How popular is the baby name Zoey 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 Zoey.

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Popularity of the baby name Zoey


Posts that mention the name Zoey

Popular baby names in Arizona, 2012

Flag of Arizona
Flag of Arizona

The most popular baby names in Arizona were announced recently.

According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, Arizona’s top names are Jacob and Sophia — same as the top names in the nation right now.

Here are Arizona’s top 20 girl names and top 20 boy names of 2012:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Sophia
2. Isabella
3. Emma
4. Mia
5. Olivia
6. Emily
7. Ava
8. Abigail
9. Madison
10. Sofia
11. Victoria
12. Camila
13. Natalie
14. Zoey
15. Elizabeth
16. Ella
17. Aaliyah
18. Zoe
19. Charlotte
20. Brooklyn		1. Jacob
2. Ethan
3. Daniel
4. Liam
5. Alexander
6. Anthony
7. Noah
8. Mason
9. Aiden
10. Michael
11. David
12. Jayden
13. Julian
14. Matthew
15. Andrew
16. Elijah
17. Isaac
18. William
19. Gabriel
20. Joshua

(For more, see the full list of Arizona’s top 100 baby names of 2012.)

To compare, here are Arizona’s top names of 1912:

Girl Names (1912)Boy Names (1912)
1. Mary
2. Maria
3. Helen
4. Dorothy
5. Margaret
6. Ruth
7. Mildred
8. Anna
9. Elizabeth
10. Frances		1. John
2. Jose
3. William
4. James
5. Robert
6. Joseph
7. George
8. Charles
9. Edward
10. Frank

José was the second most popular name in the state in 2002 and 2007 as well. It didn’t even make the top 20 in 2012, though.

Source: Arizona’s top baby names of 2012: Sophia, Isabella, Jacob, Ethan

Image: Adapted from Flag of Arizona (public domain)

Biggest changes in girl name popularity, 2011

Which girl names saw the biggest increases in popularity from 2010 to 2011? How about the biggest decreases?

According to the numbers, the winner was Harper:

  1. Harper, +2012 babies (rank change: 118th to 54th)
  2. Aubrey, +1784 babies (rank change: 44th to 20th)
  3. Aubree, +1509 babies (rank change: 223rd to 99th)
  4. Emma, +1397 babies (rank change: 3rd to 3rd)
  5. Zoey, +1164 babies (rank change: 47th to 28th)
  6. Sophia, +1129 babies (rank change: 2nd to 1st)
  7. Aria, +1066 babies (rank change: 353rd to 157th)
  8. Charlotte, +1024 babies (rank change: 46th to 27th)
  9. Brooklyn, +1017 babies (rank change: 34th to 21st)
  10. Sofia, +981 babies (rank change: 26th to 19th)

The loser? Isabella:

  1. Isabella, -3077 babies (rank change: 1st to 2nd)
  2. Alexis, -1740 babies (rank change: 16th to 26th)
  3. Brianna, -1098 babies (rank change: 30th to 45th)
  4. Abigail, -1059 babies (rank change: 7th to 7th)
  5. Addison, -1056 babies (rank change: 11th to 13th)
  6. Samantha, -1048 babies (rank change: 15th to 17th)
  7. Alyssa, -1001 babies (rank change: 20th to 37th)
  8. Makayla, -959 babies (rank change: 43rd to 56th)
  9. Ashley, -929 babies (rank change: 27th to 42nd)
  10. Bella, -865 babies (rank change: 48th to 60th)

Not only did Isabella see the steepest drop in terms of usage, but she also got knocked out of the #1 spot by Sophia (Sophia was last year’s top climber, btw).

Girl names that decreased in usage but increased in rank (confusingly!) include Ella, Elizabeth and Arianna.

Biggest changes in girl name popularity, 2010

For the last few years, the SSA has re-ordered the top 500 (or so) baby names according to rank change.

I decided to do the same sort of analysis, but change two things. First, I focused on the number of babies instead of on rankings. Second, I looked at the entire list, not just the top 500.

Needless to say, these lists and the SSA’s lists look pretty different. :)

The girl names that increased and decreased the most in terms of usage are below. The boy names will be in the next post.

Biggest Increases, 2009 to 2010

  1. Sophia, +3608 babies (rank change: 4th to 2nd)
  2. Khloe, +1926 (95th to 42nd)
  3. Zoey, +1183 (75th to 47th)
  4. Charlotte, +1143 (68th to 45th)
  5. Zoe, +1080 (47th to 31st)
  6. Maci, +892 (655th to 232nd)
  7. Stella, +856 (126th to 85th)
  8. Scarlett, +781 (170th to 114th)
  9. Amelia, +739 (55th to 41st)
  10. Harper, +703 (172nd to 119th)
  11. Layla, +668 (45th to 37th)
  12. Ellie, +662 (145th to 104th)
  13. Kinley, +660 (452nd to 231st)
  14. Quinn, +637 (487th to 253rd)
  15. Tenley, +609 (2985th to 458th)
  16. Sofia, +602 (36th to 26th)
  17. Annabelle, +572 (156th to 117th)
  18. Bella, +566 (58th to 48th)
  19. Camila, +555 (80th to 61st)
  20. Hadley, +544 (363rd to 216th)

Biggest Decreases, 2009 to 2010

  1. Madison, -2111 babies (rank change: 7th to 8th)
  2. Alexis, -1712 (13th to 16th)
  3. Taylor, -1700 (22nd to 36th)
  4. Ashley, -1517 (20th to 27th)
  5. Sarah, -1502 (21st to 30th)
  6. Samantha, -1282 (15th to 15th)
  7. Kaylee, -1145 (26th to 35th)
  8. Emily, -1123 (6th to 6th)
  9. Brooke, -1106 (54th to 72nd)
  10. Brianna, -1101 (24th to 29th)
  11. Alyssa, -1001 (19th to 20th)
  12. Valeria, -977 (72nd to 94th)
  13. Kaitlyn, -926 (67th to 90th)
  14. Madelyn, -898 (59th to 76th)
  15. Destiny, -885 (57th to 71st)
  16. Mia, -841 (10th to 10th)
  17. Elizabeth, -834 (11th to 12th)
  18. Marley, -830 (149th to 234th)
  19. Kayla, -795 (35th to 43rd)
  20. Lauren, -755 (46th to 58th)

Did you notice that a few of the above (Samantha, Emily, Mia) were big winners/losers according to the numbers, and yet their rankings stayed the same? Tricky.

Top baby names in Oklahoma, 2011

Flag of Oklahoma
Flag of Oklahoma

According to the Oklahoma Department of Health, the most popular baby names in Oklahoma in 2011 were these:

Girl names

  1. Emma
  2. Sophia
  3. Isabella
  4. Olivia
  5. Addison
  6. Ava
  7. Emily
  8. Abigail
  9. Brooklyn
  10. Madison
  11. Chloe
  12. Avery
  13. Elizabeth
  14. Lillian
  15. Alexis
  16. Lily
  17. Zoey
  18. Harper
  19. Natalie
  20. Ella

Boy names

  1. William
  2. Mason
  3. Jacob
  4. Elijah
  5. Noah
  6. Ethan
  7. Aiden
  8. Michael
  9. James
  10. Wyatt
  11. Gabriel
  12. Jackson
  13. Jayden
  14. Alexander
  15. Hunter
  16. Landon
  17. Bentley
  18. David
  19. Eli
  20. Joshua

Unisex names

  1. Riley
  2. Charlie
  3. River
  4. Landry
  5. Reece
  6. Elliot
  7. Camdyn
  8. Skylar
  9. Emerson
  10. Jessie
  11. Briar
  12. Justice
  13. Harley
  14. Rowan
  15. Baylor
  16. Casey
  17. Chandler
  18. Tegan
  19. Kamdyn
  20. Memphis

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a U.S. state put out a list of top gender-neutral names before. Interesting. Wish I knew what guideline/formula they were using to classify certain names as gender-neutral instead of gendered, though.

I also think it’s interesting that Zoey made the top 20, but Zoe didn’t. (Unless “Zoey” is a typo in my source article.)

I posted about bizarre baby names in Oklahoma in early 2011 — remember 12-Gage? — but the state hasn’t put out one of their fascinating “Oklahoma Baby Names Books” for 2011 yet, so I can’t dig any deeper than this. All I know is that “Oklahoma children were bestowed with 7,517 unique girls’ names and 5,255 unique boys’ names in 2011.”

Source: Smith, Michael. “William, Emma top most-popular baby names.” Tulsa World 18 Mar. 2012.

Image: Adapted from Flag of Oklahoma (public domain)