Baby name trends of 2025
Social Security released its 2025 baby names in May 2026. 3,315,343 babies are counted in the name lists, 27,735 fewer than in 2024. Olivia and Liam stayed on top, but the year's story is lower down: one name went from almost nowhere to #14, two classics reached their highest ranks ever, and the most common names kept losing ground.
The year in six findings
- Ailany jumped from #101 to #14 for girls, with 7,136 babies, the biggest gain of any name. Five years earlier it ranked #1,830.
- Charlotte reached #2, its highest rank in records going back to 1880, and Henry reached #5, also its best ever.
- Eliana entered the girls' top 10 for the first time, at #10. Ava, in the top 10 every year from 2005 to 2024, dropped to #11.
- Olivia was the top girls' name for the 7th year in a row and Liam the top boys' name for the 9th, yet both lost more babies than any other name.
- Eithan, a spelling of Ethan, gained 2,037 boys, the most of any boys' name, while Ethan itself sits at #24.
- The ten most common names were given to 7.0% of girls and 8.0% of boys, against 24.1% and 33.8% in 1950.
The top 10
Changes at the top are slow: the boys' top 10 has the same ten names as in 2024, reshuffled. The girls' list lost Ava and gained Eliana. Counting every spelling together changes the order, because some names split their babies across spellings: the Sophia and Sofia family is larger than Olivia. The full 2025 list shows both rankings.
Ailany: from #1,830 to #14 in five years
Ailany (usually said eye-LAH-nee) was given to 107 girls in 2020, 2,606 in 2024 and 7,136 in 2025. Counting the spellings that sound the same, including Ailani, Aylani, Ailanny, the family reached 10,746 girls. The most Ailany babies were born in Texas, California, New York, Florida, and it was the top girls' name of 2025 in Maryland. The records show how fast the name rose but not why, so we don't guess. See the Ailany page for its year-by-year history.
Climbing into the top 100
New to the girls' top 100: Ailany, Sienna, Amara, Georgia, Juniper. New to the boys': Atlas, Adriel, Arthur, Emiliano, Eithan, Archer. Leaving: Athena, Anna, Aaliyah, Allison, Hailey for girls and Eli, Amir, Jaxon, Parker, Colton, Adam for boys.
Over five years the steadiest climbers within the top 100 point to the same tastes: soft vintage names for girls (Millie, Maeve, Eloise, Georgia) and, for boys, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian names next to old English ones (Thiago, Enzo and Emiliano alongside Walker, Arthur and August).
Who gained and who lost babies
Rank changes exaggerate small names, so it helps to look at actual babies. The biggest losers are the biggest names: Olivia lost 1,228 girls and Liam 1,434 boys. With about 27,735 fewer babies in the lists overall, some loss is expected, but Olivia fell 8.3% and Liam 6.4%, against a drop of 0.8% in babies overall. That continues the long fall in the share of babies given the most common names, shown below.
| Name | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ailany | 2,606 | 7,136 | +4,530 |
| Eliana | 6,447 | 8,191 | +1,744 |
| Valentina | 4,456 | 5,354 | +898 |
| Ailani | 950 | 1,807 | +857 |
| Eloise | 3,443 | 4,251 | +808 |
| Charlotte | 12,597 | 13,400 | +803 |
| Olivia | 14,772 | 13,544 | −1,228 |
| Luna | 7,164 | 6,076 | −1,088 |
| Mia | 12,149 | 11,078 | −1,071 |
| Camila | 7,625 | 6,591 | −1,034 |
| Ava | 8,700 | 7,732 | −968 |
| Emma | 13,524 | 12,754 | −770 |
| Name | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eithan | 1,599 | 3,636 | +2,037 |
| Cooper | 5,715 | 7,472 | +1,757 |
| Theodore | 12,069 | 13,355 | +1,286 |
| Bennett | 5,109 | 6,268 | +1,159 |
| Elias | 7,684 | 8,837 | +1,153 |
| Atlas | 3,433 | 4,413 | +980 |
| Liam | 22,252 | 20,818 | −1,434 |
| Dylan | 7,487 | 6,208 | −1,279 |
| Aiden | 6,262 | 5,046 | −1,216 |
| Maverick | 6,635 | 5,894 | −741 |
| Logan | 6,297 | 5,576 | −721 |
| Asher | 8,159 | 7,456 | −703 |
Names keep spreading out
In 1950 one boy in three got a top-10 name. Now it is one in 13. The number of different names in the lists peaked in 2008 and has eased since, mostly because fewer babies are born; the share going to the most common names has kept falling.
Number one in each state
Counting states (and DC) rather than babies gives a different picture. Charlotte led the girls in 28 states, far more than Olivia, which is number one nationally because it leads in big states such as California, Florida and Illinois. For boys, Liam led in 15, Noah in 14 and Oliver in 12. Every state's number one other than Charlotte and Liam:
- Olivia (girls): Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, Oklahoma, Washington
- Emma (girls): District of Columbia, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Utah
- Amelia (girls): Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina
- Mia (girls): Delaware, New Mexico
- Isla (girls): Hawaii
- Ailany (girls): Maryland
- Lainey (girls): South Dakota
- Aurora (girls): Wyoming
- Noah (boys): Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington
- Oliver (boys): Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin
- Theodore (boys): Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Wyoming
- John (boys): Alabama
- Elijah (boys): Hawaii
- James (boys): Mississippi
- Waylon (boys): West Virginia
About the data
The Social Security Administration publishes every first name given to at least five babies of a sex in a year, from Social Security card applications. Counts here are SSA's as published in May 2026; ranks are SSA's official ranks, with each spelling ranked separately. Spelling families and other calculations are explained in the methodology. The next report follows the May 2027 release.