Baby Name: Isla

Name nerds rejoice! Finally, four months after Mother’s Day, the U.S. Social Security Administration has decided to release the latest batch (2019) of baby name data!

First off, here’s the link to the SSA’s popular names page and to the SSA’s downloadable data page.

I’m going to summarize the data in just two posts this year — one for girls, one for boys. Let’s start with the ladies…

Here are the most popular girl names overall:

1. Olivia, 18,451 baby girls
2. Emma, 17,102
3. Ava, 14,440
4. Sophia, 13,714
5. Isabella, 13,306
6. Charlotte, 13,138
7. Amelia, 12,862
8. Mia, 12,414
9. Harper, 10,442
10. Evelyn, 10,392

These same ten names were in the 2018 top ten as well.

The girl names that saw the largest increases in usage in terms of absolute numbers of babies were…

1. Alaia, increased by 1,072 babies
2. Everleigh, 1,054
3. Luna, 838
4. Emilia, 716
5. Willow, 653
6. Isla, 615
7. Violet, 570
8. Amelia, 508
9. Hazel, 493
10. Arya, 492

The girl names that saw the largest increases in usage in terms of relative numbers of babies were…

1. Yalitza, increased by 1490%
2. Alita, 554%
3. Dayleen, 527%
4. Jenaiah, 450%
5. Amiri, 417%
6. Theo, 343%
7. Mazikeen, 319%
8. Kamoura, 317%
9. Seylah, 317%
10. Kairo, 283%

Yalitza was influenced by Roma (2018) actress Yalitza Aparicio, and Mazikeen comes from the character Mazikeen Smith in the TV series Lucifer.

Here are the girl names that debuted most impressively in the 2019 data:

1. Adeya, debuted with 22 baby girls
2. Kayslin, 20
3. Malaynah, 18
4. Chevel, 17
5. Kulture, 17
6. Kaavia, 15
7. Sakani, 15
8. Ahveya, 14
9. Akyli, 14
10. Jhazelle, 14

Some explanations…

• Adeya, Kulture and Kaavia are all celebrity babies: Adeya is the daughter of Kehlani, Kulture is the daughter of Cardi B and Offset, and Kaavia is the daughter of Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade.
• Kayslin and Chevel come from two contestants (Kayslin Victoria and Chevel Shepherd) on The Voice.
• Malaynah is a young female rapper (who earned a coveted IG repost from the aforementioned Cardi B in 2018).
• Sakani was likely inspired by Sekani, the name of a character (a little boy) in the 2018 film The Hate U Give.
• Akyli must come from Akyli Maze, one of the children of Joe Lee and Alena Maze — YouTube influencers who create content under the name MAZELEE. (The baby name Mazelee debuted last year as well — not surprising at all, given how close it is to the popular Paisley.)

The girl names that saw the largest decreases in usage in terms of absolute numbers of babies were…

1. Emma, decreased by 1,655 babies
2. Isabella, -1,211
3. Alexa, -1,069
4. Mila, -845
5. Madison, -794
6. Avery, -775
7. Victoria, -767
8. Addison, -743
9. Abigail, -742
10. Elizabeth, -716

The girl name that saw the largest decrease in usage in terms of relative numbers of babies was Anifer (-86%), and the girl name that saw the steepest drop off the list was Marionna (from 21 babies in 2018 to fewer than 5 in 2019).

If you can explain any of the rises (or drops), please leave a comment!

Update, 9/6/2020: Here are the boy names!

Source: SSA

Image: Adapted from Flag of the United States (public domain)