Just like there were some ups and downs in the stock market yesterday, there were some ups and downs in baby name popularity between 2008 and 2009.
The SSA has published a handy pair of tables showing changes in baby name popularity. Only names that cracked the top 500 during either 2008 or 2009 were included, but still it’s a lot of useful information. Here are the biggest winners and losers in the group:
| Boys | Girls | |
| Gains |
Cullen, +297 Jax, +266 King, +248 Emmett, +215 Colt, +164 |
Maliyah, +342 Isla, +273 Caylee, +251 Kinley, +214 Arabella, +209 |
| Losses |
Alvin, -133 Marc, -106 Jonas, -105 Isiah, -91 Brett, -80 |
Marely, -517 Mylee, -420 Jaslene, -294 Allisson, -197 Haylie, -145 |
The numbers show the difference in ranking from 2008 to 2009. Cullen ranked 297 spots higher, for instance, so it became much more popular (no doubt thanks to Twilight). Alvin ranked 133 spots lower, on the other hand, so it became a lot less popular.
Oh, look, you did this already. I’m surprised by the drop in Haylie, although that’s just one spelling of the name. Maliyah I presume is in tribute to Malia Obama.
Jax, King – REALLY???
I was surprised by King especially.
I write about baby names at another site, and the two most popular articles over there are always the same: one-syllable boy names and one-syllable girl names. So apparently a lot of people are really interested in short names.
Other one-syllable boy names that became more popular from 2008 to 2009 include Jett (+143), Jude (+41), Dean (+39), Jayce (+26), Ty (+25) and Pierce (+25).