Popular baby names in New York City, 2021

Flag of New York
Flag of New York

Two years ago, New York City welcomed 99,262 babies — 48,648 girls and 50,614 boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Emma and Liam (for the fifth 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 2021:

Girl names

  1. Emma, given to more than 400 baby girls
  2. Olivia
  3. Mia
  4. Sophia
  5. Leah
  6. Ava
  7. Isabella
  8. Amelia
  9. Luna
  10. Sofia

Boy names

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

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

Top girl namesTop boy names
Hispanic1. Isabella, 175
2. Luna, 173
3. Emma, 166 (tie)
4. Mia, 166 (tie)
5. Camila, 147		1. Liam, 446
2. Noah, 304
3. Matthew, 186
4. Lucas, 174
5. Dylan, 167
Asian and Pacific Islander1. Chloe, 71 (tie)
2. Olivia, 71 (tie)
3. Emma, 66
4. Mia, 59
5. Ava, 53		1. Muhammad, 138
2. Ethan, 119
3. Lucas, 115
4. Aiden, 79
5. Jasper, 74
White, non-Hispanic 1. Esther, 210
2. Leah, 201
3. Chaya, 190
4. Emma, 183
5. Rachel, 173		1. Moshe, 240
2. David, 221
3. Joseph, 219
4. Benjamin, 202
5. Noah, 182
Black, non-Hispanic 1. Ava, 69
2. Nova, 49
3. Gianna, 47
4. Olivia, 44
5. Fatoumata, 41		1. Noah, 119
2. Amir, 80
3. Elijah, 73
4. Liam, 69
5. Josiah/Legend, 68 each (tie)

Finally, here’s a link to NYC’s 2020 rankings, and here’s a round-up of NYC rankings from 2019 all the way back to 1990 (plus a few from even earlier).

Sources:

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

[Latest update: Mar. 2026]

2 thoughts on “Popular baby names in New York City, 2021”

  1. Goldy is a surprise! Goldie was #883 in the national data in 2021, but hadn’t otherwise been in the top 1000 since the 1950s. Even despite the much larger Jewish population in NYC compared to the U.S. as a whole, I never would have predicted Goldy or Goldie to have that kind of popularity. I really love it, though. Golda, too. (And while we’re at it, I also love Gilda.)

  2. Oh I have a soft spot for Gilda. :)

    Goldy is definitely more popular in NYC than it is nationally, though I think NYC’s method of ranking names (i.e., counting ties) could be exaggerating that popularity a bit.

    In NYC’s 2016 data, for instance, Goldy is tied for 125th with 11 other names. If I re-rank the names using the SSA’s method (i.e., ignore ties), Goldy falls to 341st place (In fact, NYC’s “top 100” girl names of 2016 is actually a list of 172 names.)

    I don’t have the complete set of data for 2021, but assume they still do things the same way.

    Regardless, the name does seem to be on the rise in NYC!

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