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This Is What Parents Named Their Babies In 2021 — And For The First Time In Over A Decade, There's A New Top Girl Name

Is your kid's name on here?

It's somehow already November, which means two things: 1) 2022 is nearly here (how?), and B) BabyCenter just dropped its annual list of the most popular names of the year!

The laces of baby shoes are arranged to sat 2021

So, what cool and interesting goings-on and trends did we see with baby names in 2021? Let’s take a look:

First, Sophia was finally unseated as the most popular girl name after 11 consecutive years atop the list! So what's the new reigning number one name? It's Olivia!

Olivia Rodrigo

There was no shake-up atop the boys' list, though. Liam — for the third consecutive year — remained the most popular boy name.

Liam Hemmsworth

There were some surprises with boy names, though — Levi and Asher broke into the top 10, knocking out Mateo and Logan.

Asher Angel in a music video

OK, on to 2021's biggest baby name trends! One massive one was names inspired by the year's biggest streaming hit shows. For example...

The incredible success of WandaVision had an impressive affect on baby names. Wanda was up a whopping 54% year over year, Agatha was up 32%, and Darcy was up 11%. Perhaps most surprising? The name Vision made an appearance on the girls' list, up 22%.

Wanda and Vision in '50s clothes on a couch

Everyone's favorite show about a goodhearted football coach turned soccer coach in England, Ted Lasso, inspired baby names in 2021 too, but the one name they didn't like was Ted...it was down. (Sorry, Ted.)

Ted Lasso holding a soccer ball

Bridgerton appears to have inspired parents to name their babies too. Daphne (up 13%) and Eloise (up 15%) were notably on the rise in popularity in 2021.

A still from the show showing Daphne walking arm-in-arm with the Duke of Hastings

Another interesting trend was how names that end in “ah” absolutely dominated the girls' lists. Eight of the top ten names, for example, fell into this category (Olivia, Emma, Ava, Amelia, Sophia, Isabella, Mia, and Luna).

Another trend: parents favored powerful and unique names, like Onyx (up 44%), Koda (up 38%), and Finnegan (up 35%), as well as on-the-rise names Zyaire, Stetson, Wilder, Ezequiel, and Briggs.

A church service and the text what a powerful name onyx is

Interestingly, 2021 also saw parents view names in a more gender neutral way: Tatum, Finley, and Eden were all up for boys, while Stevie, Lennon, Remington, and Logan climbed the girls' list.

Stevie Nicks and Stevie Wonder

Those were the trends and notable stories! Now here are the top 10 lists for 2021:

A baby sucking their thumb
A baby sleeping

To see the full top 100 names of 2021, or to read more about the year's baby-naming trends, visit BabyCenter.