Which girl names increased and decreased the most in popularity from 2014 to 2015?
Here are two ways to look at it. The SSA’s way looks at ranking differences and covers the top 1,000 girl names (roughly). My way looks at raw number differences and takes all girl names on the SSA’s list into account.
Biggest Increases
| Raw Numbers (all girl names) | Rankings (top 1,000 girl names) |
|---|---|
|
|
Hazel, Taya and Adeline were influenced by films: Hazel by The Fault in Our Stars (2014), Taya by American Sniper (2014), and Adaline by The Age of Adaline (2015).
Meilani and Aitana were boosted by celebrity babies. Meilani is the daughter of Jenni “JWoww” Farley, originally of “Jersey Shore” fame, and Aitana is the daughter of Mexican actors Alessandra Rosaldo and Eugenio Derbez. (Both babies were born in 2014.)
Adley was popularized by county singer Adley Stump.
Biggest Decreases
| Raw Numbers (all girl names) | Rankings (top 1,000 girl names) |
|---|---|
|
|
Isis was brought down by the association with the Jihadist militant group, and nearly every single variant of Annabelle was negatively affected by the horror film Annabelle, released in late 2014.
In 2014, the big winners were Olivia and Aranza, and the big losers were Sophia and Miley.
Sources: Change in Popularity from 2014 to 2015, Emma and Noah Once Again Social Security’s Most Popular Baby Names for 2015
U.S. Baby Names 2015: Most Popular Baby Names, Top Debuts: Girl Names, Top Debuts: Boy Names, Biggest Changes in Popularity: Girl Names, Biggest Changes in Popularity: Boy Names, First Letter Popularity, Name Length Popularity
That’s a massive jump for Alexa. Any clue why?
I haven’t been able to figure that one out yet. There was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars named Alexa in late 2015, but that was probably too late in the year to have an effect.
Alexa is Amazon’s “personal assistant”, similar to Siri and Cortana. There have been several TV commercials featuring people talking to “Alexa”.
@Becca – I thought about Amazon’s Alexa, but neither Siri nor Cortana saw that degree of increase on the charts when the corresponding virtual assistants came out, so if the Amazon assistant is the cause, then that’s a pretty drastic difference. The explanation could be that Alex- names are more familiar to people, and therefore more likely to be picked up, but…I don’t know. I’m still holding out for an explanation from reality TV or something.
some guesses:
– Charlotte: Princess Charlotte and maybe Charlotte Clinton
– Scarlett: Scarlett Johansson (Avengers, Lucy)
– Riley: Inside Out
– Aurora: Maleficent
– Penelope: Kourtney Kardashian’s daughter
– Briar: Maleficent?
– Zelda: One of the most famous Video Game characters
Thanks, Rita!
Just for fun, here are more of the top raw number increases (#11 to #50):
11. Adaline, +737
12. Eleanor, +680
13. Mila, +665
14. Harper, +640
15. Ava, +626
16. Violet, +607
17. Stella, +584
18. Evelyn, +579
19. Nora, +570
20. Paisley, +567
21. Raelynn, +565
22. Quinn, +530
23. Skylar, +501
24. Luna, +460
25. Aria, +459
26. Everly, +452
27. Cora, +422
28. Addilyn, +401
29. Willow, +386
30. Nova, +383
31. Emery, +371
32. Ellie, +370
33. Alaia, +362
34. Athena, +359
35. Alice, +344
36. Adalyn, +337
37. Kinsley, +323
38. Thea, +322
39. Felicity, +279
40. Amina, +278
41. Elena, +269
42. Abigail, +262
43. Ximena, +259
44. Leilani, +255
45. Sawyer, +253
46. Blake, +247
47. Piper, +246
48. Freya, +245
49. Rose, +240
50. Jessa, +239
Alaia and Briar were also celebrity babies, Briar is Rachel Bilson’s daughter and Alaia is the daughter of Adamari Lopez, I don’t know if either of them is popular enough to influence that much of a rise but it’s possible. It’s no surprise Isis dropped but all those spellings of Annabel were hit hard, is there a reason for that?
Thanks, Ebony!
You know, given the cult-ish way people people follow celebrity baby news these days (e.g., People.com’s celebrity baby blog) I wouldn’t doubt that those particular babies were the main influence.
The best theory so far on Annabelle is the “evil doll” horror movie Annabelle that came out in late 2014.
I like Danika I have a friend and she proununce it Dan-ika. My name is proununce Car-ee but spelled Kari. I have a best friend Danica she proununce it Da-ne-ca. I have a friend Keri she proununce it Carrie. Teachers mixed the four of us girls up all the time. I love having a unique name. Car-ee, but spelled Kari. I do like the name Danika.