The name Michael has fallen from the top spot as the most popular name for American boys for the first time in 43 years.
The Social Security Administration’s annual list, based on new names registered for Social Security numbers, showed only 14,000 Michaels named last year, the lowest for that name since 1940 and putting it number 8 on the list of most popular names.
Noah ranked number one last year.
Emma was the top name for girls last year.
When we named our kids, back in 1975 and 1981, the names we picked were, coincidentally, the most popular names at the time. In 1981 Michael was still enjoying its run at the top of the list, and in 1975 Jennifer was #1. It’s now #273. Both our kids told us when they were in school that they wished we hadn’t picked the most popular names for them, since they were always one of three or four Jennifers and Michaels in their classes.
I remember as a kid not seeing many other Davids, although my name did hit the top of the list back in 1960. That was the first and only year it was the top boy’s name.
Here are the full top 10 lists…
For boys, in order from 1 to 10: Noah, Liam, William, Mason, James, Benjamin, Jacob, Michael, Elijah and Ethan.
For girls: Emma, Olivia, Ava, Sophia, Isabella, Mia, Charlotte, Abigail, Emily and Harper.
It's interesting that despite how much these two names were in the news, neither Hillary nor Donald showed much of a change in popularity. The name Donald dropped 40 spots last year, to #488. The name Hillary has never been on the top 1,000 names.