Ten years from now, it will be tough to yell "Emma!" or "Liam!" during a youth soccer match without four kids turning around.
The most popular baby names in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware last year were Liam and Emma with one exception — Ava was the top girl's name in Delaware, where Emma didn't even make the top 5, according to the Social Security Administration
Here are the full lists:
Top 5 girl names
Pennsylvania
- Emma
- Olivia
- Ava
- Charlotte
- Sophia
New Jersey
- Emma
- Isabella
- Olivia
- Mia
- Ava
Delaware
- Ava
- Isabella
- Charlotte
- Olivia
- Sophia
Top 5 boy names
Pennsylvania
- Liam
- Noah
- Mason
- Logan
- James
New Jersey
- Liam
- Noah
- Jacob
- Michael
- Matthew
Delaware
- Liam
- Noah
- Mason
- Logan
- James
Does it seem odd that so many people around here chose the same names for their babies last year?
Well look at this.
Top 5 baby names in the United States
Girls
- Emma
- Olivia
- Ava
- Isabella
- Sophia
Boys
- Liam
- Noah
- William
- James
- Oliver
We sometimes wonder whether parents who chose names that end up in the Top 5 did so thinking they were choosing an unusual name that would make their child stand out or whether they knew how popular the name was and were fine with that. Twenty years ago, you wouldn't know that you'd given your child a Top 5 name until they got to school and six other girls raised their hands when the teacher called on Madison.
Thanks to the internet, now you can see which way the winds of nomenclature are blowing. Some of these 2018 names have been on the list since 2013, 2011 and 2010. If you want to Ziggy while so many others are Zachary-ing, maybe look to this list of the least common baby names out of the Top 200 in the United States between 2010 and 2018
Least popular names of the Top 200 between 2010-2018
Girls
196. Rose
197. Alana
198. Harmony
199. Jennifer (Shoutout to all the Jen moms out there)
200. Hayden
Boys
196. Paul
197. Amir
198. Gael
199. Graham
200. Maximus
Keep in mind, though, that each of these names were given to more than 14,000 babies over that time, so there's no guarantee you'll have the only Maximus on the playground.
