consonant du jour.

It’s a move away from the spiky Vs and Xs that dominate among children of Millennials. Less Avery and Jaxon, more Azalea and Zakai.

Z names abound, no matter how you define your baby name style. Gen Z parents are embracing vintage names like Hazel and Ozzy, religious choices such as Zainab and Ezra, and altering spellings of existing names to include Zs, like Mazie and Izael.

Maybe it’s nominative determinism — the idea that one’s name, or in this case, the name of one’s generation, determines one’s preferences and choices. Or perhaps it’s a coincidental alignment of a generation and the edgy consonant trend cycle.

Whatever the case, we predict that Z will be the letter on every parent’s lips in 2025.

Gen "Z" Names

Let us know what you think! Share your thoughts on our 2025 baby name trends in the forums:

About the Author

Sophie Kihm

Sophie Kihm's Personal Website

Sophie Kihm has been writing for Nameberry since 2015. She has contributed stories on the top 2020s names, Gen Z names, and cottagecore baby names. Sophie is Nameberry’s resident Name Guru to the Stars, where she suggests names for celebrity babies. She also manages the Nameberry Instagram and Pinterest.

Sophie Kihm's articles on names have run on People, Today, The Huffington Post, and more. She has been quoted as a name expert by The Washington Post, People, The Huffington Post, and more. You can follow her personally on Instagram or Pinterest, or contact her at sophie@nameberry.com. Sophie lives in Chicago.

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