The Social Security Administration publishes a list of the most popular baby names each year, and the latest list is out.
In 2012, the most popular name for a boy was Jacob and the most popular name for a girl was Sophia. Those names also ranked as the number-one choices for the past 100 years.
The list of most-popular names is gathered from Social Security card applications for U.S. births after 1879. The SSA notes many people born before 1937 would not have been included if they didn’t apply for a Social Security card.
The runner-up baby names for last year were Mason for a boy and Emma for a girl.
Rounding out the top ten names for boys were Ethan, Noah, William, Liam, Jayden, Michael, Alexander and Aiden.
Rounding out the top ten names for girls were Isabella, Olivia, Ava, Emily, Abigail, Mia, Madison and Elizabeth.
Some less-traditional names are among those rising fastest in popularity – including King, Messiah and Major for boys and Arya, Perla, Catalina, Elisa and Raelynn for girls.
The most recent state-by-state data on the SSA website is for births in 2011. In that year in Iowa, the most popular boy’s name was Carter and the most popular girl’s name was Emma. In Illinois in 2011, the most popular boy’s name was Alexander and the most popular girl’s name was Sophia.
Want to check the popularity of your chosen name? Click here to check the SSA database.
