Monthly Archives: December 2014

Most Popular Baby Names of 2014

Your newborns Sophia and Jackson have some company this year. They’re the most popular girl and boy names of 2014, according to BabyCenter, a pregnancy and parenting online resource.baby

It’s Jackson’s second year as No. 1, and the name Sophia has reigned supreme as the No. 1 girl name for five years.

“This year’s list shows Jackson has staying power and is not a one-hit wonder, and Sophia is arguably the Jennifer of its generation with five consecutive No. 1 spots. It’s clearly entered the baby name hall of fame,” said Linda Murray, BabyCenter’s editor-in-chief, in a statement.

But the most pervasive baby trend? TV-inspired names. According to BabyCenter, 20% of moms found naming inspiration from TV-show characters and 16% got names from celebrities, leading Murray to call this the year of the “binge-watching baby name.” Cited in the “Netflix effect”:

• House of Cards character names were up since 2013: Garrett (up 16%), Claire (up 14%), Zoe (up 13%), Remy (up 11%), Frank (up 19%) and Francis (up 5%).

• Orange is the New Black characters were up since 2013: Galina (up 67%), Nicky (up 35%), Piper (up 28%), Larry (up 28%), and Dayanara (up 19%).

Other shows with name-inspiration power: Nashville and Shonda Rhimes-helmed shows including Grey’s AnatomyScandal and How to Get Away with Murder.

And in the year where the famed baseball player announced his retirement, the name Jeter increased 82% and Derek moved up 4%.

Here are the top 10 names for each gender. The site’s listings come from about 406,000 parents registered on the BabyCenter website who shared their baby names. Different spellings of names have been combined.

10 most popular girl names of 2014:

  1. Sophia
  2. Emma
  3. Olivia
  4. Ava
  5. Isabella
  6. Mia
  7. Zoe
  8. Lily
  9. Emily
  10. Madelyn

10 most popular boy names of 2014:

  1. Jackson
  2. Aiden
  3. Liam
  4. Lucas
  5. Noah
  6. Mason
  7. Ethan
  8. Caden
  9. Jacob
  10. Logan

BabyCenter has also listed the most “unique and surprising” baby names of the year, which is worth a bemused perusal. The names include Amore, Rhythm, Finnick (hello, Hunger Games) and Zeppelin.

The survey also found that 94% of parents used social media/technology to announce the name (58% used Facebook).