The top girl-name debuts of 2017

lotus bud

Camreigh was the top debut name on the girls’ side of the list in 2017.

The girl names that debuted most impressively last year were…

1. Camreigh, 91 baby girls
2. Taishmara, 38
3. Teylie, 23
4. Kior, 20
5. Aaleiya, 19

In order for a rare baby name to make the cut and appear in the SSA’s baby name data for the first time, it has to be given to at least 5 babies (of either one gender or the other) within a given year.

The other names that debuted with ten-or-more baby girls in 2017 were Kamreigh, Sayyora, Mohana, Avajade, Cersei, Imona, Lunarose, Miraclle, Novahlee, Alisanne, Avianni, Brexleigh, Janova, Lunafreya, Mayuka, and Ning.

Debuts lower down on the list include: Quinzel, Eleven, Jaisvi, Lunamia, Shukrona, Tanushree, Zenley, Hermosa, Knovah, Luminara, Siouxsie, Sublime, Yabsira, Afruza, Ecclesia, Eclipse, Ewurabena, Freshta, Integrity, Kaibella, Kueen, Lumiere, Lunara, Nanki, Owsley, Rwby, Saanvireddy, Scylla, Sedna, Starbella, Tselmuun.

If you know what the explanations are for any of them, please leave a comment!

Here are the top girl name debuts of 2016.

[Note: I’ll be updating this post throughout the day today, and probably beyond.]

Source: SSA

Image: Adapted from LotusBud0048a (public domain) by Frank “Fg2” Gualtieri

14 thoughts on “The top girl-name debuts of 2017

  1. Taishmara was a winner of the singing competition series La Banda
    Sayyora appears on the TV show Bad Girls Club (she is originally from Uzbekistan)
    Cersei is of course from Game of Thrones

    And a debut not on your list yet: Eleven (from Stranger Things)

  2. Also noticed the debut of “Dearra” with 40 and “Belky” with 26.
    De’arra and Ken are a young Youtuber couple with millions of subscribers and a talent/development deal with BET.
    Belky was the name of the main character in a Colombian telenovela called La niña, which only came to Netflix after a licensing deal announced January 2017.

  3. Thanks, Leah! Dearra and Belky both definitely saw higher usage in ’17, but neither is a debut — they’ve just been out of the data for a few years. I’ll update the graphs/data on the site as soon as I can, but until then here are the graphs for Dearra and Belky.

  4. The only name that I can add an explanation to on this list is Lumiere, which is from the latest Beauty and the Beast film (starring Emma Watson) in which the character played by Ewan McGregor is named that (except it has a grave accent in the first e).

  5. To go by google, people are using Camreigh as a variant of Cambry/Cambria/etc. ‘

    Teylie shows up on Pinterest as Greek for “blooming and plentiful.” (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/420101471483714424/) That definition is probably hooey, but the fact it exists makes me wonder if Teylie is coming from some specific baby name book or website.

    Kior could be from Ka’oir? Keyshia Ka’oir is a cosmetics/fitness entrepreneur and married Gucci Mane last year, and they have a reality show on BET.

  6. Scylla is a monster from Greek mythology.
    Rwby is after popular internet web series Rwby.
    Quinzel is after Harley Quinn–her full name is Harleen Quinzel.
    Tselmuun is a Mongolian name, and there’s an up-and-coming Mongolian singer named that.
    Tanushree and Jaisvi are Indian names. I think Ewurabena is Ghanaian, Yabsira is Ethiopian, and Shukrona is Tajik. Mayuka is the surname of a Zambian soccer player, but I don’t know if it’s related to him.

  7. How are they pronouncing Camreigh?
    When I look at it all I can think of is Camry as in Toyota Camry, which I’m guessing is *not* what the parents were aiming for.

    And is Rwby pronounced as Ruby?

  8. Yes, Rwby is pronounced Ruby. It stands for red, white, black, yellow. While I looked that up I learned that the protagonist is named Ruby Rose, which I bet explains why 12 babies were named that–I assumed originally it was after the actress, but she hasn’t been doing much lately.

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