Popular, trendy, and noteworthy baby names of 2000 (U.S.)

Baby name timeline 2000

Which baby names were the most popular in the U.S. in the year 2000?

Which names saw the steepest rises in usage?

And which names appeared for the very first time in the national dataset?

Below you’ll find the answers to all three of these questions, plus some of the other baby names that made gains in 2000. (In parentheses are my guesses about the outside factors influencing certain names.)

Top names

These were the most popular baby names overall in the U.S. in 2000:

Girl names: Most popularBoy names: Most popular
1. Emily1. Jacob
2. Hannah2. Michael
3. Madison3. Matthew
4. Ashley4. Joshua
5. Sarah5. Christopher

Rising names

These baby names saw the largest increases in usage from 1999 to 2000 in terms of number of babies:

Girl names: Top absolute increasesBoy names: Top absolute increases
1. Trinity (movie character)1. Ethan
2. Hailey2. Sebastian (TV character; movie character)
3. Chloe3. Jalen (basketball player)
4. Grace4. Julian (movie character)
5. Madison5. Gabriel

These baby names saw the largest increases in usage from 1999 to 2000 in terms of percentage of babies:

Girl names: Top relative increasesBoy names: Top relative increases
1. Litzy (actress)1. Elian (news)
2. Litzi2. Maximus (movie character)
3. Nevaeh (celebrity baby)3. Notnamed
4. Yamile (TV character)4. Rithvik
5. Notnamed5. Jadakiss (rapper)

(All of the instances of “Notnamed” in 2000 originated in the state of Arizona.)

And here’s a selection of the other baby names that saw higher usage in 2000:

Girl names: Other increasesBoy names: Other increases
Arleth (actress)Avant (singer)
Amil (rapper)Dragon (Chinese zodiac)
Fatima (TV character)Ikaika (TV personality)
Jolie (actress)Jude (actor)
Laney (movie character)Long (Chinese zodiac)
Layla (movie character)Raziel (video game character)
Meadow (TV character)Rivaldo (soccer player)
Montserrat (TV character)Ryu (Chinese zodiac)
Niurka (actress)Zack (movie character)
Nyah (movie character)
Shamari (singer)
Sole (rapper)

Debut names

These were the baby names that debuted most impressively in the U.S. baby name data in 2000:

Girl names: Top debutsBoy names: Top debuts
1. Kelis (singer)1. Rithik
2. Yatzari2. Jadis [tie]
3. Marisleysis (news)3. Ritik [tie]
4. Marialy4. Ayaan
5. Beyounce5. Lleyton (tennis player)

And here’s a selection of the other names that appeared for the first time in the U.S. baby name data in 2000:

Girl names: Other debutsBoy names: Other debuts
Midajah (professional wrestler)Edgerrin (football player)
Sonique (singer)Erubiel (baseball player)
Alancia (TV contestant)Hrithik (actor)
Jadore (product/advertisements)Jaheim (singer)
Ishika (movie character)Mccain (politician)
Iuma (internet contest)Rikishi (professional wrestler)
Montse (TV character)Laterrian (TV personality)
Rikishi (professional wrestler)Sisqo (singer)
Rinoa (video game character)Massai (celebrity baby)
Yukta (beauty queen)Ryunosuke (Chinese zodiac)
Ryusei (Chinese zodiac)
Jayz (rapper)
Morpheus (movie character)
Tatsu (Chinese zodiac)

If you want to check out another year on the timeline, here’s the baby name timeline main page.

Finally, a few reminders about the Social Security Administration’s baby name data:

  • It only includes names given to at least five babies (of one gender or the other) per year.
  • It does contain mistakes such as misspelled names, misgendered names, and placeholder names (e.g., “Babygirl”).
  • It isn’t very accurate from 1880 to the mid-1930s. Why? Because the SSA was established in the mid-1930s, so the names in the dataset from 1880 to the mid-1930s are not the names of babies, but the names (or nicknames) of adults applying for social security numbers. More importantly, adults born during these decades who never applied for a number are simply not accounted for.

Data source: U.S. Social Security Administration

[Latest update: Feb. 2025, using the 2023 SSA dataset]