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Popular baby names in Australia, 2024

Flag of Australia
Flag of Australia

In 2024, the country of Australia welcomed 292,318 babies: 142,019 girls and 150,299 boys.

What were the most popular names among Australia’s newborns that year?

We don’t know for sure, because Australia doesn’t release baby name rankings that cover the entire country. But we can look at eight sets of regional Australian rankings — representing Australia’s six states and two most populous territories — and then make a guess about the country’s top names overall.

Here are the rankings, ordered by total number of births per region (highest to lowest):

New South Wales

In 2024, New South Wales welcomed 86,978 (29.8%) of Australia’s babies.

Top girl names (NSW, 2024)Top boy names (NSW, 2024)
1. Charlotte, 409
2. Amelia, 395
3. Olivia, 336
4. Mia, 326
5. Isla, 320
6. Chloe, 292
7. Harper, 287
8. Hazel, 283
9. Sophia, 282
10. Evelyn, 277		1. Noah, 556
2. Oliver, 493
3. Theodore, 442
4. Luca, 400
5. Henry, 375
6. Leo, 359
7. Hudson, 349
8. Charlie, 330
9. Lucas, 322
10. Elijah, 314

Victoria

In 2024, Victoria welcomed 82,328 (28.2%) of Australia’s babies.

Top girl names (Victoria, 2024)Top boy names (Victoria, 2024)
1. Isla, 389
2. Charlotte, 382
3. Amelia, 380
4. Mia, 327
5. Hazel, 316
6. Olivia, 309
7. Matilda, 279
8. Grace, 268
9. Ella, 264
10. Lily, 259		1. Oliver, 570
2. Noah, 462
3. Henry, 359
4. Leo, 348 (tie)
5. Theodore, 348 (tie)
6. Luca, 346
7. Charlie, 341
8. Jack, 334
9. Archie, 292
10. Levi, 289

Queensland

In 2024, Queensland welcomed 58,986 (20.2%) of Australia’s babies.

Top girl names (Queensland, 2024)Top boy names (Queensland, 2024)
1. Charlotte, 319
2. Isla, 260
3. Olivia, 259
4. Amelia, 248
5. Harper, 206 (tie)
6. Matilda, 206 (tie)
7. Mia, 201
8. Hazel, 196
9. Willow, 194
10. Grace, 192		1. Oliver, 445
2. Theodore, 344
3. Noah, 341
4. Henry, 328
5. Hudson, 316
6. Luca, 268
7. Leo, 253
8. William, 251
9. Charlie, 235
10. Jack, 233

Western Australia

In 2024, Western Australia welcomed 30,516 (10.4%) of Australia’s babies.

Top girl names (WA, 2024)Top boy names (WA, 2024)
1. Charlotte, 136 (tie)
2. Isla, 136 (tie)
3. Amelia, 135
4. Olivia, 128
5. Harper, 119
6. Mia, 117
7. Violet, 98
8. Ella, 94 (tie)
9. Matilda, 94 (tie)
10. Ava, 88		1. Noah, 195 (tie)
2. Oliver, 195 (tie)
3. Leo, 146
4. Theodore, 144
5. Henry, 123
6. Hudson, 122
7. Jack, 120
8. Luca, 119
9. Charlie, 118
10. Thomas, 114

South Australia

In 2024, South Australia welcomed 18,516 (6.3%) of Australia’s babies.

Top girl names (SA, 2024)Top boy names (SA, 2024)
1. Charlotte, 108
2. Olivia, 89
3. Isla, 86
4. Amelia, 70
5. Mia, 67
6. Lily, 64
7. Hazel, 63
8. Ivy, 62
9. Grace, 61 (tie)
10. Matilda, 61 (tie)		1. Oliver, 131
2. Henry, 125
3. Noah, 105
4. Charlie, 101
5. Theodore, 98
6. Leo, 92
7. Levi, 91
8. William, 80
9. Jack, 78
10. Luca, 75

Australian Capital Territory

In 2024, the ACT (Canberra) welcomed 6,017 (2.1%) of Australia’s babies.

Top girl names (ACT, 2024)Top boy names (ACT, 2024)
1. Amelia
2. Isla
3. Ava (tie)
4. Charlotte (tie)
5. Evelyn
6. Grace
7. Harper (tie)
8. Olivia (tie)
9. Mia
10. Chloe		1. Noah
2. Theodore
3. Henry (2-way tie)
4. Oliver (2-way tie)
5. Thomas (2-way tie)
6. William (2-way tie)
7. Leo
8. Arthur
9. George/Hudson/Muhammad/Oscar (4-way tie)

Tasmania

In 2024, Tasmania welcomed 5,483 (1.9%) of Australia’s babies.

Top girl names (Tasmania, 2024)Top boy names (Tasmania, 2024)
1. Hazel
2. Charlotte
3. Isla
4. Harper
5. Ivy
6. Grace
7. Matilda
8. Willow
9. Elsie
10. Violet		1. Oliver
2. Henry
3. Charlie
4. Archie
5. Thomas
6. Noah
7. George
8. Oscar
9. William
10. Theodore

Northern Territory

In 2024, Northern Territory welcomed 3,484 (1.2%) of Australia’s babies.

[Unfortunately, NT’s 2024 rankings haven’t been released yet. As soon as they are, though, I’ll add them to the post!]

Map of Australia

Australia overall

Using the data above, let’s make a guess about Australia’s top baby names overall.

Here’s what I came up with:

Possible top girl names (Australia, 2024)Possible top boy names (Australia, 2024)
1. Charlotte
2. Amelia
3. Isla		1. Oliver
2. Noah
3. Theodore

What are your thoughts on these? (Which names would you have put at the top?)

P.S. I guessed that Isla and Oliver were the #1 names in the country in 2023…

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Australia (public domain)
Map: Adapted from Australia location map by NordNordWest under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Popular baby names in New York City, 2024

Flag of New York
Flag of New York

Last year, New York City welcomed more than 100,000 babies.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Mia and Noah, according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Here are NYC’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2024:

Girl names

  1. Mia, 422 baby girls
  2. Emma
  3. Sophia
  4. Leah
  5. Isabella
  6. Zoe
  7. Olivia
  8. Chloe
  9. Sofia
  10. Esther

Boy names

  1. Noah, 722 baby boys
  2. Liam
  3. Ethan
  4. David
  5. Lucas
  6. Jacob
  7. Joseph
  8. Aiden
  9. Dylan (tie)
  10. Muhammad (tie)

One year earlier, in 2023, the top names in New York City were Emma and Liam.

Sources: Mia and Noah Top List of Most Popular Baby Names in New York City – NYC Health, Provisional Birth and Death Data – NYC Health

Image: Adapted from Flag of New York (public domain)

What brought the baby name Valleri back in 1968?

The Monkees performing the song "Valleri" on their TV series (1966-1968)
The Monkees performing “Valleri”

The name Valleri both re-emerged in the U.S. baby name data and reached peaked usage in 1968:

  • 1970: 5 baby girls named Valleri
  • 1969: 6 baby girls named Valleri
  • 1968: 17 baby girls named Valleri
  • 1967: unlisted
  • 1966: unlisted

Why?

Because of the song “Valleri” by The Monkees.

It was introduced to TV audiences in February of 1967, during an episode of the band’s self-titled NBC sitcom. In the closing credits, the song’s title was spelled “Valerie”:

Song title spelled "Valerie" (Feb. 1967)

Two months later, the song was featured in another episode. This time around, the title was spelled “Valleri”:

Song title spelled "Valleri" (Apr. 1967)

I don’t know why the name’s spelling was changed, but I do know that it referred to a real person: a girl who the song’s co-writer, Bobby Hart, had been enamored with as a teenager.

The Monkees’ record label hadn’t planned to include “Valleri” on an album (due in part to contractual issues), but several disc jockeys began playing bootleg recordings on the radio, and the song became popular with listeners. This prompted the label to re-record “Valleri” for the 1968 album The Birds, the Bees & the Monkees.

In February of 1968 — a year after debuting on television — “Valleri” [vid] finally came out as a single. It peaked at #3 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart the following month.

What are your thoughts on the name Valleri? (Which spelling do you prefer?)

P.S. The other song introduced in that February 1967 episode of The Monkees was “Your Auntie Grizelda.”

Sources:

Images: Screenshots of The Monkees (episodes from Feb. and Apr. 1967)

Top baby names in Japan, 2025

Flag of Japan
Flag of Japan

The East Asian island nation of Japan, which welcomes hundreds of thousands of babies every year, doesn’t release official baby name rankings.

But the most popular names of 2025 may have included Sui, Sana, and Ema for girls and Ao, Minato, and Haruto for boys.

How do we know?

Because, every year, two Japanese companies — the Benesse Corporation (which owns pregnancy/childcare brand Tamahiyo) and the Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company — come up with unofficial rankings using their own data.

  • Benesse/Tamahiyo’s rankings account for 166,011 babies born in Japan from January to September, 2025.
  • Meiji Yasuda’s rankings account for 12,505 babies born in Japan from January to September, 2025.

Both companies rank names in two different ways: as they’re written, and as they’re said aloud (because many Japanese names have several possible pronunciations).

So below you’ll find eight sets of rankings. They account for two genders, two sources, and two ways of judging popularity: written vs. readings. (The rankings needed to be turned into images because my blogging software can’t handle Chinese and Japanese characters.)

Girl names

Here are Japan’s top girl names as written, according to both companies:

Top baby names for girls in Japan, 2025

The girl name in the No. 1 spot on both lists is commonly read “Sui” or “Midori.”

(According to Benesse’s data, Sui ranked 95th in 2020, 40th in 2021, 16th in 2022, and 3rd in both 2023 and 2024.)

And here are Japan’s top girl-name readings, according to both companies:

Top baby name readings for girls in Japan, 2025

The top girl-name reading on Benesse’s list is Sana, while the top girl-name reading on Meiji Yasuda’s list is Ema.

Boy names

Here are Japan’s top boy names as written, according to both companies:

Top baby names for boys in Japan, 2025

The top boy name on Benesse’s list is commonly read “Ao,” while the top boy name on Meiji Yasuda’s list is commonly read “Minato” or “So.”

And here are Japan’s top boy-name readings, according to both companies:

Top baby name readings for boys in Japan, 2025

The boy-name reading in the No. 1 spot on both lists is Haruto.

Sources:

Top image: Adapted from Flag of Japan (public domain)