By combining all variant spellings of popular names, our guest blogger Kelli Brady reveals the names you’ll really hear most often on the playground.
Here are the new Top 20 names for girls and boys, together with their official rankings. To see the full Top 50, you’ll need to check out the blog post, linked above
Top Girl Names
Sophia (5)
Olivia (1)
Amelia (6)
Emma (2)
Ava (3)
Isabella (7)
Charlotte (4)
Adeline (100)
Mia (8)
Camila (11)
Riley (33)
Aria (26)
Evelyn (9)
Zoey (32)
Madelyn (66)
Layla (24)
Elena (55)
Harper (10)
Gianna (12)
Everly (43)
Top Boy Names
Jackson (17)
Liam (1)
Noah (2)
Aiden (24)
Oliver (3)
Elijah (4)
Lucas (8)
Grayson (35)
William (5)
James (6)
Benjamin (7)
Kayden (99)
Mateo (20)
Henry (9)
Mason (11)
Alexander (10)
Michael (12)
Carter (33)
Ethan (13)
Jayden (37)
Do these lists echo what you are hearing on the playground?
Have you ever changed the choice for your child’s name based on the Playground Analysis? Let us know!
It’s interesting that ‘stealth names’ often have phonetic similarities with each other. The stealthiest on the girls’ list are Adeline/Madelyn, and for boys it’s Kayden/Aiden/Jayden and Greyson/Jackson.
I feel like some of those are a little flawed if you only consider the pronunciation.
[name_f]Adeline[/name_f] & [name_f]Madelyn[/name_f], [name_f]Elena[/name_f] & Camila’s variations could all have different pronunciations. [name_f]Ellena[/name_f] & [name_f]Alaina[/name_f], for example, don’t read like the same name to me. [name_f]Adeline[/name_f] & [name_f]Madeline[/name_f] could also be pronounced with the -line ending and [name_f]Camila[/name_f] and [name_f]Camilla[/name_f] tend to have a different pronunciation as well.
Super interesting data, though, and especially for names like [name_f]Emma[/name_f] or [name_f]Sophia[/name_f] this really shows how popular they are.
I did an similar analysis for the 2020 Dutch boy names. If I have time this week I’ll also do it for the girls, and add them together for unisex names. I used the data from this website. For privacy reasons, it doesn’t include names used less than 25 times that year.
Little disclamer: sometimes names may have multiple pronouncations, sometimes I might have gotten the pronouncation wrong, I might have made mistakes with counting, etc.
Noah stays the most populair boy name. Not even with the help of alternative spellings can other names strive past it.
Luuk/Luke/Luc is together good for the second place. Luuk was originally already in the top 10, but only at place eight.
Lucas/Lukas stays at the third place.
Liam was originally also at third place, however, now Liam/Liyam/Lyam is fourth.
Sem was second, but because it doesn’t have a popular alternative spelling, is now stuck at place eight.
While they aren’t pronounced the same, I still do want to mention Sam and Sem, because these two very similar names are both high in the top 15 and combined they are more populair then Noah. However, if we combine all Luuk/Lucas/Luca names, those are clearly the winners!
How interesting. I didn’t know there were so many different spellings of [name_f]Adeline[/name_f] about. Though for some of these names, I would query if they have the same pronunciation? I wouldn’t pronounce [name_f]Ayla[/name_f] and [name_f]Isla[/name_f] the same. I understand it’s not an exact science though.
Yes, the pronunciation is definitely open to interpretation on some of them! Still, it shows just how many soundalikes or very similar names there are for some names that look pretty uncommon from their official rankings.
Along the same lines - i’d be interested to add ‘nickname’ names, with their longer counterpart - especially in the UK where they are super popular. E.g.:
Agreed! Freddie is definitely the top boy name I’m hearing on babies where I am in central England. And don’t forget that fashionable vintage names like Alfred, Wilfred and “just” Fred are often nicknamed Freddie too.
