The State of Baby Names 2025 — A Babbez Data Report

America named its babies, and the Social Security Administration counted every one. Here is what the newest official data — the 2025 birth year, released May 2026 — says about the names topping the charts, and the surprising ones climbing fastest.

For the seventh year running, American parents landed on the same two favorites: Olivia and Liam. But the top of the list is the least interesting part of the story. Underneath the familiar names, 2025 delivered a genuine shake-up in the girls' order, a vintage-name revival that keeps tightening its grip, a spelling quirk that puts one name in the top ten twice, and names rocketing up the rankings from near-obscurity. Here is the full picture.

§1 · THE TOP TENWho America named its babies

The real movement was among the girls. Charlotte climbed to No. 2, pushing Emma to third and ending Emma's six-year run as runner-up. Ava dropped out of the top ten entirely, and Eliana — up from No. 18 — was the only new entry on either list. The boys' top ten held the same ten names, lightly reshuffled, with Noah again taking second.

§2 · THE PATTERNThe old-fashioned revival

Read the boys' list again and notice how it sounds: Theodore, Henry, James, William — names your great-grandfather might have answered to, now sitting comfortably in the top ten. The girls' side echoes it with Charlotte, Evelyn, Amelia. The "old-lady, old-man" name — vintage, three-generations-back, faintly formal — is no longer a niche choice; in 2025 it is the mainstream. Short, modern picks like Mia still hold their ground, but the center of gravity has swung toward names with a hundred years of history — and Charlotte's rise to No. 2 is the clearest sign yet.

§3 · THE CLIMBERSThe names rising fastest

The headline names barely move year to year. The energy in the data is further down the list, where a handful of names leap a thousand places or more. In 2025 the standouts were names almost no one used the year before:

The climbers capture a real thread in modern naming: meaning and freshness over tradition — a name held by a few hundred babies can still "rise a thousand places," because the long tail of American baby names is enormous and closely packed. It is also where next year's top-ten surprises are quietly forming.

§4 · WHAT IT MEANSThree takeaways for parents naming in 2026

1. Familiar isn't going anywhere. Seven straight years of Olivia and Liam say the classics have staying power — if you love a top-ten name, you'll be in good company, and that's fine.

2. Vintage is the new modern. If you want a name that feels both distinctive and safe, the early-1900s revival (Theodore, Charlotte, Henry, Evelyn) is where taste is heading — and it's still climbing.

3. Meaning is moving names. The fastest climbers lean on meaning — fire, clarity, light. If a name's meaning matters to you, you're part of a genuine trend, not an outlier.

Cite this report: Babbez, "The State of Baby Names, 2025" (2026), analysing U.S. Social Security Administration 2025 data. Journalists & writers are welcome to reference these figures with a link back.