Top Baby Names 2020

HENRY'S ON THE RISE

The Top Baby Names for 2020 were released in May 2021 by the Social Security Administration. Henry broke into the top ten for the first time since 1910, over a century. Along with Alexander, Henry pushed Mason and Ethan out of the top ten boy’s list from 2019. There were no other changes from the 2019 top ten in either group aside from order. The top three names have remained the same for the past two years.

Boys Names Girls Names

1. Liam 1. Olivia

2. Noah 2. Emma

3. Oliver 3. Ava

The SSA's name list is compiled from applications of new parents for their baby’s Social Security card. The data goes back to 1880. If you are a name-geek like me, you can get lost for hours in the data available on the Social Security baby names website. It’s user-friendly and you can search for popularity by names, years, states, and decades. The top 1000 names for each year are listed and there are files to download if you want to do deeper research.

YOU’RE GOING DOWN KAREN

In the 2020 data, we find Karen has moved to the 831st spot on the list. It has been in decline since 2008. The 4th most popular name in the 1960’s decade, Karen hit her peak in 1965 at #3. This puts Karen in the early Gen X generation. I suppose she technically could be a late Boomer, but because the pejorative term "Karen" is meant to portray an entitled middle-aged woman demanding to “see the manager”, it seems she would be younger than 57.

I really feel bad for the people named Karen who have inadvertently had their names turned into a slur. Her parents had no way of knowing they were throwing her into the undesirable category. Likewise, Katrina and Sandy’s parents didn’t know a weather catastrophe would turn them into infamous villains. Although, the NOAA keeps a list of its storm names and recycles the ones that are not devastating, so one could check for the name on the list to avoid possible association. We can only hope that Liam and Olivia will still be lovely names as they grow into adulthood. Maybe this should be a consideration of parents when they are naming their child, “If the name suddenly becomes synonymous with something disagreeable will we still love our choice?”

The SSA site also released a list of the top five fastest-rising boys and girls names in 2020:

Boys Girls

1. Zyair 1. Avayah

2. Jaxtyn 2. Denisse

3. Jakobe 3. Jianna

4. Kylo 4. Capri

5. Aziel 5. Rosalia

I don’t know about you but I see a short pair of pants on that list (or is it a drink pouch?)

Image by Daniel Thomas via Unsplash