Photography: Christopher Sturman
In a few years, preschools across America are going to be packed with Olivias and Arabellas. Those names are on the rise for 2016, according to the baby-name site Nameberry. The site crunched the numbers from 20 million views of their individual name pages, to figure out which pages were the most popular. So it doesn’t necessarily mean that people chose the names, but simply that they were considering them for their kids.
The most popular name of this part of 2016 was Olivia, which took over for 2015’s top name, Charlotte. For boys, the list has stayed more consistent, with Ezra still topping the popularity list. But there are names shooting up the charts, ready to take the top 10. Astrid, Sadie, and Elise were the three fastest-rising names for girls this year, and John, Aryan, and Tobias were the names on the rise for boys. (The name Aryan is pretty shocking given its white supremacist history, but NameBerry notes that it has been a popular Iranian name for years; they recommend trying the alternate Arian instead.)
Here are the top names of 2016 so far, compared to their rankings in 2015.
Top 10 Girls’ Names of 2016
- Olivia, +3
- Amelia, same ranking
- Charlotte, -2
- Ava, -1
- Isla, +2
- Arabella, +13
- Aurora, +4
- Adeline, +5
- Penelope, same ranking
- Eleanor, same ranking
Top 10 Boys’ Names of 2016
- Ezra, same ranking
- Asher, same ranking
- Atticus, same ranking
- Declan, same ranking
- Oliver, same ranking
- Silas, same ranking
- Milo, same ranking
- Levi, +4
- Henry, same ranking
- Wyatt, +5
