2010-05-21 / Community

Isabella: most popular girl baby name of ’09

There’s a new queen of baby names. 

Isabella took the crown from last year’s winner, Emma, to claim the top girl baby name of 2009. Jacob continued his run by holding on to the top boy name for the 11th year in a row over a new No. 2 for boys: Ethan. New to the top 10 this year for boys are Jayden and Noah, and for girls, Mia.

The top 10 names for boys in order are: Jacob, Ethan, Michael, Alexander, William, Joshua, Daniel, Jayden, Noah and Anthony.

The top 10 names for girls in order are: Isabella, Emma, Olivia, Sophia, Ava, Emily, Madison, Abigail, Chloe and Mia.

A feature of Social Security’s baby names website is the “Change in Name Popularity” page. This year’s winner for the biggest jump is Maliyah, which undoubtedly is related to the popularity of the first family. Malia, the spelling used by the first daughter, also is one of the top 10 fastest risers among names for girls. Isla, the name of actress Isla Fisher and wife of Sacha Baron Cohen aka Borat, was the second-fastest riser among girls. 

For boys, Cullen had the biggest increase, likely attributable to the character Edward Cullen in the “Twilight” novels and movies. 

The girl’s name Marely, which had the third-largest increase last year, had the biggest drop this year—from number 334 to 851. Mylee had the second biggest drop; Miley, as in Cyrus, also dropped in popularity. 

In the wake of controversies surrounding Lindsay Lohan, Lindsay dropped from number 381 to 524. Brett, Jonas and Alvin are among the masculine names with the largest decreases. 

With 69 baby Baracks born in 2009, Barack continues to move up the list to number 1,993.

Religious names continue to be very popular, including the feminine names Heaven at number 275 and Nevaeh, heaven spelled backward, at 34. Messiah was number 663 for boys. 

Elvis slipped from number 713 in 2008 to 858 in 2009. Presley is number 268 for girls, and King and Memphis landed at 462 and 605 for boys.

The Social Security website offers lists of baby names for each year since 1880. Social Security started compiling baby name lists in 1997.   To see all the top baby names for 2009, go to the website www.socialsecurity.gov. 

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