How popular is the baby name Tyler in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Tyler.

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Popularity of the baby name Tyler


Posts that mention the name Tyler

Baby name story: Thatcher

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013)
Margaret Thatcher

A baby boy born in January of 2016 to Rob Gledhill and Abbie Maguire of Essex, England, was named Thatcher Stephen Maguire — first name in honor of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

Rob — who serves on Thurrock council, and is the leader of the council’s Tory (conservative) group — asserted that the name wasn’t a political statement. “What’s the difference between Tyler or Harper and Thatcher?”

He also said he wasn’t worried about teasing in school:

How many children at the age of five are going to say ‘oh you’re named after the first female prime minister – the one who gave everybody the ability to buy their council house or re-took the Falklands?’.

Source: “Essex man names his baby after ex-PM Margaret Thatcher.” BBC 19 Jan. 2016.
Image: Margaret Thatcher 1984

Popular boy names: Biblical vs. Non-Biblical

How has the ratio of Biblical names to non-Biblical names changed over time (if at all) among the most popular baby names in the U.S.?

This question popped into my head recently, so I thought I’d take a look at the data. We’ll do boy names today and girl names tomorrow.

First, let’s set some parameters. For these posts, “Biblical” names are personal names (belonging to either humans or archangels) mentioned in the Bible, plus all derivatives of these names, plus any other name with a specifically Biblical origin (e.g., Jordan, Sharon, Genesis). The “most popular” names are the top 20, and “over time” is the span of a century.

For boy names, the ratio of Biblical names to non-Biblical names has basically flipped over the last 100 years. Here’s a visual — Biblical names are in the yellow cells, non-Biblical names are in the green cells, and a borderline name (which I counted as non-Biblical) is in the orange cell:

Popular boy names: Biblical vs. non-Biblical.
Popular boy names over time: Biblical (yellow) vs. non-Biblical. Click to enlarge.
  • Biblical names: Adam, Alexander, Andrew, Austin (via Augustus), Benjamin, Daniel, David, Elijah, Ethan, Jack (via John), Jackson (via John), Jacob, James, Jason, John, Jonathan, Joseph, Joshua, Justin (via Justus), Lucas, Mark, Matthew, Michael, Nathan, Nicholas, Noah, Paul, Stephen, Steven, Thomas, Timothy, Zachary
  • Non-Biblical names: Aiden, Albert, Anthony, Arthur, Billy, Brandon, Brian, Charles, Christopher, Dennis, Donald, Dylan, Edward, Eric, Frank, Gary, George, Harold, Harry, Henry, Jayden, Jeffrey, Kenneth, Kevin, Larry, Liam, Logan, Louis, Mason, Raymond, Richard, Robert, Ronald, Ryan, Scott, Tyler, Walter, William
  • Borderline name: Jerry (can be based on the Biblical name Jeremy/Jeremiah or on the non-Biblical names Jerome, Gerald, Gerard)

It felt strange putting an overtly Christian name like Christopher in the non-Biblical category, but it doesn’t appear anywhere in the Bible, so…that’s where it goes.

Here are the year-by-year tallies:

YearTop 20 names
given to…		# Biblical# Non-Biblical
191440% of baby boys5 (25%)15 (75%)
192443% of baby boys6 (30%)14 (70%)
193443% of baby boys7 (35%)13 (65%)
194447% of baby boys7 (35%)13 (65%)
195446% of baby boys11 (55%)9 (45%)
196442% of baby boys11 (55%)9 (45%)
197438% of baby boys11 (55%)9 (45%)
198436% of baby boys14 (70%)6 (30%)
199427% of baby boys14 (70%)6 (30%)
200419% of baby boys14 (70%)6 (30%)
201414% of baby boys14 (70%)6 (30%)

But there’s a huge difference between sample sizes of 40% and 14%, so let’s also take a look at the 2014 top 100, which covers 42% of male births.

By my count, last year’s top 100 boy names were half Biblical, half non-Biblical:

Biblical names (49)Non-Biblical names (51)
Noah, Jacob, Ethan, Michael, Alexander, James, Daniel, Elijah, Benjamin, Matthew, Jackson (via John), David, Lucas, Joseph, Andrew, Samuel, Gabriel, Joshua, John, Luke, Isaac, Caleb, Nathan, Jack (via John), Jonathan, Levi, Jaxon (via John), Julian (via Julius), Isaiah, Eli, Aaron, Thomas, Jordan, Jeremiah, Nicholas, Evan, Josiah, Austin (via Augustus), Jace (via Jason), Jason, Jose, Ian, Adam, Zachary, Jaxson (via John), Asher, Nathaniel, Justin (via Justus), JuanLiam, Mason, William, Logan, Aiden, Jayden, Anthony, Carter, Dylan, Christopher, Oliver, Henry, Sebastian, Owen, Ryan, Wyatt, Hunter, Christian, Landon, Charles, Connor, Cameron, Adrian, Gavin, Robert, Brayden, Grayson, Colton, Angel, Dominic, Kevin, Brandon, Tyler, Parker, Ayden, Chase, Hudson, Nolan, Easton, Blake, Cooper, Lincoln, Xavier, Bentley, Kayden, Carson, Brody, Ryder, Leo, Luis, Camden

(Christian, Angel, Xavier, Dominic…all technically non-Biblical, despite having strong ties to Christianity.)

50%-50% isn’t quite as extreme as 70%-30%, but it’s still noticeably more Biblical than 1914’s 25%-75%.

Do any of these results surprise you?

Biggest changes in boy name popularity, 2014

Which boy names increased and decreased the most in popularity from 2013 to 2014?

Below are two versions of each list. My version looks at raw number differences and takes all 13,977 boy names on the 2014 list into account. The SSA’s version looks at ranking differences and covers the top 1,000 boy names (roughly).

Biggest Increases

Raw Numbers (Nancy’s list)Rankings (SSA’s list)
1. Oliver, +2,116 babies (7,249 to 9,365)
2. Sebastian, +1,707 (7,530 to 9,237)
3. Logan, +1,256 (12,323 to 13,579)
4. Carter, +1,044 (9,555 to 10,599)
5. Grayson, +996 (5,536 to 6,532)
6. Noah, +965 (18,179 to 19,144)
7. Karter, +929 (1,174 to 2,103)
8. Luke, +885 (9,546 to 10,431)
9. James, +799 (13,502 to 14,301)
10. Theodore, +778 (2,413 to 3,191)		1. Bode, +645 spots (1,428th to 783rd)
2. Axl, +624 (1,474th to 850th)
3. Gannon, +426 (839th to 413th)
4. Bodie, +333 (1,314th to 981st)
5. Royal, +327 (900th to 573rd)
6. Coen, +290 (1,188th to 898th)
7. Anakin, +281 (1,238th to 957th)
8. Killian, +250 (766th to 516th)
9. Reyansh, +226 (1,221st to 995th)
10. Ronin, +219 (773rd to 554th)

Here’s what the SSA says about the rise of Bode: “[It] might have had something to do with the Winter Olympics in early 2014, where Bode Miller continued his outstanding alpine skiing career by collecting his sixth Olympic medal.”

And on the rise of Axl: “[It’s] a nod to both rock legend Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses and Axl Jack Duhamel, son of Stacy Ann “Fergie” Ferguson and Josh Duhamel.”

Biggest Decreases

Raw Numbers (Nancy’s list)Rankings (SSA’s list)
1. Jayden, -1,834 babies (14,712 to 12,878)
2. Jacob, -1,360 (18,072 to 16,712)
3. Joshua, -997 (11,761 to 10,764)
4. Christian, -905 (9,293 to 8,388)
5. Brayden, -873 (7,412 to 6,539)
6. Justin, -858 (4,849 to 3,991)
7. Tyler, -833 (6,618 to 5,785)
8. Jase, -826 (4,545 to 3,719)
9. Ryan, -824 (9,850 to 9,026)
10. Gavin, -820 (7,402 to 6,582)		1. Bently, -289 spots (902nd to 1,191st)
2. Damion, -262 (856th to 1,118th)
3. Amare, -239 (601st to 840th)
4. Isiah, -234 (824th to 1,058th)
5. Xavi, -198 (930th to 1,128th)
6. Sidney, -187 (958th to 1,145th)
7. Deegan, -180 (961st to 1,141st)
8. Jair, -174 (820th to 994th)
9. Juelz, -165 (908th to 1,073rd)
10. Corban, -156 (979th to 1,135th)

Jase, last year’s biggest raw number increase, is now 8th on the list of decreases. Mason, which topped the list of raw number increases two years in a row (2010 and 2011), is now 18th on the list of decreases. (It was 3rd in 2013.) And Jayden, the trendy name that shot up the charts to become the 4th most popular baby name in the nation in 2010 and 2011, has since fallen to 15th.

Finally, here are the big winners and losers from the last few years:

  • 2013: Jase/Jayceon (biggest increases) and Ethan/Austyn (biggest decreases)
  • 2012: Liam/Major (biggest increases) and Jacob/Braeden (biggest decreases)
  • 2011: Mason (biggest increase) and Jacob (biggest decrease)
  • 2010: Mason (biggest increase) and Joshua (biggest decrease)

Sources: Change in Popularity from 2013 to 2014, Noah and Emma Top Social Security’s List of Most Popular Baby Names for 2014

U.S. Baby Names 2014: Most popular names, Top girl-name debuts, Top boy-name debuts, Biggest girl-name changes, Biggest boy-name changes, Top first letters, Top lengths

Biggest changes in boy name usage (England, 2013)

Here’s another “biggest changes” analysis, but this one is for the England and Wales boy names. (We looked at the girl names yesterday.)

The tables below include two versions of each list. On the left are the top raw-number differences, taking all names into account. On the right are the top ranking differences, taking only the top 1,000 names (roughly) into account.

Biggest Increases in Popularity

Raw Numbers (all names)Rankings (top 1,000)
  1. Oscar, +1,222 babies
  2. Muhammad, +338
  3. Henry, +320
  4. Joey, +288
  5. Oliver, +280
  6. Teddy, +276
  7. Arthur, +249
  8. Archie, +203
  9. Edward, +185
  10. Theodore, +167
  1. Greyson, +1388 spots
  2. Harvey-Lee, +898
  3. Salahuddin, +759
  4. Bernard, +715
  5. Camden, +686
  6. Kayson, +583
  7. Raife, +531
  8. Buster and Abubakr [tie], +517
  9. Jeffrey and Brax [tie], +499
  10. Emre, +492

I think the rise of Oscar can be attributed, at least in part, to Oscar Pistorius. Can you think of explanations for any of the other names? (I’d especially like to know what gave Buster a boost.)

Biggest Decreases in Popularity

Raw Numbers (all names)Rankings (top 1,000)
  1. Riley, -1,703 babies
  2. Harry, -1,280
  3. Tyler, -1,104
  4. Alfie, -705
  5. Ethan, -649
  6. Charlie, -532
  7. Joshua, -471
  8. Callum, -467
  9. Ryan, -441
  10. Dylan, -407
  1. Rylan, -577 spots
  2. Ray, -339
  3. Rylie, -277
  4. Jeevan, -276
  5. Darren, -255
  6. Codey, -252
  7. Chace, -242
  8. Dorian, -239
  9. Kaelan, -231
  10. Riley-Jay, -228

A lot of Ry- and Ri- names took hits last year. Is the sound falling out of the favor? What do you think?

Top Debut Name

Gurfateh.

Fewer than 3 baby boys got the name in 2012, but 12 baby boys were named Gurfateh in 2013. (But keep in mind that I only have the full England and Wales baby name lists going back to 2007.)

Here are the U.S. boy names that changed the most in popularity in 2013, if you’d like to compare.

Source: Baby Names, England and Wales, 2013 – ONS