Popular baby names in New York City, 2017

Flag of New York
Flag of New York

Last year, New York City welcomed 117,013 babies — 56,911 girls and 60,102 boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Emma and Liam, according to data from New York City’s Department of Health.

Here are NYC’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2017:

Girl names

  1. Emma, given to nearly 600 baby girls
  2. Olivia
  3. Mia
  4. Sophia
  5. Isabella
  6. Ava
  7. Leah
  8. Emily
  9. Sarah
  10. Abigail

Boy names

  1. Liam, given to more than 700 baby boys
  2. Noah
  3. Jacob
  4. Ethan
  5. David
  6. Lucas
  7. Matthew
  8. Jayden
  9. Aiden
  10. Daniel

The most popular baby names within specific ethnic/racial groups were…

Top girl namesTop boy names
Hispanic1. Mia, 250
2. Isabella, 245
3. Emma, 222
4. Sophia, 214
5. Camila, 178		1. Liam, 407
2. Jacob, 290
3. Dylan, 287
4. Matthew, 276
5. Noah, 255
Asian and Pacific Islander1. Olivia, 136
2. Emma, 109
3. Chloe, 103
4. Sophia, 86
5. Mia, 79		1. Muhammad, 157
2. Ethan, 146
3. Ryan, 143
4. Jayden, 136
5. Aiden, 129
White, non-Hispanic 1. Esther, 260
2. Leah, 231
3. Olivia, 228
4. Emma, 199
5. Chaya, 196		1. David, 282
2. Joseph, 279
3. Jacob, 264
4. Moshe, 223
5. James, 213
Black, non-Hispanic 1. Ava, 113
2. Skylar, 75
3. Madison, 72
4. Aaliyah, 48
5. Amelia, 47		1. Noah, 148
2. Liam, 113
3. Aiden, 107
4. Mason, 104
5. Ethan, 100

Among the names given to just 10 babies each in NYC last year were the girl names Artemis, Tzippy, and Reizy, and the boy names Azriel, Zeus, and Thaddeus.

One year earlier, in 2016, NYC’s top names (overall) were Olivia and Liam.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of New York (public domain)

[Latest update: Feb. 2026]