Internet Baby Naming Update

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Friends, family, my co-workers at Google, and random strangers on the internet have contributed more than 500 votes for our kid’s name. At this point we have some clear favorites, with Dylan leading the boys chart and Olivia and Ada pulling ahead on the girls chart.

I’ve decided to move all the charts to this post, I’ll try to add updates with more detail as time goes on.

First, the graph of the most popular Girls’ names:

EDIT: Well, it turns out I made some pretty crazy formulas and broke my own charts. I’ll have an update soon to tell you how to make cool charts and how not to break them. The voting form works, though, so don’t be afraid to contribute.

DOUBLE EDIT: I’ve put in static versions of the charts while I work on fixing my spreadsheet.

Here’s the graph of the most popular Boys’ names:

Here’s a familiar, if not cognitively optimum, pie chart showing who has been voting:

Just for fun, here are graphs of some of the leading names’ popularity since the 1880s from the wonderful Baby Name Wizard website.

The only problem with these graphs is that they don’t give an identifiable scale. So, you can’t easily compare the different name graphs below – note that the darker the hue, the more babies had that name.

Olivia:

Popularity of names starting with OLIVIA

OLIVIA

Ada:

Popularity of names starting with ADA

ADA

Athena:

Popularity of names starting with ATHENA

ATHENA

Erin:

Popularity of names starting with ERIN

ERIN

Cassia:

Popularity of names starting with CASSIA

CASSIA

Alexis:

Popularity of names starting with ALEXIS

ALEXIS

Alexandria:

Popularity of names starting with ALEXANDRIA

ALEXANDRIA

Althea:

Popularity of names starting with ALTHEA

ALTHEA

Ozma:

Popularity of names starting with OZMA

OZMA

Dylan:

Popularity of names starting with DYLAN

DYLAN

Nikolas:

Popularity of names starting with NIKOLAS

NIKOLAS

Aaron:

Popularity of names starting with AARON

AARON

Alexander

Popularity of names starting with ALEXANDER

ALEXANDER

Levi:

Popularity of names starting with LEVI

LEVI

Isaac:

Popularity of names starting with ISAAC

ISAAC

Eric:

Popularity of names starting with ERIC

ERIC

Sydney:

Popularity of names starting with SYDNEY

SYDNEY

Next up I’ll write a post about the write-in suggestions we’ve gotten.

60 thoughts on “Internet Baby Naming Update”

  2. well, i have 2 new names…
    it could be MAX (boy or girl).i love this name; or AURORA (girl).like a sleeping beauty; or JENSEN (boy)….
    this 3 names i think are great…
    if i was up 2 you I’d choose JENSEN (boy) ’cause it’s very rare name and it’s beautiful, and 4 girl AURORA the same reason and if she’d be a fan of fairy tales she’d be happy to have name like sleeping beauty…
    enjoy…

    btw- please inform when you choose (:

  7. lyonesse for a girl. Lyonesse was the place where King Arthurs Guinnever came from.

    Aaron for a boy

  11. I think you should name your child Seherzada if it’s a girl, and if it’s a boy he should be named Svetislav or Vukashin

  12. hm…name is…LORENA…because this name is so beautiful…P.S.my girlfriend is LORENA=)

  13. What a fun, wonderful (& perhaps overwhelming?) idea!
    Unique idea, perhaps a more unique name … “Cassia” is a great one for that!

    Zemaya Helene for a girl… “Shimmering Light”. Zimaia is another spelling, they are part onomatopoeia (words that sound like their meaning) and Sanskrit (where so much of our language originates). “Maya” is Sanskrit for “illusion”, and easy to see it’s relation.

    I am really hoping that you don’t go for Dylan (I hear gangster) or Ada (she already sounds old).

    Of the names you have Cassia Alexandria is a beautiful combination. Olivia, having 4 syllables, should really have a 1 or 2 syllable middle name… such as “Olivia Erin”?

    When naming my children, they were each selected for their meaning, as their particular blessing. A person tends to live up to their name, or become the opposite of it. I’ve named 7 boys and 7 girls, but will spare you from my listing them ALL here! My faves being: Veronica Macrina, Bianca Sophia, Isaac Nicholas, Isaiah John Menas and Jerusalem Rose.

  21. I thin Janna for a girl and Janson for a boy…it uses pieces of each of the parent’s names, plus they are unique without sounding odd.

  25. I like all your choices but beware Olivia; soooooo boringly popular although a lovely name. How about Imogen for a girl?

  26. These are my kids’ names:

    Frazer – boy
    Finley – girl
    Rani – girl

    I think they’re great names and they’re in their 20’s!

  27. yeah – olivia has been done to death!!! My little boy is Flynn. (a very irish name, which is where i think your headed)
    other boys names on our list are:: Blaise, Tadhg (pronounced Ty), Hamish and Lawson.

    I also like Ava, rather than Ada; but other girls names were:: Leila, Misha, Lottie, Sybella and Clementine.
    Hope this helps – Good luck.

  28. Congratulations on your pregnancy. Naming a child is so difficult and such a huge responsibility. I wish you all the best. My only suggestion would be to choose a name that is easy to spell and not a name so common that your child is known as, for example, Olivia M.!

  30. Hi!

    Good luck on choosing a beautiful name for your little baby-wonder!

    I would suggest Elise, Laure, Louise for a girl or maybe Pauline (my sisters name and her birthday is the 16th november) this version is written the French way you can also write it like Paulien (more Dutch written like this)

    Nathan, Louis, Tibo, Mylo, Eppo, Zeger, Pablo,…

    As you can see I’m into rather shorter names, feel free to contact me if you want other ideas ;)

    Good luck with naming the baby and the baby itself offcourse!

    xx Elise

  33. I have an “Olivia”, but only problem is that it is too common and there is 3 Olivia’s in her class.

    I also have a Chelsea Hannah, Henry Jonathan, and Olivia georgia.

    Good Luck!

  34. Girls – Isla, Xanthe (pronounced Zanthee), Karon, Trisha (my granddaughters and daughter. I think all four are gorgeous names
    Boy – Ruan (our son loves his name)

  35. I love Helen Claire for a girl because it’s feminine and calm but not frilly – you have to remember she wont be a cute dimple-kneed tot forever

    And for a boy I think Rory – its masculine but not blokey, it has history (google for it *tee hee*) and it can go with a middle name or stand alone.

    Whatever you choose, I hope the pregnancy goes well !!!

  36. I don’t know if you remember I left a comment yesterday about my children’s names – Frazer, Finley, Rani – but today Lisa Marie Presley named her twins Finley (!) and Harper. You could have had that name!

  37. What about Yvaine for a girl (pronounced Evain – its from the movie Stardust) and Eowyn for a boy (pronounced Youen eg like Ewan McGregor, the actor). I love these names and wish I was having twins. I don’t think asking strangers to come up with names is silly and causing so much controversy, I’m sure you’ll think long and hard over the name before you choose it. Good Luck!

  40. I voted for Ada because it is simple and symmetrical and because it isn’t overused. I think Olivia is overused. I can tell you that I hate sharing a name with so many others women (all of whom are within 5 years of my age).

    None of the boy’s names really excited me. Alexander strikes me as being overused. Aaron is actually very popular in certain demographic groups in the Bay Area. There are 3 in my daughter’s kindergarten class.

  41. I didn’t vote for any of your names – they are much too bland for my tastes. I wrote in Isla and Macsen as suggestions. Isla is a beautiful name, musical in sound and simple to remember. It is also rather rare still here in the US, but not so “out there” that a child would have trouble with spelling it or correcting others very often.

    Macsen I chose for Macsen Wledig, aka Emperor Magnus Maximus. Macsen is the Welsh variant of Maxim. It is nearly unheard of, yet retains a bit of a modern sound while still being a legitimate name with a history of usage.

  46. Man, this has got to be the worst way to name the baby! Something like this is best decided between you and the mom-to-be.

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