Popular baby names in New York City, 2020

Flag of New York
Flag of New York

Last year, New York City welcomed 100,022 babies — 48,767 girls and 51,225 boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Emma and Liam (for the fourth year in a row!) 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 2020:

Girl names

  1. Emma, given to well over 400 baby girls
  2. Sophia
  3. Mia
  4. Olivia
  5. Isabella
  6. Ava
  7. Leah
  8. Sarah
  9. Chloe
  10. Amelia

Boy names

  1. Liam, given to nearly 700 baby boys
  2. Noah
  3. Jacob
  4. Ethan
  5. Lucas
  6. Joseph
  7. David
  8. Aiden
  9. Alexander
  10. Daniel

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

Top girl namesTop boy names
Hispanic1. Isabella, 203
2. Emma, 180
3. Sophia, 179
4. Luna, 171
5. Mia, 161		1. Liam, 374
2. Noah, 275
3. Jacob, 227
4. Matthew, 204
5. Dylan, 196
Asian and Pacific Islander1. Chloe, 100
2. Olivia, 79
3. Emma, 68
4. Mia, 64
5. Sophia, 50		1. Ethan, 136
2. Muhammad, 131
3. Aiden, 107
4. Liam, 96
5. Lucas, 90
White, non-Hispanic 1. Esther, 215
2. Leah, 211
3. Sarah, 189
4. Rachel, 187
5. Miriam, 178		1. Joseph, 232
2. David, 230
3. Moshe, 222
4. Jack, 203
5. Jacob, 176
Black, non-Hispanic 1. Ava, 92
2. Nova, 56
3. Zuri, 50
4. Skylar, 46
5. Serenity, 44		1. Noah, 118
2. Amir, 89
3. Elijah, 81
4. Liam, 79
5. Josiah, 78

Finally, here’s a link to NYC’s 2019 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

Sources:

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

[Latest update: Mar. 2026]