Patricia Scanlan: City Girls Forever 2025 paperback

Talk about your favorite boy names with other expectant parents and name lovers on our friendly forums. You can get advice and feedback on your top choices, gather new ideas and inspiration, or simply discuss all things boy names with our knowledgeable members from around the world. We live in an age where cool and unusual names are highly coveted. This adds to the diversity of names and means your child is unlikely to be one of three Noahs in his kindergarten class. But everyone’s popularity threshold is different when it comes to their own baby’s name.

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If this extends beyond the original father and son, you typically use Roman numerals (II, III, IV, V, etc.) to depict this designation. Jenny Studenroth Gerson is an Atlanta-based lifestyle journalist and novelist (Let Me Let You Go, 2020). Her work can be seen in publications including HuffPost, Cosmo, and WSJ, among many others. When not meeting deadlines, she is chasing toddlers or chugging coffee—or both! Find her on Instagram @ourlifeinrosegold for mom hacks and more.

The rankings were created using the exact spellings of names given at birth registration, meaning similar names with different spellings were counted separately. In 2023 there were 4,661 Muhammads born across England and Wales, up from 4,177 in 2022, while Mohammed came in 28th with 1,601 and Mohammad came 68th with 835. The data shows that Muhammad was the most popular boys’ name in four out of nine regions in England and 63rd most popular in Wales. Meanwhile, Olivia was the most popular girls’ name in five out of nine regions in England and the most popular in Wales. It has been in the top three for girls’ names every year since 2006. One noticeable trend is the return to classic names with a modern twist.

And, just in time for the 25th anniversary of The Phantom Menace, Anakin is No. 543 on the list. Many of us name babies based on who we want them to grow up to be, and all of these names nudge your son toward cool guy status. It’s hard to picture a man named Dash or Rhett as being anything but exceptionally rad, and that’s exactly the point.

In fact, almost every top-10 name from 2023 is holding steady in 2024 – with some noteworthy exceptions. Ellie joins the top 10 girl names for the first time ever at No. 9, bumping Evelyn down to No. 11. And Asher is back in the top 10 boy names at No. 9 after a year away, while Luca is out at No. 12. Choosing a family name for your baby is still a common tradition, but there are multiple ways to go about it. In some families, the child (usually the firstborn) has the exact same name as the father, with the addition of a “Jr.” (meaning junior) suffix at the end.