Which one-syllable baby names were the most popular in the U.S. in 2020?
I scanned the 2020 U.S. baby name data (both the girl names and the boy names) and found these:
Girl Names
- Grace (ranked 28th overall)
- Claire (57th)
- Quinn (85th)
- Jade (97th)
- Rose (113th)
- Faith (136th)
- Reese (144th)
- Maeve (173rd)
- Sloane (181st)
- June (182nd)
Boy Names
- James (ranked 6th overall)
- Jack (21st)
- John (27th)
- Luke (31st)
- Brooks (91st)
- Kai (93rd)
- Jace (97th)
- Beau (109th)
- Chase (123rd)
- Cole (131st)
Please note that I intentionally left out names that could go either way (1-syllable or 2-syllable) depending upon one’s regional accent. I don’t think this made a difference on the girls’ side, but on the boys’ side I omitted a number of gray-area names (Owen, Wyatt, Charles, Ryan, Miles, Ian, Gael, Rowan, and Myles) that ranked higher than Cole.
For more names like these, check out the one-syllable girl names and one-syllable boy names posts.
Image: Adapted from 1 Drvo 06241 by Olja Simovic under CC BY-SA 4.0.
What???? I did not know some people pronounce Owen, Wyatt, Ryan and Ian as one syllable! Native Californian here. I’ve always known *most* name nerds consider Charles a 1-syllable name – and to me Miles and Myles are just like 1.6 km – a 1syllable word. Love that I keep learning about names here.
I’m not sure how many people pronounce names like Wyatt and Owen as single-syllable names, but I know at least a few do. I hear these pronunciations occasionally in CO and other Western states, typically from people with strong regional accents.
On the other hand…I happen to be one of those people who say Miles/Niles/Giles with 2 syllables. :) I know that they’re supposed to be monosyllabic, but they just don’t come out that way when I speak. (I grew up in New England — not sure if that matters.)
Although I consider Ian, Owen & Wyatt to be two syllable names, I have heard a few people say them as if they were one syllable. Owen comes out “Own” or “Ohn” and Ian is “Een”. Actually for a three letter name Ian seems to be pronounced all sorts of ways. I had a friend Ian growing up and one of our other friends moms always pronounced it “Eye-un”.
Around here if they have a thick enough southern accent “Wyatt” sounds like they are saying “White”. The first few times I heard that I wondered if the kid was indeed named White.