How popular is the baby name Caleb in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, check out all the blog posts that mention the name Caleb.
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Which boy names increased the most in popularity from 2015 to 2016? And which ones decreased the most?
The U.S. SSA likes to answer this question by analyzing ranking differences within the top 1,000. I prefer to answer it by looking at raw number differences, and to take the full list into account. So let’s check out the results using both methods…
Boy Names: Biggest Increases, 2015 to 2016
Rankings
1. Kylo, +2,368 spots — up from 3,269th to 901st
2. Creed, +370 spots — up from 1,352nd to 982nd
3. Benicio, +356 spots — up from 1,331st to 975th
4. Adonis, +307 spots — up from 701st to 394th
5. Fox, +288 spots — up from 1034th to 746th
6. Kye, +281 spots — up from 984th to 703rd
7. Hakeem, +256 spots — up from 1,161st to 905th
8. Shepherd, +242 spots — up from 1,105th to 863rd
9. Wilder, +238 spots — up from 961st to 723rd
10. Zayn, +222 spots — up from 643rd to 421st
Kylo was influenced by the movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015).
Creed and Adonis were influenced by the movie Creed (2015).
Hakeem was influenced by the TV show Empire (2015-). So was Bryshere, which debuted last year.
Wilder could have been influenced by either Gene Wilder or by boxer Deontay Wilder, or both. (Or neither.)
Zayn was influenced by British singer/songwriter Zain “Zayn” Malik.
Raw Numbers
1. Mateo, +1,516 baby boys — up from 5,010 to 6,526
2. Oliver, +1,340 baby boys — up from 11,635 to 12,975
3. Bryson, +1,239 baby boys — up from 3,094 to 4,333
4. Lincoln, +1,094 baby boys — up from 5,982 to 7,076
5. Benjamin, +899 baby boys — up from 13,670 to 14,569
6. Grayson, +735 baby boys — up from 7,887 to 8,622
7. Theodore, +723 baby boys — up from 4,136 to 4,859
8. Greyson, +704 baby boys — up from 3,591 to 4,295
9. Leo, +678 baby boys — up from 4,582 to 5,260
10. Maverick, +675 baby boys — up from 2,265 to 2,940
Other names that saw raw number increases in the 200+ range included Owen, Sebastian, Ezekiel, Lucas, Ezra, Leonardo, Santiago, Conor, Gael, Everett, Rhett, Jameson, Killian, Tobias, Arlo, Easton, Finn, Rowan, Elias, Asher, Calvin, Thiago, Bodhi, Legend, Lukas, River, Elliot, Harrison, Roman, Adriel, Paxton, Julian, Ace, Josiah, Waylon, Messiah, Nash, Ellis, Matias, George, Barrett, Connor, Wade, Kyrie, Milo, Amir, Bennett, Elliott, Silas, Matteo, and Axel.
Rowan is rising quickly for both boys and girls right now.
Kyrie, which was once given primarily to girls, is now being given primarily for boys thanks to basketball player Kyrie Irving.
Boy Names: Biggest Decreases, 2015 to 2016
Rankings
1. Jonael, -475 spots — down from 921st to 1,396th
2. Aaden, -239 spots — down from 784th to 1,023rd
3. Triston, -230 spots — down from 957th to 1,187th
4. Freddy, -222 spots — down from 993rd to 1,215th
5. Yaakov, -213 spots — down from 992nd to 1,205th
6. Braeden, -203 spots — down from 792nd to 995th
7. Chace, -202 spots — down from 935th to 1,137th
8. Brantlee, -176 spots — down from 777th to 953rd
9. Gannon, -173 spots — down from 533rd to 706th
10. Robin, -171 spots — down from 969th to 1,140th
The name Jonael got a lot of exposure in 2015 thanks to 11-year-old Puerto Rican singer Jonael Santiago, who won the 3rd season of La Voz Kids, which aired from March to June. It didn’t get as much exposure in 2016, which accounts for the drop in usage.
Raw Numbers
1. Logan, -1,697 baby boys (12,897 to 11,200)
2. Jacob, -1,498 baby boys (15,914 to 14,416)
3. Jayden, -1,455 baby boys (11,518 to 10,063)
4. Mason, -1,399 baby boys (16,591 to 15,192)
5. Ethan, -1,291 baby boys — down from 15,049 to 13,758
6. Aiden, -1,271 baby boys (13,429 to 12,158)
7. Alexander, -1,186 baby boys (14,507 to 13,321)
8. Jackson, -1,032 baby boys (12,242 to 11,210)
9. Brandon, -1,024 baby boys (5,100 to 4,076)
10. Blake, -951 baby boys (4,220 to 3,269)
Unlike Rowan, Blake is falling on the boys’ list, but rising on the girls’ list. In fact, the graph (right) makes a gender switch look inevitable. This is not something I would have anticipated a decade ago, before the emergence of Blake Lively.
Other names that saw raw number drops in the 200+ range included Landon, Caleb, Gavin, Anthony, Christopher, Andrew, David, Parker, Colton, Jase, Hunter, Brody, Brantley, Gabriel, Jonathan, Jordan, Tyler, Kevin, Nathan, Joshua, Carter, Daniel, Joseph, Dylan, Christian, Noah, Angel, Brayden, Iker, Chase, Nicholas, Austin, Dominic, Camden, John, Ayden, Michael, Colin, Bryan, Riley, Kyle, Hayden, Bradley, Nathaniel, Jake, Samuel, Luke, Cayden, Evan, Zachary, Steven, Kaden, Cooper, Marcus, Ryan, Tristan, Bryce, Ryder, Micah, Brady, Bentley, Kaleb, Levi, Alex, Conner, Jeremy, Isaac, Ian, Gage, Brian, Kayden, Jaden, Carlos, Sean, Jeremiah, Abel, Devin, Adrian, Giovanni, Garrett, and Adam.
Jase has seen a dramatic rise and fall over the last few years: big gains in 2012 and 2013, followed by big losses in 2014, 2015, and now 2016.
Similarly, Iker was on the rise for a while, with partcularly big leaps in 2011 and 2012, but usage is now on the wane.
Do you have any other explanations/guesses about any of the names above? If so, please leave a comment.
(In 2015, the big winners were Oliver and Riaan, and the big losers were Jase and Arnav.)
Maryland’s Open Data website includes a single table of Maryland baby name rankings (2011) broken down by race/ethnic group. This is cool because New York City does the exact same breakdown, and we happen to have the equivalent NYC baby name rankings (2011). So we ought to be able to compare and contrast the two sets of rankings, right?
Yeah, that’s what I thought…until I started looking more closely at Maryland’s data.
According to the SSA, these were the top 10 boy names in Maryland in 2011:
Mason
Jacob
Michael
Ethan
Ryan
William
Alexander
Noah
Daniel
Aiden (tied for 10th)
Jayden (tied for 10th)
But according to the state of Maryland, the top 10 boy names were quite different:
Rank
OVERALL
Asian & Pacific Isl.
Black
Hispanic
White
1
Aiden
Aiden
Jaiden
Christopher
Lucas
2
Christopher
Lucas
Aiden
Anthony
Mason
3
Jayden
Alexander
Christopher
John
Jackson
4
Mason
Muhammed
Cameron
Alexander
Jacob
5
Lucas
Ethan
Elijah
Daniel
John
6
Jacob
Nathan
Jeremy
Matthew
Aiden
7
Alexander
John
Michael
Brian
Alexander
8
Nathan
Andrew
Isaiah
Justin
Liam
9
Michael
Justin
Mason
Jaiden
William
10
Ethan
Jacob
Caleb
Kevin
Ryan
It isn’t totally implausible that Aiden and Jayden might have ranked 1st and 3rd in 2011, but Christopher in 2nd? Maybe if this were a dataset from thirty years ago, but not five years ago. The SSA indicates that Christopher ranked closer to 18th in the state that year.
And what’s with the two different spellings of Jayden/Jaiden?
Plus there are some sizable raw number discrepancies, such as:
Aiden: 588 babies (MD data) vs. 281 babies (SSA data for MD)
Christopher: 584 babies (MD data) vs. 256 babies (SSA data for MD)
Jayden: 498 babies (MD data) vs. 281 babies (SSA data for MD)
Mason: 463 babies (MD data) vs. 432 babies (SSA data for MD)
And now the girl names. According to the SSA, these were the top 10 girl names in Maryland in 2011:
Sophia
Olivia
Isabella
Madison
Ava
Emma
Abigail
Chloe
Emily
Elizabeth
According to the state of Maryland, though, the top 10 girl names in the state were these:
Rank
OVERALL
Asian & Pacific Isl.
Black
Hispanic
White
1
Sophia
Sophia
Chloe
Sophia
Sophia
2
Isabel
Chloe
London
Emily
Isabel
3
Chloe
Isabel
Layla
Allison
Abigail
4
Ava
Caitlin/Kate
Madison
Isabel
Olivia
5
Madison
Hannah
Kennedy
Ashley
Ava
6
Olivia
Olivia
Aaliyah
Angelina
Riley
7
Emily
Sara(h)
McKenzie
Natalie
Madison
8
McKenzie
Abigail
Zoe(y)
Genesis
Emily
9
Abigail
Emily
Payton
Gabrielle
McKenzie
10
Riley
Lillian/Lily
Taylor
Kimberly
Chloe
Not only does Isabel magically replace Isabella in the Maryland data, but McKenzie and Riley rank 8th and 10th — even though the SSA says they should be closer to 77th (!) and 28th.
Not to mention the raw number discrepancies, such as:
Sophia: 503 babies (MD data) vs. 367 babies (SSA data for MD)
McKenzie: 325 babies (MD data) vs. 71 babies (SSA data for MD)
Riley: 298 babies (MD data) vs. 118 babies (SSA data for MD)
Intriguing parallels between the MD data and the NYC data do exist. In both locations, Elijah and Isaiah were in the top 10 for African-American boys only, and London, Aaliyah, and Taylor were in the top 10 for African-American girls only.
But if we can’t trust the data, we can’t draw any meaningful conclusions.
Labels like “Caitlin/Kate,” “Sara(h),” “Zoe(y)” and “Lillian/Lily” suggest that variant names were combined here and there. I suspect this is also what happened with Isabel/Isabella, Sophia/Sofia, Aiden, Jayden, MacKenzie, Riley, and maybe even Christopher (perhaps Maryland merged all the “Chris-” names). What are your thoughts on this?
In the girls’ top 50, Alexa, Paisley, Ellie and Violet replace Arianna, Gabriella, Sadie and Sarah.
In the boys’ top 50, Grayson and Charles replace Eli and Aaron.
Impressive rises:
Alexa rose 31 places, from 63rd to 32nd
Violet rose 17 places, from 67th to 50th
Grayson rose 16 places, from 63rd to 47th
Oliver rose 13 places, from 32nd to 19th
Riley (girl name) rose 12 places, from 47th to 35th
Impressive drops:
Arianna dropped 16 places, from 40th to 56th
Gabriella dropped 11 places, from 43rd to 54th
Anna dropped 10 places, from 34th to 44th
There’s much more to come! Until then, I’ll quote liberally from the SSA’s press release:
Each year, the list reveals the effect of pop-culture on naming trends. This year’s winners for biggest jump in popularity in the Top 1,000 are Alaia and Riaan.
Alaia jumped 2,012 spots on the girls’ side to number 664, from number 2,676 in 2014. Perhaps this can be attributed to high fashion designer Azzedine Alaia, or maybe it is because of Alaia Baldwin, the model/daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin.
Riaan increased 1,360 spots for the boys, from number 2,286 in 2014 to number 926. Of Indian origin, it is also the name of the young son of a well-known Bollywood actor, Riteish Deshmukh.
The second fastest riser for girls was Meilani. If you have ever watched MTV’s “Jersey Shore,” and maybe even if you haven’t, you’ve heard of Jenni “JWoww” Farley. She gave birth to daughter Meilani in 2014. On a different American shore, out in Hawaii, is another well-known Meilani–Bethany Meilani Hamilton, the professional surfer whose story of surviving a shark attack was documented in the movie “Soul Surfer.”
For boys, it was Huxley (a brave new comeback for the late science fiction writer?).
Some other notable names in the top 10 biggest increase category, and some possible reasons for their newfound popularity:
Omari and Jabari for boys. Omari Hardwick is an actor, known for his roles in “Sparkle,” “The A-Team,” and BET Network’s “Being Mary Jane.” He currently stars in “Power,” a popular cable TV series. Jabari Parker is a professional basketball player for the Milwaukee Bucks. He was the second overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft out of Duke.
Adaline and Zelda for girls. “The Age of Adaline” is a 2015 fantasy film starring Blake Lively, Harrison Ford, Michiel Huisman, and Ellen Burstyn. As for Zelda, maybe the legend continues to grow?
I’ll also note that the name Isis dropped from 705th place (398 baby girls) in 2014 to 1770th place (117 baby girls) in 2015.
How has the ratio of Biblical names to non-Biblical names changed over time (if at all) among the most popular baby names in the U.S.?
This question popped into my head recently, so I thought I’d take a look at the data. We’ll do boy names today and girl names tomorrow.
First, let’s set some parameters. For these posts, “Biblical” names are personal names (belonging to either humans or archangels) mentioned in the Bible, plus all derivatives of these names, plus any other name with a specifically Biblical origin (e.g., Jordan, Sharon, Genesis). The “most popular” names are the top 20, and “over time” is the span of a century.
For boy names, the ratio of Biblical names to non-Biblical names has basically flipped over the last 100 years. Here’s a visual — Biblical names are in the yellow cells, non-Biblical names are in the green cells, and a borderline name (which I counted as non-Biblical) is in the orange cell:
Popular boy names over time: Biblical (yellow) vs. non-Biblical. Click to enlarge.
Borderline name: Jerry (can be based on the Biblical name Jeremy/Jeremiah or on the non-Biblical names Jerome, Gerald, Gerard)
It felt strange putting an overtly Christian name like Christopher in the non-Biblical category, but it doesn’t appear anywhere in the Bible, so…that’s where it goes.
Here are the year-by-year tallies:
Year
Top 20 names given to…
# Biblical
# Non-Biblical
1914
40% of baby boys
5 (25%)
15 (75%)
1924
43% of baby boys
6 (30%)
14 (70%)
1934
43% of baby boys
7 (35%)
13 (65%)
1944
47% of baby boys
7 (35%)
13 (65%)
1954
46% of baby boys
11 (55%)
9 (45%)
1964
42% of baby boys
11 (55%)
9 (45%)
1974
38% of baby boys
11 (55%)
9 (45%)
1984
36% of baby boys
14 (70%)
6 (30%)
1994
27% of baby boys
14 (70%)
6 (30%)
2004
19% of baby boys
14 (70%)
6 (30%)
2014
14% of baby boys
14 (70%)
6 (30%)
But there’s a huge difference between sample sizes of 40% and 14%, so let’s also take a look at the 2014 top 100, which covers 42% of male births.
By my count, last year’s top 100 boy names were half Biblical, half non-Biblical:
Unlike Rowan, 