Most Popular Baby Names of 2016

Every summer, Nameberry releases a list of the popular baby names for the first half of the year. The rankings are based on which names attracted the most page views of nearly 40 million visits to Nameberry’s web site. The list gauges the baby names that are winning the most attention from parents-to-be right now, and may predict which names will be used most for babies in the future.

There’s a new girls’ name at the head of the baby names popularity list for the first half of 2016, with Olivia claiming Nameberry’s official number one spot. Ezra holds his place at the top of the boys’ popular names list, a position the Biblical name also claimed in 2015.

Olivia replaces Charlotte, the girls’ top name for 2015, which slips to number three. Amelia, Ava, and Isla round out the girls’ top 5. Five new girls’ names ascend to the top 10 in 2016: Arabella, Aurora, Adeline, Isabella, and Mia.

The top 5 boys’ names retain the order they claimed for 2015: Ezra, Asher, Atticus, Declan, and Oliver. Only two names are new to the boys’ top 10 in 2016: Levi and Wyatt.

Other hot baby names for boys — all up more than 40 places — are John, Tobias, Daniel, Xavier, and Maxwell. For girls, the “hottest” name so far this year is Sadie, which jumped up 48 places. Other girls’ names up more than 30 places in 2016 are Elise, Astrid, Isabella, and Thea.

Newcomers to the 2016 top 100 include several unusual names we may hear lots more of in coming years. For girls, these are Anouk, Cecilia, Freya, and Ophelia. For boys, they are Alistair, Hugo, and Lucian.

Without further ado, here are Nameberry’s 100 most popular names for girls and boys for the first half of 2016.

Girls

1. OLIVIA

2. AMELIA

3. CHARLOTTE

4. AVA

5. ISLA

6. ARABELLA

7. AURORA

8. ADELINE

9. ISABELLA

10. MIA