Most Popular Names of 2015

Here are my thoughts on the new rank!

Hope you dont mind the video effects, I want to keep my privacy.

What are your thoughts on the new lists?

Name In Trend: Royal

  

 I get it. The royal family is everywhere these days. Prince William and Dutchess Catherine are the new and hip "it" couple in the royal world that everyone loves to talk about - they're the young Diana and Charles, except this time the prince is actually likeable.

2014 Most Popular Baby Names

So Christmas for us baby name fanatics just arrived, and in case you're new to this scene, it means that the new SSA ranking with the most popular names of last year has just been released. Its usually followed by a short period of excitement where you examine every little detail of the top 1000 and beyond, and then you fall into a sort of post partum depression where the excitement is gone, before the anticipation starts to build up again usually at the start of the year.

But enough about my mood cycles when it comes to baby names, here is the newest top 10 for both genders:

BOYS

01 Noah
02 Liam
03 Mason
04 Jacob
05 William

Name In Coffin: Gertrude

Gertrude is a female name of old german origin that means "strength of a spear". Gertrude is the name of a saint, Saint Gertrude The Great, who is pictured above - she wrote a book called The Revelations of Saint Gertrude, which talked about the revelations she received from Jesus. Obviously it has some more modern bearers, actress Gertrude Lawrence and writer Gertrude Stein for example. In literature, we have Queen Gertrude from Hamlet, who was Hamlet's mother and also the queen of Denmark.

Gertrude is a name that a lot of us have on our family tree, as it was extremely common 100 years ago or so. These days, it would be an odd experience to meet a toddler carrying this name. Let's see the SSA graph:

Name In Coffin: Adolph

The name Adolph is of old german origin, and it means "noble wolf" or "majestic wolf". It is the name of a saint, and also a german and swedish royal name. A famous bearer is filmmaker Adolph Zukor, pictured above, who founded Paramount Pictures back in 1912.

Contrary to popular belief, the name had been downtrending long before World War II first started. Although that war may be to blame for the name's terrible numbers today, with a very low chance of making a comeback. Adolf Hitler is still well known man today, and since WWII is a prominent subject in every history class (and will most likely remain one), his name is certainly going to stick around. Yes, he spells it differently, but Adolf is just a variant spelling of Adolph, and pronounced the exact same way.

2013 Most Popular Baby Names

So the new list is out, and Jacob is finally off the top spot after a 15 year reign. Thank god for that. However, that is pretty much the only great news I have, at least from my perspective. Most of my favorite names aren't taking off, and the "same old same old" names are still hogging pretty much most of the boys rank.

The top 10:

BOYS

1. Noah
2. Liam
3. Jacob
4. Mason
5. William
6. Ethan
7. Michael
8. Alexander
9. Jayden
10. Daniel

Name In Trend: Declan

Declan is an irish names that means "full of goodness". It is the name of a saint, and it's the birth name of singer Elvis Costello.

America has always been a country that loves to import exotic names from other countries, especially Irish names. Could the rising star Declan be the latest irish import to make a big impression for the next couple of decades? Perhaps. Let's see how it's been performing so far in the SSA ranking:

2012 Most Popular Baby Names

So the new list is out, and here is the top10:

Boys

1. Jacob
2. Mason
3. Ethan
4. Noah
5. William
6. Liam
7. Jayden
8. Michael
9. Alexander
10. Aiden