Parents who are sending their little ones off to school in the coming years will likely find their kid coming home with lots of friends named Liam or Olivia. And no, those won't just be the monikers they've chosen to call everyone (as in with my little cousin, who calls everyone Katie or Jack); that's really all their friends' names.
For the fifth consecutive year, Liam and Olivia topped the list of America's most popular baby names, according to the Social Security Administration's 2023 data released Friday.
And if not them, there might be multiple Noahs and Emmas having to go by their first name and last initial in your child's classroom. It's also the fifth consecutive year those two have held the No. 2 slot for top baby names.
The SSA creates its 1,000-name list, released to celebrate Mother's Day each year since 1997, using data from new Social Security applications, and since most parents apply when their child is born, the federal agency is the nation's most trusted source when it comes to baby-name popularity.
From year to year, the list doesn't change all that much. Liam has reigned supreme for the boys for seven years after taking the title from Noah, who held it for four years. And Olivia took over the top spot five years ago after Emma also held it for five years.
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This year's contenders don't look all that different from last, with the top five for boys and girls being the exact same. The only new name that cracked either top 10 was Mateo for the boys. He took No. 6, kicking Benjamin, who held No. 9 last year, to No. 11, which Mateo held in 2022.
The full top 10 list for girls is:
- Olivia
- Emma
- Charlotte
- Amelia
- Sophia
- Mia
- Isabella
- Ava
- Evelyn
- Luna
For boys, it's:
- Liam
- Noah
- Oliver
- James
- Elijah
- Mateo
- Theodore
- Henry
- Lucas
- William
But beyond just popularity, the list serves as evidence of just how much pop culture may affect a parent's baby name choice.
On one side, the SSA says the name Kaeli was 2023's fastest-rising girl name with a jump of 1,692 spots. It cites social media creator Kaeli McEwen, or Kaeli Mae, as a potential reason.
And for the boys, the second- and third-fastest rising names were Chozen and Eiden, respectively. Chozen is the protagonist's name in the last season of Netflix's "Cobra Kai," while Eiden may be a call to TikTok creator Wyatt Eiden, who has more than 3 million followers.
Here's the list of fastest-rising names for girls:
- Kaeli
- Alitzel
- Emryn
- Adhara
- Azari
And for boys:
- Izael
- Chozen
- Eiden
- Cassian
- Kyren
To see the full list from this year or year's past, click here.
