Emma and Noah are America’s most popular baby names for 2014. Emma returns to the top spot she held in 2008 and hangs out in first place with Noah.
There are a few new names in the top 10 this year — James (a former No. 1 from the ‘40s and ‘50s) on the blue side and Charlotte on the pink side, her first time ever in the top 10.
Here are the top 10 boys and girls names for 2014:
Boys:
1) Noah
2) Liam
3) Mason
4) Jacob
5) William
6) Ethan
7) Michael
8) Alexander
9) James
10) Daniel
Girls:
1) Emma
2) Olivia
3) Sophia
4) Isabella
5) Ava
6) Mia
7) Emily
8) Abigail
9) Madison
10) Charlotte
The agency began compiling the baby name list in 1997, with names dating to back to 1880. At the time of a child’s birth, parents supply the name to the agency when applying for a child’s Social Security card.
Each year, the list reveals the effect of pop-culture on naming trends. This year’s biggest jumps in popularity in the top 1,000 names were Aranza and Bode.
Aranza jumped an amazing 3,625 spots on the girls’ side to number 607, from number 4,232 in 2013. The Latin soap opera “Siempre Mi Amore” was aired on Univision from 2013 to 2015.
The show featured a young lead character named Aranza, and obviously had its effect on naming trends last year.
Bode raced ahead 645 spots, from number 1,428 in 2013 to number 783 in 2014. This might have had something to do with the Winter Olympics in early 2014, where Bode Miller continued his alpine skiing career by collecting his sixth Olympic medal.
Not only is he the most successful male American alpine skier of all time, he is considered by many to be an American hero.
The second fastest riser for boys was Axl, a nod to both rock legend Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses and Axl Jack Duhamel, son of Stacy Ann “Fergie” Ferguson and Josh Duhamel.
For girls, Montserrat, the lead character in a very popular Latin soap opera, was number two, joined by another Monserrat (spelled just one letter differently) at number three.
For all the top baby names of 2014, visit www.socialsecurity.gov.
