Olivia, Maya, Muhammad and Oliver—these are among the most popular names for babies in 2018.
BabyCentre’s annual survey of the most popular baby names isn’t out till later this year, but the centre decided to give those who want to keep up with the trends an early peek at the monikers that are making it.
Trends show that the boy’s name ‘Harvey’ has plunged in popularity, perhaps due to the Harvey Weinstein effect and people not wanting to associate with such notoriety. It’s gone down by 30 percent in the survey.
Different spellings
Another fashion is for different spellings of names. For boys, Jackson appears in the register in six different forms—Jacson, Jaxson, Jakson, Jaxson, Jaxen and Jaxon, with Jaxon more popular than Jackson for the first time.
Similarly, the name ‘Aaron’ has thirteen ways you can use it and ‘Aria’ twelve.
Olivia is the most popular name for girls (again), followed by Sophie, Amelia, Maya, Harper and then Layla. The only new entry in the top ten was the multi-spelled Aria.
Boys Top 20
Muhammad is the top name for boys and Oliver and Noah are runners-up, with Freddie and Alfie as new entries in the top ten. Arthur, Henry, Archie and Theo are in the top twenty.
Danny Curran, founder and managing director of Finders International, said: “What’s interesting about the boys’ names is that it reflects a trend we pointed out a couple of years ago, where the diminutive forms of names have increased in popularity—such as Freddie and Archie, instead of Frederick and Alfred, as it would have been years ago.
“Our own research backs this up. When we investigate family trees to find people’s next of kin, we discover lots of Edwards, Alfreds, Dorothys and Mildreds, but we expect to see less and less of these names as time goes on.”
Name Trends
BabyCentre reckons outside the top twenty of baby names is where you see the trends, such as the variations in spelling and parents choosing x, y and z to make a name more unusual. Examples include Liyam, Fyn, Kaylub, Roze, Wynter and Maizie, names destined for misspelling all those children’s lives.
Just as the name Harvey has decreased in popularity, #MeToo’s proponents have seen their names climb the list. Alyssa is a more popular name this year (after Alyssa Milano who started the hashtag) and there’s Rose (McGowan), Ashley (Judd) and Jennifer (Lawrence) too, perhaps in tribute to outspoken opponents of sexism.
Royal babies and weddings often trigger naming in the old-fashioned style, so Victoria, Zara and Charlotte are popular names though Princess is the biggest royal riser in the top 100. For boys, Charlie and George are popular, though Arthur and Henry are new in the top twenty names for boys.
Meghan and Louis?
So far, there is no sign of Meghan or Louis, but BabyCentre expects that to change when they compile the end-of-year results.
As for films and TV, Justice League and Avengers: Infinity War looks as if they played a part. Ezra (after Miller, who played The Flash) and Amber (Heard, the character Mera) from Justice League did well. For Avengers, Zoe (Saldana, Gamora in the film), Scarlett (Johansson) and Sebastian made the list too.