How popular is the baby name Skylar 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 Skylar.

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Popularity of the baby name Skylar


Posts that mention the name Skylar

Biggest changes in girl name popularity, 2012

Which girl names made the biggest gains from 2011 to 2012?

And which ones suffered the biggest losses?

This is where the stats start telling us some interesting stories!

Below I’ve got two different lists for both “increases” and “decreases.”

On the left is the my list. I looked at the raw number differences between the 2011 names and the 2012 names. My analysis covers all 19,380 girl names on the 2012 list.

On the right is the SSA’s list. They looked at the ranking differences between the 2011 names and the 2012 names. Their analysis covers approximately the top 500 girl names on the 2012 list.

Biggest Increases

The baby girl names that saw the biggest popularity increases from 2011 to 2012 were…

Nancy’s list (raw numbers)SSA’s list (rankings)
  1. Harper, +2,496 babies [rank: 54th to 24th]
  2. Emma, +2,053 babies [rank: 3rd to 2nd]
  3. Paisley, +1,269 babies [rank: 195th to 104th]
  4. Aria, +1,232 babies [rank: 157th to 91st]
  5. Skylar, +1,173 babies [rank: 145th to 87th]
  6. Aubree, +1,100 babies [rank: 99th to 60th]
  7. Zoey, +1,030 babies [rank: 28th to 20th]
  8. Charlotte, +1,017 babies [rank: 27th to 19th]
  9. Avery, +952 babies [rank: 18th to 13th]
  10. Aubrey, +846 babies [rank: 20th to 15th]
  11. Amelia, +842 babies [rank: 30th to 23rd]
  12. Mila, +835 babies [rank: 174th to 115th]
  13. Genesis, +779 babies [rank: 82nd to 56th]
  14. Hannah, +672 babies [rank: 25th to 22nd]
  15. Penelope, +647 babies [rank: 169th to 125th]
  16. Hadley, +645 babies [rank: 178th to 130th]
  17. Nora, +639 babies [rank: 137th to 107th]
  18. Cataleya, +608 babies [rank: 4,931st to 479th]
  19. Cora, +516 babies [rank: 203rd to 155th]
  20. Reagan, +470 babies [rank: 121st to 97th]
  1. Arya, +298 (711th to 413th)
  2. Perla, +190 (642nd to 452nd)
  3. Catalina, +171 (648th to 477th)
  4. Elisa, +168 (534th to 366th)
  5. Raelynn, +155 (496th to 341st)
  6. Rosalie, +141 (547th to 406th)
  7. Haven, +140 (572nd to 432nd)
  8. Raelyn, +136 (585th to 449th)
  9. Briella, +123 (498th to 375th)
  10. Marilyn, +119 (545th to 426th)
  11. Adelynn, +116 (581st to 465th)
  12. Hanna, +106 (454th to 348th)
  13. Ayla, +97 (347th to 250th)
  14. Averie, +96 (554th to 458th)
  15. Arabella, +92 (337th to 245th)
  16. Paisley, +91 (195th to 104th)
  17. Arielle, +91 (501st to 410th)
  18. Adalynn, +88 (328th to 240th)
  19. Elsie, +86 (483rd to 397th)
  20. Myla, +85 (484th to 399th)

Check out Cataleya! That’s quite a jump.

Here are last year’s raw number jumps and last year’s ranking jumps.

Biggest Decreases

The baby girl names that saw the biggest popularity decreases from 2011 to 2012 were…

Nancy’s list (raw numbers)SSA’s list (rankings)
  1. Chloe, -1,361 babies [rank: 10th to 11th]
  2. Alexis, -1,194 babies [rank: 26th to 40th]
  3. Addison, -1,158 babies [rank: 13th to 14th]
  4. Madison, -1,017 babies [rank: 8th to 9th]
  5. Alyssa, -935 babies [rank: 37th to 44th]
  6. Isabella, -893 babies [rank: 2nd to 3rd]
  7. Natalie, -760 babies [rank: 14th to 17th]
  8. Nevaeh, -739 babies [rank: 35th to 39th]
  9. Ashley, -709 babies [rank: 42nd to 50th]
  10. Makayla, -691 babies [rank: 56th to 69th]
  11. Emily, -664 babies [rank: 6th to 6th]
  12. Khloe, -644 babies [rank: 49th to 55th]
  13. Leah, -642 babies [rank: 29th to 33rd]
  14. Abigail, -622 babies [rank: 7th to 7th]
  15. Gabriella, -608 babies [rank: 33rd to 37th]
  16. Kayla, -568 babies [rank: 59th to 70th]
  17. Brianna, -562 babies [rank: 45th to 51st]
  18. Destiny, -549 babies [rank: 91st to 113th]
  19. Sydney, -531 babies [rank: 65th to 78th]
  20. Jocelyn, -515 babies [rank: 70th to 92nd]
  1. Dulce, -159 (415th to 574th)
  2. Mikaela, -141 (451st to 592nd)
  3. Estrella, -129 (433rd to 562nd)
  4. Danna, -125 (365th to 490th)
  5. Audrina, -122 (318th to 440th)
  6. Cameron, -113 (440th to 553rd)
  7. Kiera, -108 (482nd to 590th)
  8. Savanna, -101 (346th to 447th)
  9. Paola, -98 (477th to 575th)
  10. Tenley, -96 (424th to 520th)
  11. Kendra, -94 (293rd to 387th)
  12. Breanna, -94 (309th to 403rd)
  13. Kailyn, -93 (399th to 492nd)
  14. Jasmin, -93 (422nd to 515th)
  15. Joselyn, -92 (369th to 461st)
  16. Kiley, -90 (423rd to 513th)
  17. Jayden, -88 (292nd to 380th)
  18. Liana, -82 (464th to 546th)
  19. Sasha, -77 (374th to 451st)
  20. Karen, -66 (287th to 353rd)

Here are last year’s raw number drops and last year’s ranking drops.

Source: SSA’s Change In Popularity From 2011 To 2012

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)

Baby name story: Skylar

cows

Samantha Wittstruck of Wadena, Minnesota, was one month pregnant when a powerful EF4 tornado struck Wadena back on June 17.

She was “knocked cold” during the storm, and “woke up with a cow on top of her.”

The baby was unharmed, thankfully, and just days ago Samantha gave birth to a little girl — the first baby born in Wadena in 2011, in fact. The baby was named Skylar.

We figured ‘Sky’ was too short, so we chose Skylar. It was a big part of her life and she survived it.

I’m glad they were able to distill that dangerous/bizarre experience into a usable name.

Skylar ranked 185th for baby girls and 497th for baby boys in the U.S. in 2009. It’s based on the Dutch surname Schuyler, which refers to a scholar or a school teacher.

Source: New baby survived twister, crashing cow

Image: Adapted from Grass Fed Beef (public domain) by Ryan Thompson/U.S. Department of Agriculture