BabyNames.com Announces Top Baby Names of 2016

Los Angeles, CA, December 1, 2016 (Newswire.com) - BabyNames.com has tallied up the most popular names of the year and the winners are Oliver and Amelia.

“Oliver is a rising star,” says BabyNames.com founder, Jennifer Moss. “It’s been jumping up ten spots in the past couple of years which means it will most likely reach the top ten in actual births soon.” The BabyNames.com name rankings are derived from the site’s millions of members’ favorite name lists.

“Our charts have actually predicted the future birth trends by one to three years,” says Moss. She also explains that their statistics combine the numbers for homophonous names like Aidan and Aiden, which they consider different spellings of the same name. The Social Security birth name lists do not.

For boys, Moss points out that the name Atticus has taken a dramatic downturn. She attributes the fall to the novel Go Set a Watchman, the sequel to Harper Lee’s beloved To Kill a Mockingbird where the character Atticus Finch was revealed to be racist and not as altruistic as in the classic book.

So what are the biggest name trends for the near future? Moss says that for boys, surnames will be popular for at least three to five years with Hudson and Lincoln rising fast. Other popular surnames include Grayson, Jackson, Beckett, Easton, Cohen, Emerson and Spencer.

On the girls’ side, vintage “grandma” names are holding fast with flower and nature names becoming the newest big naming trend. “Violet and Lily still top the girls’ charts,” says Moss. “And rising stars include Iris, Rose, Dahlia, Juniper, Poppy, Magnolia, and Olive.”

To view the full list of the 100 most popular names of 2016, visit BabyNames.com.

For more information or interviews, contact: Jennifer Moss, jennifer@babynames.com.

CHART: TOP 10 BABY NAMES FOR 2016

As calculated by BabyNames.com

RANK             BOYS             GIRLS

1                      Oliver              Amelia

2                      Liam                Charlotte

3                      Finn/Fynn       Olivia

4                      Owen              Violet

5                      Grayson          Aria/Arya

6                      Benjamin         Nora

7                      Declan             Ava

8                      Jackson           Audrey

9                      Ethan               Scarlett

10                    Aidan              Sophia

Source: BabyNames.com