If you named your child Freya or Theo at the start of this decade, I’m sorry. You probably put a lot of thought and energy into finding a baby name that was classic yet unusual, time-honored yet distinctive. And, 10 years ago, Freya and Theo were all of those things. Theo hadn’t appeared on the Social Security Administration’s official list of the top 1,000 American baby names since World War II. And Freya, the name of the ancient Norse goddess of love, beauty and fertility, had never been on it.


Now Theo stands at No. 243 on the official United States list of popular names, given to more than 1,500 baby boys in 2018. And Freya ranks at No. 266, used for more than 1,200 baby girls. Barring a deadly storm or a heinous criminal with one of those names, babies named Freya and Theo seem destined to fill nurseries for years to come.


What forces turned these two names into major stars over the past decade while thousands of others remain unknown?


To identify the naming trends that have most shaped parents’ choices in the 2010s, we analyzed the more than 500 names that ranked in the top 1,000 in 2018 — the last year counted — that were not on the list in 2008. Here are some of the names and the trends that have defined the past decade.


New vintage names  给老派名字加点新意


One of the main precepts of naming trends is that every generation of parents needs to reinvent baby names. That’s true even when it comes to an established trend like the fashion for vintage names, which has been around since the parents of today’s parents excavated Jessica and Joshua, Amanda and Jacob to create a new middle path between old-school names like John and Mary and newfangled confections like Jodi and Troy.


Over the past decade, millennial parents have had to dig even deeper to find classic names that felt fresh again. Some of the new old choices that now appear in the top 1,000 (but did not a decade ago) include Willa and Wallace, Margot and Otis, Leona and Lionel. Harvey makes the list, too, but we have a feeling that one won’t last.


  • Dorothy

  • Eloise

  • Florence

  • Pearl

  • Thea

  • Clyde

  • Ira

  • Lionel

  • Otto

  • Wallace


Shorties 名字还是短点的好


This trend toward giving babies antique nicknames that stand on their own started in Britain, where vintage short forms such as Evie, Elsie, Alfie and Freddie rank among the current top 25. As you may have heard, there’s even a young royal named not the forbidding Archibald or the nouveau Archer, but just plain Archie.


In their search for new spins on old names, parents in the United States have followed suit over the past 10 years, with vintage nicknames including Hattie, Rosie, Hank and Mack appearing by themselves on the most recent top 1,000.


  • Belle

  • Hattie

  • Mae

  • Millie

  • Rosie

  • Gus

  • Hank

  • Louie

  • Mack

  • Zeke


Contemporary gods and goddesses 故事里的名字


Giving babies ancient names drawn from myth, legend and religion is one of the strongest and most surprising trends of the past decade. Major influences include “The Hunger Games,” the HBO series “Rome” and the move away from traditional religion toward more holistic spiritual beliefs.


Along with Freya, mythological names that became popular baby names in the past decade include Calliope, the Greek muse of poetry, and Titan, the immortal giant. This group of ancient names also includes off-road biblical choices such as Cain and Jaziel, the Quranic Maryam and the Homeric Achilles.


  • Aurelia

  • Calliope

  • Freya

  • Maryam

  • Rhea

  • Amos

  • Apollo

  • Cain

  • Magnus

  • Titan


Unique celebrity names 致敬名人


Parents have been naming their babies after celebrities since a certain dimpled movie moppet propelled the name Shirley to No. 2 on the charts in 1936. What’s new eight decades later is that no name is too unusual or even difficult for parents to adopt if it has a celebrity endorsement. Sometimes, the very uniqueness of the name seems to be the key to its appeal, with names such as Saoirse (Ronan), Idris (Elba) and Saint (son of Kimye) rising into the top 1,000 in the 2010s.


In a meta twist, celebrities themselves have inspired a trend for naming babies after dead (or should we call them vintage?) celebrities. Zoe Saldana has a son named Bowie (singer David), Carson Daly has a daughter named Etta (James), and Mariah Carey’s daughter is named Monroe (Marilyn).


Vintage celebrity names revived this decade are scientific (Edison), literary (Anais and Langston), athletic (Landry, for both genders), musical (Lennon and Hendrix) and completely mystifying (Nixon and Thatcher).


  • Adele

  • Liv

  • Maisie

  • Octavia

  • Saoirse

  • Axl

  • Idris

  • Keanu

  • Legend

  • Tatum


Pop culture names 因为流行


If you named your son Kylo at the start of this decade — well, you probably didn’t, because the Social Security Administration recorded zero babies given that name 10 years ago. Then Adam Driver’s character in “Star Wars” happened, propelling the name not only to the top 1,000 in 2016 but making it that year’s fastest-rising name.


Anakin also makes the new pop culture name list, as do the names of fictional heroines Coraline, Esme, Lyra, Ophelia, Scout, Arya and Khaleesi, which may be second only to Harvey as the name causing the most regret.


While the names of characters from books, TV and movies are the most influential from pop culture, this group includes names inspired by fashion: Alaia, Dior and Boden.


  • Arya

  • Cataleya

  • Collins

  • Ophelia

  • Scout

  • Anakin

  • Arlo

  • Boden

  • Creed

  • Kylo


Dictionary-inspired names 一个单词，一个名字


Word names became a thing only in the new century, and this decade saw a booming expansion of the genre, with gentle flower names like Violet and upstanding virtue names such as Justice giving way to wild animal names, royal and military names, aspirational spiritual names, and in at least one case, a name inspired by a hat.


Among the words that have become newly popular baby names in the 2010s are nature names Briar, Fox, Juniper and Wren; royal and military names Duke, Kaiser, Major and Queen; and spiritual names Heavenly, Legacy and Promise. That hat name you’ve been waiting for: Stetson.


  • Baker

  • Fox