How popular is the baby name Isla 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 Isla.

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Popularity of the baby name Isla


Posts that mention the name Isla

Popular and unique baby names in Scotland (UK), 2010

Flag of the United Kingdom
Flag of the United Kingdom

Scotland’s General Register Office has just released its latest list of baby names. A total of 4,086 girl names and 2,999 boy names were registered in Scotland in 2010. Here are the top five names for each gender:

Boy NamesGirl Names
1. Jack
2. Lewis
3. James
4. Logan
5. Daniel & Ryan (tie)		1. Sophie
2. Olivia
3. Ava
4. Emily
5. Isla

If different spellings of the same name had been combined instead of counted separately, “Callum/Calum would be in fifth place as would Aimee/Amy.”

An article about Scotland’s strangest baby names didn’t deliver (Unique? Romeo? Come on…) so I decided to throw my own list together:

Boy NamesGirl Names
Alexandreau-Le-Prince
Amiogho
Anamol
Bourdieu
Cezary
Clivejakson
Deejay
Deco
Gizzy
Halcro
Riley-Boy
Slessor		Bagryana
Beenie-Ann
Bindi
Chalcedony
Demi-Debbie
Felicity-Cecily
Grazielli
Lhlyaijana
Mhyrnn
Snædis
Winkie
Zvikomborero

A few possible sources of inspiration: French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, Bulgarian poet Elisaveta Bagryana and Brazilian reality TV star Grazielli Massafera.

Finally, just one Avery was born in Scotland this year. Care to guess the gender of baby Avery?

Sources: Babies’ First Names 2010 and Table 4 (the full list of names)

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

Biggest changes in baby name popularity, 2009

Just like there were some ups and downs in the stock market yesterday, there were some ups and downs in baby name popularity between 2008 and 2009.

The SSA has published a handy pair of tables showing changes in baby name popularity. Only names that cracked the top 500 during either 2008 or 2009 were included, but still it’s a lot of useful information. Here are the biggest winners and losers in the group:

Boys Girls
Gains Cullen, +297
Jax, +266
King, +248
Emmett, +215
Colt, +164 		Maliyah, +342
Isla, +273
Caylee, +251
Kinley, +214
Arabella, +209
Losses Alvin, -133
Marc, -106
Jonas, -105
Isiah, -91
Brett, -80 		Marely, -517
Mylee, -420
Jaslene, -294
Allisson, -197
Haylie, -145

The numbers show the difference in ranking from 2008 to 2009. Cullen ranked 297 spots higher, for instance, so it became much more popular (no doubt thanks to Twilight). Alvin ranked 133 spots lower, on the other hand, so it became a lot less popular.

Popular baby names in the United States, 2009

Flag of the United States
Flag of the United States

It’s that time of year again! Here are the new top ten U.S. baby names for each gender:

Girl names

  1. Isabella (was 2nd)
  2. Emma (was 1st)
  3. Olivia (was 4th)
  4. Sophia (was 7th)
  5. Ava (was 5th)
  6. Emily (was 3rd)
  7. Madison (was 6th)
  8. Abigail (was 8th)
  9. Chloe (was 10th)
  10. Mia (was 14th)

Boy names

  1. Jacob (was 1st)
  2. Ethan (was 3rd)
  3. Michael (was 2nd)
  4. Alexander (was 6th)
  5. William (was 8th)
  6. Joshua (was 4th)
  7. Daniel (was 5th)
  8. Jayden (was 11th)
  9. Noah (was 15th)
  10. Anthony (was 7th)

Highlights: Isabella trumps Emma. Jayden, Noah and Mia make the top 10. Michael slips out of the top 2 for the first time since the 1950s.

Here’s more from the SSA’s news release:

This year’s winner for the biggest jump is Maliyah, which undoubtedly is related to the popularity of the First Family. Malia (the spelling used by the First Daughter), also is one of the top 10 fastest risers among girls names. Isla, the name of popular actress Isla Fisher (and wife of Sacha Baron Cohen — aka Borat, which thankfully has yet to make the list) was the second fastest riser among girls. On the boy’s side, Cullen had the biggest increase, likely attributable to the popular character Edward Cullen in the “Twilight” novels and movies. King came in as the number three top mover for boys, but more on Elvis later.

The girl’s name Marely, which interestingly had the third largest increase last year, had the biggest drop this year from number 334 to 851. Mylee had the second biggest drop; Miley (as in Cyrus) also dropped in popularity. In the wake of controversies surrounding Lindsay Lohan, Lindsay dropped from number 381 to 524. Brett, Jonas and Alvin are among the boy’s names with the largest decreases. With Brett, Social Security wonders if Americans are ready to retire the name (sorry Vikings’ fans, we mean Jets’ fans, um Packers’ fans). And despite the soaring popularity of singing trios — whether human brothers or the chipmunk variety — fewer people apparently are willing to name their sons Jonas or Alvin.

With 69 baby Baracks born in 2009, Barack continues to move up the list to number 1,993 from 2,424 in 2008, and 12,535 in 2007, but still lags well behind First Dog Bo at 782.

Many patterns of recent years continued. Religious names continue to be very popular, including the girl names Heaven at number 275 and Nevaeh (Heaven spelled backwards) at 34. Messiah was number 663 for boys. An extraordinary 3.7 percent of the Top 1000 boy names rhymed with the word “maiden” and names associated with cities, states, or countries were popular, particularly for girls.

Are you surprised that Isabella is the new #1 girl name? Were you expecting it?

Sources: SSA, Isabella Reigns as New Queen of Baby Names – Takes Top Spot on Social Security’s Most Popular Baby Names List – SSA

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

Popular baby names in the United States, 2008

Flag of the United States
Flag of the United States

And…here they are the new top-10 lists!

Girl names

  1. Emma (was #2 in 2007)
  2. Isabella (no change)
  3. Emily (was #1)
  4. Madison (was #5)
  5. Ava (was #4)
  6. Olivia (was #7)
  7. Sophia (was #6)
  8. Abigail (no change)
  9. Elizabeth (was #10)
  10. Chloe (was #16)

Boy names

  1. Jacob (no change)
  2. Michael (always #2!)
  3. Ethan (no change)
  4. Joshua (no change)
  5. Daniel (no change)
  6. Alexander (was #11)
  7. Anthony (no change)
  8. William (no change)
  9. Christopher (was #6)
  10. Matthew (was #9)

The first thing I had to check was Michael. I’d be so upset if it slipped any lower than #2. Just seems like tradition at this point. :)

There is one newbie on each top ten list: Alexander for boys, Chloe for girls. On the flip side of that are the “biggest losers,” Andrew (which has dropped to 12th) and Hannah (which has dropped to 17th).

And which two names just missed the cut? 11th-place Jayden and 12th-place Addison, two rather trendy names riding their newfound fame to the top. (Will they ever make it? Tune in next year — same baby name-time, same baby name-channel!)

I haven’t really delved into anything more than the top names at this point. I’m seeing news articles about Barack and Miley being more popular this year — have yet to check that out.

Have you combed through the new list yet? If so, did you see anything interesting?

Update: Here’s more from the SSA’s news release:

A brand new feature to the website this year is the “Change in Name Popularity” page.  This year’s winner for the biggest jump is Khloe, which is undoubtedly related to the popularity of Khloe Kardashian from the show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.” Khloe with a K increased 469 spots to number 196 in 2008, up from 665 in 2007 and 960 in 2006 (her first year on the list).  Also, Chloe with a C is in the Top 10 for the first time ever.  Another fast riser is Miley, moving up 152 spots to number 127 for 2008, a rather impressive increase given this is only her second year on the list.  On the downside for fans of Miley Cyrus’ fictional character, the name Hannah fell out of the Top 10 and landed down at number 17.  Jacoby had the biggest increase for the boys, moving up 200 spots to number 423.  Commissioner Michael Astrue, a die-hard Red Sox fan, attributed the rise of Jacoby to the appeal of last year’s star rookie centerfielder, Jacoby Ellsbury.

The name everybody is wondering about, Barack, did not make this year’s top 1,000 boy’s list, but it did set what is believed to be a record by skyrocketing more than 10,000 spots in rising from number 12,535 in 2007 to 2,409 in 2008.  Social Security’s sophisticated predictive models are forecasting an increase well into the top 1,000 for Barack for 2009.

In this year of change, many unfamiliar names debuted on the top 1,000 list.  These names include Isla (623), Mareli (718), Dayami (750), Nylah (821) and Jazlene (831) to name a few for the girls.  For the boys: Aaden (No. 343), Chace (655), Marley (764), Kash (779), Kymani (836), Ishaan (851), Jadiel (874) and Urijah (889).  Social Security officials expressed hope that parents were not naming their sons Marley after the badly behaved dog who starred in the movie “Marley and Me.”  Beckham also made the list for the first time, coming in at number 893—undoubtedly influenced by the arrival in the United States of British soccer star David Beckham.

Sources: SSA, America’s Parents Vote for Change on Social Security’s Most Popular Baby Names List – SSA

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