2024's most popular baby names and the trends coming up in 2025

As we approach the end of 2024, BabyCenter has revealed the baby names new parents have been loving this year.

It's the digital parenting resource's 20th year of reporting on baby name trends and this year it looked at insights from more than 500,000 babies born in 2024 to parents who are registered on the BabyCenter site and mobile app in these last 12 months.

The findings were that Noah is at the top of the boys' list, followed by Liam and Oliver, and "E" names for boys have been on the rise.

In fact, Emrys debuts in BabyCenter's top 1,000 boys' names, up 839 spots, to No. 954. Emir (up 146, to No. 632), Enrique (up 121, to No. 743), Edgar (up 171, to No. 799), Eliel (up 185 to No. 824), and Eliseo (up 204, to No. 847) gained popularity. Easton and Everett re-enter the top 100 at No. 92 and No. 93, respectively.

iStockphoto by Getty Images

Olivia, Amelia, and Emma remain in their positions as the most popular girl names, mirroring last year's trends, while girls' names ending in "-lee" or "-lyn" are also gaining popularity with the likes of Evelyn, Brooklyn, and Madelyn in the top 100 list.

We've seen Adalee (up 276, to No. 753), Avalynn (up 402, to No. 861), Lakelyn (up 184, to No. 869), Rosalee (up 289, to No. 878) and Maelynn (up 363 spots, to No. 900). All of these names are joining the top 1,000 girl names in the US for the first time.

"We’re so excited to be releasing our 20th annual baby names report,” said Robin Hilmantel, senior director of editorial strategy and growth at BabyCenter.

"At any given time, BabyCenter has a community of millions of parents, many of whom choose to self-report their baby’s name when they’re born. For two decades, this has allowed us unique insight into baby name trends as they’re happening in real-time. Because of this proprietary data set, we’re able to reliably share the top baby names months before the Social Security Administration data come out each year."

But what other trends have we seen in baby names this year and what will we see more of in 2025?

Paris Olympics and the rise of French names

The Eiffel tower decorated with Olympic rings is seen on July 21, 2024 in ParisMaja Hitij/Getty Images

We had the Paris Olympics this summer, and it appears to have had an impact on baby names since French names have seen an uptick.

For instance, French names such as Raphael, Louis and Louise, are rapidly climbing the charts in the U.S and in addition to this more unique French names like Beaux, Remi, and Gustavo for boys, Elodie, Arlette, and Jolie for girls are gaining attention.

Main character impact

Film and TV seemingly always influences people's baby name picks and this year is no different.

Among some of the names on the rise include Riley, following the release of Inside Out 2,which moved up seven places to No. 38, Carmen was previously associated as a girl's name but it's also an Italian boy name as used the Emmy award-winning TV show The Bear which has seen it get a 1,413 spot boost to No. 3,616.

With the release of Netflix's Ripley (based on the same character as 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley) it's no surprise Ripley has jumped up 453 spots to No. 2,368 on the boys list.

Celestial names inspired by total solar eclipse

Back in April, there was a total solar eclipse and it appears to have influenced baby names this year - with some parents (four of them, in fact) even naming their Eclipse which jumps up 4,421 spots to No. 5,494

Other celestial names, Sol and Orion, are among the fastest-rising names in their respective lists for girls and boys (up 334 spots to No. 695 and up 137 spots to No. 301).

WNBA and Super Bowl-inspired names

Women's NCAA basketball tournament had a record number of viewers this year and this is reflected in an increased number of babies being named after the players - with Caitlin (after Caitlin Clark), Kamilla (after Kamilla Cardoso), A'ja (after A'ja Wilson) as these names see significant increases in popularity.

Super Bowl players appear to have impacted the popularity of certain boy names. With Creed (after Creed Humphrey) up 209 spots to No. 551, Travis (after Travis Kelce) up 18 spots, to No. 357 and Isiah (after Isiah Pacheco), up 186 spots, to No. 1,405.

Kendrick beats Drake

Kendrick Lamar performs onstage in Inglewood, CaliforniaTimothy Norris/Getty Images for pgLang, Amazon Music, & Free Lunch

Who can forget this year's biggest rap feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake.

Kendrick was widely declared the winner of the back-and-forth with his hit diss track 'Not Like Us' and this story appears to have impacted how popular their names are.

Kendrick jumped 32 spots for boys this year, reaching No. 402, while Drake dropped down 103 spots to No. 807, making it one of BabyCenter's fastest-falling names.

Names that have fallen out of favour

As there are a lot of names rising up the baby names list, there are obviously other names that have seen a decline over the past year.

One of those is Sarah which is out of the top 100 (No. 108) after previously remaining there for more than six decades.

Although Stanley cups were the popular must-have item, the name Stanley has not been as popular as it fell more than 400 spots to No. 1,385.

The name Justin was not a hit with new parents, as it fell 59 places down to to No. 277.

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