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The 2005 Baby Name Rankings are out.

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8 comments on The 2005 Baby Name Rankings are out.

This is, of course, of capital importance to me, since I’m having a baby in August.

In what has become a Mother’s Day tradition, Jo Anne Barnhart, Commissioner of Social Security, today announced the top baby names in the United States for 2005.

“Based on all Social Security card applications for children born last year, Emily and Jacob are the most popular baby names for the seventh year in a row,” said Commissioner Barnhart.

Well?  Don’t you want to know what they are?

Boys:

  1. Jacob
  2. Michael
  3. Joshua
  4. Matthew
  5. Ethan
  6. Andrew
  7. Daniel
  8. Anthony
  9. Christopher
  10. Joseph

BOOOOOOOOR-ING.

Girls, a little better:

  1. Emily
  2. Emma
  3. Madison
  4. Abigail
  5. Olivia
  6. Isabella
  7. Hannah
  8. Samantha
  9. Ava
  10. Ashley

This is really only nine names, as everyone knows that Emma and Emily are the same person.  I have to admit that I’m impressed by the performance of Ava, if a little disappointed, because I’m pretty sure that Ava (or something that sounds like it) was On The List, and now it has to come off because there is no way I am going to name any kid of mine one of the Top Ten, except maybe as a middle name, and that only if there’s a particularly choice saint’s name among them.

And what’s up with Ashley?  Doesn’t anyone remember 1982?

Since I live in Minnesota, it behooves me to check the popularity around here.

Boys in Minnesota:

  1. Ethan
  2. Jacob
  3. Samuel
  4. Jack
  5. Andrew
  6. Benjamin
  7. Alexander
  8. Joseph
  9. Logan
  10. Tyler

Boooooor-ing.

Girls in Minnesota:

  1. Ava (WTF?)
  2. Grace
  3. Emma
  4. Emily
  5. Ella (a.k.a. Emily, a.k.a. Emma)
  6. Olivia
  7. Abigail
  8. Madison
  9. Sophia
  10. Hannah

This isn’t going to change things much for us, I expect.  I prefer to steer clear of the top 50 male names and the top 100 female names (counting sound-alikes as the same, unlike the Social Security website).  Our sons, so far, are pretty safe:  Oscar’s number 116 (driven, I think, by Spanish-speaking families), and Milo’s number 728. 

Comments

8 responses to “The 2005 Baby Name Rankings are out.”

  1. Kelly Avatar
    Kelly

    Mine are Mary Evelyn (always say both), Maximilian (usually Max), and Gregory (not Greg). Mary is the most popular of the three. I meet a lot of Max’s, but it isn’t really that high on the list. Gregory is the only one I’ve met because everyone our age thinks it’s boring. However, it was one of the few boys names I liked that was going down in popularity. That means it will sound exotic and unusal to his peers, who will apparently all be named Jacob.
    I love talking baby names, got anything else in that category? I admit, I’ve been anxious to hear what your girl names look like to see if they are similar or different to Oscar and Milo.
    Kelly

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  2. Sarah Avatar
    Sarah

    I live in Minnesota, too, and I have a Thomas Richard and an Anna Grace (also my middle name). Not wildly unusual, but not real common, either, surprisingly.

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  3. bearing Avatar
    bearing

    Kelly, DH and I swore that we wouldn’t give away any of the names still on our list, but I will fess up to ones that have been kicked off for one reason or another. Hence my leaking of Ava, which I really will not use now that I know it’s popular this year.
    As you can tell, I like quirky-old-fashioned-but-recognizable names. 🙂 This quarter, in my kids’ music class, a mom came in with a boy and a girl: Oliver and Matilda. I was like, “Yessss! You’re one of us!”

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  4. bearing Avatar
    bearing

    Just to give you an idea of the sorts of girl names I like, here are a few of mine that won’t be on the final list because Mark has vetoed them: Ida, Elsa, Anastasia, Ursula.
    I’m still grumpy about Ursula. Isn’t it a fabulous name? Doesn’t it go well with my boys? And to think Mark vetoed it because it reminds him of a girls’ high school in Cincinnati. Or maybe of some of the girls who went there, I don’t know.
    And I’m grumpy that he’s kicked Joachim off our boy list for the third time.

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  5. Fr. Shane Tharp Avatar
    Fr. Shane Tharp

    Well, I think Suri might be cute.

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  6. Christopher Tyler Avatar
    Christopher Tyler

    So Christopher and Tyler are both Boooooor-ing, eh? Some day, instant karma will get you, and Erin and Arlinghaus will be in the top ten. 😛

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  7. Kelly Avatar
    Kelly

    Ursula is the perfect name to go with Oscar and Milo. We have an Ursuline Academy in Louisville, too. I don’t think Joachim goes with Oscar and Milo as well, but that could be because of Joachim Phoenix.
    My favorite old and quirky girl’s name is Agnes, which I still haven’t talked dh into considering. We both like Lucinda and Edith, though.
    Oliver is pretty trendy in my area. I’ve met three or four under the age of two.

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  8. bearing Avatar
    bearing

    Ha, I knew this would get your goat, Chris.

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