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The 50 most popular baby girl names
What are the most popular baby girl names in America?Thanks to the Social Security Administration’s most recent data, we have the answer. Here, we’ve ranked the 50 most selected girl names in the U.S. in 2018. (Usually, the SSN would have released 2019 data by now, but in a statement, the administration said it would delay that release…
What are the most popular baby girl names in America?
Thanks to the Social Security Administration's most recent data, we have the answer. Here, we've ranked the 50 most selected girl names in the U.S. in 2018. (Usually, the SSN would have released 2019 data by now, but in a statement, the administration said it would delay that release “out of respect and honor for all people and families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Let's start with No. 50.
Credit: Rob Carr/Getty Images
PGA golfer Billy Horschel and wife Brittany Horschel welcomed daughter Skylar in 2014. That's the same year the name Skylar cracked the Social Security Administration's Top 50.
Credit: Getty
A Top 50 girl name since 2011, Claire has been climbing the popularity charts since the late 1980s, or roughly since Phylicia Rashad ruled the sitcom world as “The Cosby Show”‘s matriarch.
Credit: Mill Creek Entertainment
Bella has been in and around the Top 50 since 2009 — the same year Kristen Stewart debuted, opposite Robert Pattinson, as the vampire-loving Bella Swan in the first Twilight movie.
Credit: Summit Home Entertainment
This is a fast-rising baby girl name of the late 2000s and early 2010s. Actress Vanessa Lachey, pictured, and husband Nick Lachey named their daughter Brooklyn in 2015.
Credit: Getty
Audrey Pence embraces her father, Vice President Mike Pence, at the 2017 presidential inauguration ceremony in Washington, D.C. The name Audrey has been a Top 50 baby girl name since 2011.
Credit: Getty
NBC News' Savannah Guthrie has been a standard bearer of this steadily popular name.
Credit: Nathan Congleton/NBC
Currently the No. 1 girl name in Alaska, Aurora cracked the nationwide Top 50 in 2018. The name surged following the release of the 2014 Disney hit “Maleficent,” costarring Elle Fanning as Princess Aurora.
Credit: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Actress-singer Christina Milian is seen with daughter Violet in 2018, the same year the name scored its best-ever showing on the Social Security Administration popularity chart.
Credit: Getty
“The Fault in Our Stars,” starring Shailene Woodley as author John Green's heroine, Hazel Lancaster, helped put Hazel back in the baby-girl-name Top 50 after a nearly 90-year absence.
Credit: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Leah seems to owe its current success more to one of Jon and Kate Gosselin's sextuplets, pictured, than to Carrie Fisher's galactic princess, Leia. The year after “Jon & Kate Plus 8” premiered in 2007, the name Leah moved into the Top 50 for the first time. (The variation Leia was the 296th most popular baby-girl name in 2018.)
Credit: The Learning Channel
“Big Little Lies” star Zoë Kravitz was born in 1988, just as this variation of Zoey — minus the umlaut — was beginning its climb up the baby-name popularity chart.
Credit: Getty
This is the name of the eldest daughter played by Mackenzie Moss (pictured, left) on the CBS comedy “The Unicorn.” Natalie is down from 36th place in the 2017 rankings.
Credit: Darren Michaels/CBS
Stella is now more fashionable than it was during its prior heyday of the early 1900s.
Credit: Getty
Ellie Kemper, the actress, has been a star since her debut on “The Office” in 2009; Ellie, the baby name, has been a rising star since the 1990s. The name's 2018 showing was its best yet in the Social Security Administration's rankings.
Credit: Getty
In the mid-2000s, the profile of this baby name rose along with that of Danity Kane's Aubrey O'Day. The name's cooling off now, down from 31st place in the 2017 rankings.
Credit: Getty
This name shot up after “Grey's Anatomy” introduced the character Dr. Addison Montgomery (played by Kate Walsh) in 2005. It rose to 11th place in 2010.
Credit: ABC
This favorite of the early 20th century has become a favorite of the early 21st, too — and was used as the name of the best friend, Lillian “Lilly” Truscott (played by Emily Osment, pictured at left), on Disney's “Hannah Montana.”
Credit: Walt Disney Television
While “Hannah Montana” was in step with the rebirth of Lilian, it was out of step with the trajectory of Hannah, which peaked in popularity as a baby-girl name in 1998-2000, prior to the debut of the Miley Cyrus sitcom.
Credit: Walt Disney Television
This name, returned to the pop-culture discussion via Kristen Bell's character on the NBC comedy “The Good Place,” is now roughly as popular as it was in the 1910s and 1920s.
Credit: Andrew Eccles/NBC
Heiress Nicky Hilton is seen with daughter Lily-Grace in 2019. While not as popular as it was in the early 2010s, Lily still beats out Lilly (161st place in the baby-girl-name rankings) and Lillie (668th place).
Credit: Getty
Model Nora Ponse wears the name well in 2019. As a baby name, Nora is now more popular than it was 100 years ago.
Credit: Getty
Zoey is a newcomer to the ranks of popular baby-girl names. It cracked the Top 100 for the first time in 2008, amid the run of the tween sitcom, “Zoey 101,” starring Jamie Lynn Spears.
Credit: Nickelodeon
Golden State Warriors basketball star Stephen Curry is seen with his daughter, Riley, in 2015, a year before the name debuted in the Top 30 popularity rankings as a girl name. (Riley currently stands in 250th place among boy names.)
Credit: Getty
Derek and the Dominos' “Layla” may have been the prime driver behind this baby girl name. The song first became a hit in the early 1970s, and then again in the 1990s when Eric Clapton played it during his “Unplugged” concert. For the past decade, it's been hovering around 30th place.
Credit: Getty
Penelope soared in popularity as a baby girl name in 2001 with the emergence of Penelope Cruz as the then-costar, on screen and off, of Tom Cruise.
Credit: Getty
Even with the “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” connection, it's Chloe with a “c,” as in actress Chloë Grace Moretz (pictured), that's the more popular variation over Khloe with a “k” (135th place), as in Khloé Kardashian.
Credit: Getty
While Grace didn't get a baby name bump from actress Grace Kelly's 1956-1982 reign as princess of Monaco, it did move into the Top 50 after the 1998 premiere of “Will & Grace,” starring Debra Messing as designer Grace Adler.
Credit: Lions Gate Films Home Entertainment
This baby girl name is hot and getting hotter; it's up from 37th place in the 2017 rankings. Singer John Legend and model Chrissy Teigen are seen in 2019 with their daughter Luna.
Credit: Getty
This name, which surfaced as a popular girl name after 1984's “Splash” introduced audiences to Daryl Hannah's Madison the mermaid, is cooling after a run in the Social Security Administration's Top 10 from 1998-2014.
Credit: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
This classic hasn't been out of the Top 50 since 1986, a few years after the popular CBS soap, “The Young and the Restless,” introduced the character Victoria Newman (played of late by Amelia Heinle, pictured).
Credit: Cliff Lipson/CBS
Since Scarlett Johansson debuted as the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Natasha Romanoff in 2010's “Iron Man 2,” the name Scarlett has zoomed from 115th place among popular baby girl names to the Top 20. (Scarlet with one “t” was the 405th-most popular baby girl name in 2018.)
Credit: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
As recently as 2010, Aria and its variation Arya weren't close to residing among the Top 200 baby girl names. Then came the TV versions of “Pretty Little Liars,” featuring Lucy Hale's Aria Montgomery (pictured, left), and “Game of Thrones,” featuring Maisie Williams' Arya Stark (pictured, right). (In 2018, Arya rose to 119th place, the name's all-time best showing.)
Credit: Warner Home Video (left); HBO (right)
Singer Camila Cabello was born in 1997, the same year this fast-rising name first cracked the Social Security Administration's Top 1000.
Credit: Getty
This name established itself as a rising star of the 2000s, even before Sofia Vergara came to fame on “Modern Family.”
Credit: Getty
Long a popular boy name, Avery broke out as a baby girl name in 1989, the same year TV's “Murphy Brown” introduced Colleen Dewhurst (pictured, right) as the maternal force of nature, Avery Brown.
Credit: CBS/Getty
Ben Stiller's daughter Ella Stiller (pictured, right) was born in 2002, the same year Ella returned from a 75-year exile to the Top 100 among popular baby girl names.
Credit: Getty
Mila debuted in the Top 1000 in 2006, the same year Mila Kunis graduated from “That '70s Show” having established herself — and her name — as a star.
Credit: Getty
Since 1900, Elizabeth has failed to qualify as a Top 25 most-popular girl name only twice. Since England's Queen Elizabeth II began her reign on the worldwide stage in 1953, it's never dipped lower than 22nd place.
Credit: Getty
Model Emily Ratajkowski was born in 1991, the same year Emily became a Top 10 baby girl name, en route to a run as the most popular baby girl name from 1996-2007.
Credit: Getty
Presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar's daughter Abigail Bessler (pictured, left) was born in 1995, just as her name was trending upward. Abigail peaked as a baby girl name in 2005, the Social Security Administration says.
Credit: Getty
“Basketball Wives” reality star Evelyn Lozada is seen in 2019. Per Social Security Administration data, Evelyn was the most popular baby girl name in 2018 in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Credit: Getty
Before “Two and a Half Men,” featuring the antics of the Harper clan, premiered in 2003, Harper wasn't a Top 1000 name, for either boys or girls. After the show became a hit, Harper bubbled up as a baby boy name — and rode a rocket to the Top 10 as a girl name.
Credit: Warner Home Video
This baby girl name has been a fixture in the Top 50 since 2010, the year Shondaland character Dr. Amelia Shepherd (played on “Private Practice” and “Grey's Anatomy” by Caterina Scorsone) made her debut.
Credit: ABC
In 2000, a year after soccer star Mia Hamm helped lead the U.S. team to a Women's World Cup championship, Mia cracked the Top 100 baby-girl-name popularity rankings for the first time — and hasn't looked back since.
Credit: Getty
Princess Charlotte's parents, Prince William and Kate Middleton, are on the same wavelength as Americans when it comes to this name. In the United States, the name has never been more popular.
Credit: Getty
Sophia has been a Top 50 baby girl name since 2000, the same year actors William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman welcomed their eldest daughter, Sophia Grace Macy (pictured, right).
Credit: Getty
Now a Top 10 fixture, and the reigning No. 1 baby girl name in Florida and New Mexico, Isabella slipped out of the Top 1000 in 1949. It didn't return until 1990 — a year after the NBC soap opera “Days of Our Lives” introduced a new heroine, one Isabella Toscano (played by Staci Greason).
Credit: Getty
A trendy baby girl name in Hollywood circles, as Richie Sambora and Heather Locklear's Ava Sambora (left) and Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon's Ava Phillippe (right) can attest, Ava has been among the nation's five most popular baby girl names since 2006.
Credit: Getty
Olivia became a Top 20 baby girl name in 1999. That's the same year social-media star Olivia Jade (pictured, left) was born, and Mariska Hargitay (pictured, right) debuted as Olivia Benson on NBC's “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” The name rose to second place in the rankings in 2014 — and has stayed there ever since.
Credit: Getty
The perennially popular Emma took it to the next level in 2002, a year after the big-screen release of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,” starring Emma Watson. It rose to No. 1 in 2008, and returned there in 2014, where it's remained. It's the reigning No. 1 baby girl name in 15 states, from California to Kentucky, and from Hawaii to Texas.
Credit: Getty
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