How popular is the baby name Mason 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 Mason.

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Popularity of the baby name Mason


Posts that mention the name Mason

Popular baby names in Nova Scotia (Canada), 2016

According to provisional data released yesterday by Nova Scotia’s Registry of Vital Statistics, the most popular baby names in the province in 2016 were Olivia and William.

Here are Nova Scotia’s projected top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2016:

Girl Names
1. Olivia, 48 baby girls
2. Abigail, 40
3. Ava and Emma, 38 each (tie)
4. Charlotte, 35
5. Violet, 34
6. Amelia, 32
7. Sophie, 30
8. Claire, 29
9. Sophia, 28
10. Evelyn and Isla and Lily, 27 each (tie)

Boy Names
1. William, 62 baby boys
2. Benjamin and Oliver, 47 each (tie)
3. Noah, 40
4. Liam, 39
5. Owen, 37
6. Ethan, 36
7. Hunter and Jacob and Logan and Mason, 35 each (tie)
8. Lucas, 34
9. Henry, 32
10. Emmett and Jack and John, 31 each (tie)

These rankings/numbers cover births in the province through December 19.

In 2015 the top names were Ava and Owen.

Finally, did you know that Nova Scotia began formally registering births way back in 1864? The top names that year were Mary and John.

Sources: Most Popular Baby Names in Nova Scotia in 2016, Nova Scotia’s top baby names of 2016, Nova Scotia Open Data

Popular baby names in Manitoba (Canada), 2016

According to provisional data released yesterday by the Province of Manitoba, the most popular baby names in the province this year were Olivia and Liam.

Here are Manitoba’s projected top 10 girl names and top 11 boy names of 2016:

Girl Names
1. Olivia, 103 baby girls
2. Emma, 81
3. Emily, 72
4. Ava (tie), 58
5. Sophia (tie), 58
6. Chloe, 55
7. Abigail, 54
8. Charlotte, 44
9. Hannah, 43
10. Amelia, 42

Boy Names
1. Liam, 94 baby boys
2. William, 71
3. Benjamin, 68
4. Lucas, 65
5. Ethan, 64
6. Noah, 63
7. Alexander, 53
8. Carter, 52
9. Mason, 51
10. Logan and James* (tie), 49

On the girls’ list, Charlotte and Amelia replaced Avery and Lily.

On the boys’ list, Benjamin, Ethan, Noah, and Carter replaced Oliver, Jacob and Owen.

I forgot to post Manitoba’s 2015 rankings, but I do have a post with the 2014 rankings.

*My source included an 11th boy name, probably because 10th place was a tie. Too bad the writer didn’t notice the tie on the girls’ list! I feel like we should get an 11th girl name now…

Source: Olivia, Liam among top 10 baby names in Manitoba for 2016

Popular baby names in Ontario (Canada), 2015

Flag of Ontario
Flag of Ontario

According to data released yesterday by Ontario’s Ministry of Government and Consumer Services, the most popular baby names in the province last year were Olivia and Liam.

Here are Ontario’s official top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2015:

Girl Names

  1. Olivia
  2. Emma
  3. Charlotte
  4. Ava
  5. Sophia
  6. Emily
  7. Abigail
  8. Isabella
  9. Amelia and Mia (tie)
  10. Ella

Boy Names

  1. Liam
  2. Benjamin
  3. Noah
  4. Lucas
  5. Ethan
  6. William
  7. Nathan
  8. Logan
  9. Mason
  10. Jacob

According to the news release, “Tenley, Riaan and Eason are brand new to the list this year.” I’m pretty sure this is a reference to the top 100, not the full list, as I doubt a name like Tenley has never been used in Ontario before.

In Ontario’s provisional data for 2015, Ethan ranked 2nd, which is interesting.

Also released before 2015 was over was an alternative set of rankings that had variant spellings lumped together. In this set of rankings, the Sophia name-group and the Jackson name-group took the top spots.

Girl name-groups

  1. Sophia/Sofia/Sofiya
  2. Olivia
  3. Emma/Ema
  4. Ava/Avah
  5. Charlotte

Boy name-groups

  1. Jackson/Jaxon/Jaxson/Jaxen/Jaxxon/Jaxyn
  2. Liam
  3. Lucas/Lukas
  4. Jacob/Jakob/Jaycob
  5. Ethan

Sources: Olivia is the Most Popular Baby Name in Ontario, Ontario’s Top 25 Baby Names for 2015, Sophia and Jackson are the Most Popular Baby Names in Ontario

Image: Adapted from Flag of Ontario (public domain)

The top baby names in Maryland in 2011?

Maryland’s Open Data website includes a small table of popular baby names. It’s based on data from 2011, so it’s a bit out of date, but it does include top-10 lists for several different racial/ethnic groups.

This is cool because New York City does the very same breakdown, and we happen to have the equivalent NYC baby name rankings (2011). So we ought to be able to compare and contrast the two sets of rankings, right?

Yeah, that’s what I thought…until I started looking more closely at Maryland’s data.

According to the SSA, these were the top 10 boy names in Maryland in 2011:

  1. Mason
  2. Jacob
  3. Michael
  4. Ethan
  5. Ryan
  6. William
  7. Alexander
  8. Noah
  9. Daniel
  10. Aiden (tied for 10th)
  11. Jayden (tied for 10th)

But according to the state of Maryland, the top 10 boy names were quite different:

RankOVERALLAsian &
Pacific Isl.		BlackHispanicWhite
1AidenAidenJaidenChristopherLucas
2ChristopherLucasAidenAnthonyMason
3JaydenAlexanderChristopherJohnJackson
4MasonMuhammedCameronAlexanderJacob
5LucasEthanElijahDanielJohn
6JacobNathanJeremyMatthewAiden
7AlexanderJohnMichaelBrianAlexander
8NathanAndrewIsaiahJustinLiam
9MichaelJustinMasonJaidenWilliam
10EthanJacobCalebKevinRyan

It isn’t totally implausible that Aiden and Jayden ranked 1st and 3rd in 2011, but Christopher in 2nd? Maybe if this were a dataset from thirty years ago, but not five years ago. The SSA indicates that Christopher ranked closer to 18th in the state that year.

And what’s with the two different spellings of Jayden/Jaiden?

Plus there are some sizable raw number discrepancies, such as:

  • Aiden: 588 babies (MD data) vs. 281 babies (SSA data for MD)
  • Christopher: 584 babies (MD data) vs. 256 babies (SSA data for MD)
  • Jayden: 498 babies (MD data) vs. 281 babies (SSA data for MD)
  • Mason: 463 babies (MD data) vs. 432 babies (SSA data for MD)

And now the girl names. According to the SSA, these were the top 10 girl names in Maryland in 2011:

  1. Sophia
  2. Olivia
  3. Isabella
  4. Madison
  5. Ava
  6. Emma
  7. Abigail
  8. Chloe
  9. Emily
  10. Elizabeth

According to the state of Maryland, though, the top 10 girl names in the state were these:

RankOVERALLAsian &
Pacific Isl.		BlackHispanicWhite
1SophiaSophiaChloeSophiaSophia
2IsabelChloeLondonEmilyIsabel
3ChloeIsabelLaylaAllisonAbigail
4AvaCaitlin/KateMadisonIsabelOlivia
5MadisonHannahKennedyAshleyAva
6OliviaOliviaAaliyahAngelinaRiley
7EmilySara(h)McKenzieNatalieMadison
8McKenzieAbigailZoe(y)GenesisEmily
9AbigailEmilyPaytonGabrielleMcKenzie
10RileyLillian/LilyTaylorKimberlyChloe

Not only does Isabel magically replace Isabella in the Maryland data, but McKenzie and Riley rank 8th and 10th — even though the SSA says they should be closer to 77th (!) and 28th.

Not to mention the raw number discrepancies, such as:

  • Sophia: 503 babies (MD data) vs. 367 babies (SSA data for MD)
  • McKenzie: 325 babies (MD data) vs. 71 babies (SSA data for MD)
  • Riley: 298 babies (MD data) vs. 118 babies (SSA data for MD)

Intriguing parallels between the MD data and the NYC data do exist. In both locations, Elijah and Isaiah were in the top 10 for African-American boys only, and London, Aaliyah, and Taylor were in the top 10 for African-American girls only.

But if we can’t trust the data, we can’t draw any meaningful conclusions.

Labels like “Caitlin/Kate,” “Sara(h),” “Zoe(y)” and “Lillian/Lily” suggest that variant names were combined here and there. I suspect this is also what happened with Isabel/Isabella, Sophia/Sofia, Aiden, Jayden, MacKenzie, Riley, and maybe even Christopher (perhaps Maryland merged all the “Chris-” names?). What are your thoughts on this?

Source: Maryland’s Top Ten Most Popular Baby Names in 2011 by Race, Ethnicity, and Sex – Open Data Portal – Maryland.gov