The Fastest Trending Baby Names Of The Decade Are Here & They Might Surprise You
The data also collected baby names dropping off the radar.
Choosing a name for a child is one of the most fun parts of becoming a parent. Research shows that a child’s name can literally alter their personality and how they are treated in life. No pressure, parents! You’re just essentially making a decision that will guide the course of your kid’s entire life. No big deal.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) recently released all of the baby name information from 2022, revealing that Liam and Olivia still reign supreme as top boy and girl name in the United States.
With this new information, Axios broke down some of the fastest trending baby names in 2022 compared to what was a hit ten years ago, and let’s just say that some of these names were on no one’s radar.
According to the news outlet, America's fastest-rising baby name last year was Everleigh, with nearly 25 times the number of babies getting the name in 2022 than in 2012. The alternative spelling of the name, Everly, was the second fastest trending girl name.
Axios credits the popular vlogging family — The Labrants — for the trend in the name. Their daughter Everleigh LaBrant is a 10-year-old YouTuber with more than 3.9 million subscribers.
Nova, Luna, and Emilia rounded out the top five fastest trending girl names. Luna is also in the news for making the top-ten list for baby girl names for the first time ever, unseating Harper, which has hovered around the number 10 spot since 2014.
Nova has seen an absolutely meteoric rise. It was 886 in popularity in 2011 and now sits in spot 32 just 12 years later.
For boys, Theo topped the list with a 14.5% increase in popularity than 10 years ago, with Maverick coming in second. A total of 6,978 baby boys were named Maverick in 2022, putting it ahead of more mainstream names like Isaac (6,691) and Anthony (6,545). One possible cause? the release of the Top Gun sequel in 2022 — where Tom Cruise’s character goes by that monicker.
Theo now ranks 99, while the longer version, Theodore, sits at number 10.
Two other names marching up the ranks of boy’s names? Walker and Brooks — proving that the surname trend for males continues strong.
Axios also tracked baby names that are dropping into obscurity. Alexa and similar-sounding names Alexis and Alyssa saw some of the biggest drops over the course of a decade. The news outlet predicted that could be due to Amazon's virtual assistant Alexa, which debuted in 2014.
As for boy names that are falling off the map, once-popular names Gavin, Brandon, and Blake all dropped over 4%. Tyler and Braden also dropped in popularity — one possibly due to the politically charged “Let’s go Brandon” inside joke among conservatives.
The 2022 baby name list is compiled each year based on applications for social security cards in the United States each year.
“Just like your name, Social Security is with you from day one. One of the first things parents do for their newborn is get them a Social Security number. That makes Social Security the ultimate source for the most popular baby names each year!” said Kilolo Kijakazi, Acting Commissioner of Social Security, in a video announcing the names.
