One Hundred Years of Baby Names

A new data study allows people to find detailed information on baby names.

Ceros, a content creation company, recently released a study that tracks the most and least popular baby names from the past hundred years. Data editor Andrew Thompson crafted the study, which allows interested parties to search their own name. Through the tool (called Hello My Name Is), parents can also gauge the popularity of different names if they're trying to find one for their baby.

According to Parents, Thompson "charted every name recorded by the Social Security Administration dating back to 1910," and then created an interactive web page for people to search their own name and find out when it peaked in popularity. Since 1910 was the first year recorded in the data analysis, the most popular boy and girl names do tend to be ones that have been popular for hundreds of years. James, John, Robert, Michael, and William are the top five male names - still popular choices today.

Parents explains that the Ceros data team discovered a few things in their research: baby names have become more gender neutral. Harper, Alex, Morgan, and Taylor are just a few examples of names for both boys and girls. Inventive spellings of common names, such as Haileigh or Elexus, scored very low on the list.

Ceros' clever name study allows parents-to-be (and people who just love names) to learn what names are consistently popular, which have peaked in the most recent decade, and even which names to avoid. Even the top baby names of 2018 represent some of the most beloved, classic names as well as modern ones that have grown in popularity.

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To learn more about Ceros' new name tool, click here.


Jenna Phipps

Jenna Phipps

Jenna Phipps is a writer, editor, and dancer based in Nashville, Tennessee. She enjoys working with other people to improve their writing, taking long road trips, experimenting with choreography, and reading many novels.


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