50 Most Popular Baby Names, Ranked — and the Stars Who Go With Them

Rachel and Ross, what have you done? According to just-released data from the U.S. Social Security Administration, Emma was the most popular baby name among girls born in the United States in 2018. It marks the fifth straight year Emma has topped the definitive rankings, and the 17th straight year that Emma has been in the Top 5. To put it another way: Emma, once the rage of the early 1900s, has been the 21st century’s most consistently popular girl’s name since Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston) and Ross Gellar (David Schwimmer) welcomed baby Emma in a 2002 Friends episode.

Is the Friends connection the only reason for Emma’s domination? No. And it certainly doesn’t explain why Liam has come from nowhere to be a perennial Top 5 baby-boy name, and the No. 1 overall most-popular name for baby boys in 2017 and 2018. (Liam Hemsworth, Liam Neeson and One Direction’s Liam Payne deserve some credit, too, after all.)

But the influence of Rachel and Ross (and the assorted Liams, natch) can’t be ignored, either. For every long-running TV character that clicks with audiences (think: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit‘s Olivia Benson and, well, everybody on Grey’s Anatomy), for every movie star who makes it big, for every country star who tweets out picture of her newborn (think: Carrie Underwood and infant son, Jacob), there are future and would-be parents out there who are watching — and making mental notes.

Using Social Security’s latest data, we’ve gone through the 25 most-popular baby names for girls and the 25 most-popular baby names for boys, and assigned each a corresponding celebrity. Sometimes, the star connection seems to reflect a turning point for the name — a la, we strongly suspect Mila does not become a Top 25 baby-girl name without Mila Kunis becoming a TV and movie star. Sometimes, though, the stars are just riding the pop culture wave themselves, as in the not-small number of celebrity couples, including Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines, with a daughter named Ella (a Top 25 baby-girl name since 2005). Read on to get the full countdown of the most popular baby names, from No. 25 to No. 1, for boys and girls, and to see who’s influencing these picks — or being influenced themselves.

25. Owen (boy)

The name Owen has been steadily moving up the charts for the past decade. Coincidentally (or not), for the past decade, Kevin McKidd has played the same-named surgeon, Dr. Owen Hunt, on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy.  

25. Chloe (girl)

Know a Chloe? We bet you do. President Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is seen with his Chloe at a bull-riding event at New York City’s Madison Square Garden in 2018. 

24. Carter (boy)

Country music’s Carter Winter (“Skylines”) is like Carter as a given name — on the rise.  

24. Grace (girl)

Like Grace Park, the primetime star of ABC’s A Million Little Things and previously CBS’ Hawaii Five-O, the name Grace has been a fixture.  

23. Joseph (boy)

As the Jonas Brothers’ Joseph-born Joe Jonas and all the other famous Joes (Joe Biden, Joe Flacco, Joe Mantegna, etc.) can attest, Joseph is never out of style as a baby name. 

23. Luna (girl)

Luna cracked the baby-girl-name Top 100 for the first time this century in 2016 — the same year John Legend and Chrissy Teigen welcomed their Luna. 

22. David (boy)

The pop singer David Archueta broke big, via American Idol, in 2008; the name David is always big. 

22. Madison (girl)

When Maddie & Tae’s Madison Marlow, pictured (on the right) at Florida’s Tortuga Music Festival, was born in 1995, Madison was a baby name on the rise. It’s still popular, natch, but it’s winding down from its heyday in the early 2000s. 

21. Samuel (boy)

Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck’s son, Samuel, is seen at Garner’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in 2018.

21. Victoria (girl)

Like Victoria Beckham, the ever-stylish former Spice Girls singer, Victoria is a name that’s never out of fashion. Popularity-wise, it’s been in the Top 35 among girl names since 1990. 

20. Matthew (boy)

Old Dominion’s Matthew Ramsey was born in 1977, just as this perennial name was becoming even more popular than it usually is.

20. Scarlett (girl)

Avengers: Endgame‘s Scarlett Johansson made her Marvel Cinematic Universe movie debut in 2010 (via Iron Man 2) — the same year Scarlett (with two Ts) cracked the baby-girl-name Top 150 for the first time on record.  

19. Aiden (boy)

The WWE wrestling star Aiden English was born Matthew Rehwoldt; he took Aiden as a ring name in 2012, just as Aiden was enjoying a baby-name popularity surge.  

19. Aria (girl)

A decade ago, Aria wasn’t even a Top 500 baby-girl name. Then Pretty Little Liars debuted on Freeform (then ABC Family) in 2010, and introduced us to Lucy Hale’s Aria Montgomery. 

18. Sebastian (boy)

Dancing With the Stars alum Amber Rose and rapper Wiz Khalifa, now split, welcomed their son Sebastian in 2013, the same year Sebastian broke into the baby-boy-name Top 50 for the first time on record. 

18. Camila (girl)

The Grammy-nominated “Havana” singer Camila Cabello was born in 1997, the same year Camila first entered the baby-girl-name chart (at No. 877).

17. Jackson (boy)

This baby name has been climbing the charts all century, but we’re betting it doesn’t hurt that actor Jesse Williams has been playing a Jackson — as in Dr. Jackson Avery — on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy since 2009. 

17. Sofia (girl)

This variant of Sophia (or is Sophia the variant of Sofia?) cracked the Top 250 among baby-girl names for the first time in the United States in 1997, the year before Sofia Richie, reality star Scott Disick’s model girlfriend, was born.

16. Henry (boy)

When Crazy Rich Asians leading man Henry Golding was born in Malaysia to a British father and Malaysian mother in 1987, the name Henry was in the midst of a decades-long popularity slump in the United States. It vaulted back into the baby-boy-name Top 50 in 2012. 

16. Avery (girl)

When The Real Housewives of New York City star Ramona Singer welcomed daughter Avery in the mid-1990s, Avery was still in its infancy as a popular girl name. It cracked the Top 100 in 2003, and hasn’t looked back. 

15. Daniel (boy)

Daniel Henney, the former model and Michigan-born South Korean drama star, joined the cast of CBS’ Criminal Minds in 2015, otherwise known as just another big year for the always-popular name Daniel.   

15. Ella (girl)

What do the country-music star Justin Moore (“Somebody Else Will”) and his wife, Kate, have in common with Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor, John Travolta and Kelly Preston, George Clooney and Amal Clooney, Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines, and Mark Wahlberg and Rhea Durham? These star couples all have daughters named (you guessed it) Ella. 

14. Michael (boy)

The country singer Michael Ray (“Her World or Mine“) was born in 1988, near the tail end of a 37-year run for the name Michael as the No. 1 baby-boy name. 

14. Mila (girl)

Before Mila Kunis shot to fame along with future husband Ashton Kutcher in the late 1990s and early 2000s via That ’70s Show, the name Mila was a no-show in Social Security’s baby-girl-name rankings. Now it seems bound for the Top 10. 

13. Jacob (boy)

The “Cry Pretty” country superstar Carrie Underwood and her husband, former NHL player Mike Fisher, welcomed their Jacob, the couple’s second child, in January.  

13. Elizabeth (girl)

The last time Elizabeth wasn’t a Top 25 girl name, Avengers: Endgame‘s Elizabeth Olsen wasn’t alive — and wouldn’t be born for another 40-plus years.

12. Ethan (boy)

As a boy name, Ethan began to bubble up in the late 1980s. And while it’s cooling after a Top 10 run from 2002-2015, Brian Tee’s Dr. Ethan Choi from NBC’s Chicago Med remains hot. 

12. Emily (girl)

Former Bones star Emily Deschanel was born in 1976, just as the name Emily was beginning to storm the charts. It reigned as the No. 1 baby-girl name from 1996-2007.

11. Alexander (boy)

Alexander has been a power baby name in the United States for decades; baseball great Alex Rodriguez (born Alexander) was a power-hitter for the New York Yankees and other MLB teams. 

11. Abigail (girl)

On Hallmark Channel’s When Calls the Heart, Abigail Stanton was Hope Valley’s beloved mayor — until the Lori Loughlin character was written off midway into Season 6 (owing to Loughlin’s arrest in the widespread college admissions scandal). In the baby-name world, Abigail’s 2018 showing marks the first time the name hasn’t made the girl Top 10 since 2000. 

10. Logan (boy)

Logan Shroyer, the actor who plays the teen version of Kevin Pearson on NBC’s This Is Us, was born in the late 1990s, about midway through the name Logan’s steady and sure ascent into the Top 10 among baby-boy names. 

10. Evelyn (girl)

American Idol contender and 90 Day Fiancé alum Evelyn Cormier was born in the early 2000s, when the name Evelyn was at the beginning of a popularity surge that would return it to the baby-girl-name Top 10 for the first time in more than a century. 

9. Mason (boy)

When Mason Ramsey, the yodeling viral sensation turned recording artist (“Famous”), was born in 2006, the name Mason was on the verge of blowing up into a Top 10 baby-boy-name favorite. 

9. Harper (girl)

Rather than setting the trend, soccer great David Beckham and Posh Spice spouse Victoria Beckham were following the herd when they named their fourth child Harper in 2011. The name was already on a rocket ride, bound for the baby-girl-name Top 10. 

8. Lucas (boy)

The country singer Lucas Hoge (Dirty South) is seen here in 2018, the same year the name Lucas cracked the baby-boy-name Top 10 for the first time on record. 

8. Amelia (girl)

Since 2010, when Caterina Scorsone’s Grey’s Anatomy character, Dr. Amelia Shepherd, was first introduced to audiences via Grey‘s spinoff Private Practice, the name Amelia has gone from No. 41 to the Top 10. 

7. Elijah (boy)

Alaskan Bush People stars Noah Brown and Rhain Brown welcomed their son, Elijah, in January. “We think you’ll love the name,” the reality-TV show’s Twitter feed said. 

7. Mia (girl)

Jordana Brewster’s Fast and Furious character, Mia Toretto, has been part of the car franchise since the original 2001 film. In that time, the name Mia has raced from No. 76 on the baby-girl-name chart to the Top 10. (Soccer-star Mia Hamm, who kicked her way to the spotlight in the 1990s, deserves a shout-out, too.) 

6. Benjamin (boy)

Born a Benjamin, Pickler & Ben TV talker Ben Aaron, seen here with co-host Kellie Pickler in 2018, is married to ABC News meteorologist Ginger Zee. 

6. Charlotte (girl)

In the United States, the name of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s only daughter, Princess Charlotte, had already become a Top 10 phenomenon when the British royal was born in 2015. 

5. Oliver (boy)

In 1976, Goldie Hawn and then-husband Bill Hudson named their newborn Oliver — and virtually nobody cared. (That year, the name Oliver stood at No. 424 on the baby-boy-name chart.) Today, the ex-couple’s grown son, as seen on Nashville and Splitting Up Together, shares Oliver with a whole lot of babies born in the 2010s. 

5. Sophia (girl)

The career of One Tree Hill’s and Chicago P.D.’s Sophia Bush rose in the early 2000s right alongside the name Sophia. 

4. James (boy)

Country-music singer Jimmie Allen (“Best Shot”) should hope his career is like his given name: Popularity-wise, James hasn’t been out of the baby-boy-name Top 20 since before 1900; aside from a 10-year mini-slump from 1993-2013, it hasn’t even been out of the Top 10. 

4. Isabella (girl)

Since 2004, this name has been a Top 10 perennial. The heroine of the Twilight franchise, Isabella Swan, known as Bella, isn’t the reason for the surge — she wasn’t introduced to audiences until 2005, when the original Stephenie Meyer novel was published — but the character, played by Kristen Stewart in the movies, arguably led the name to even greater heights. (It was the No. 1 baby-girl name from 2009-2010.)  

3. William (boy)

2018 popularity ranking, baby boy name: 3

Country crooner William Michael Morgan (“I Met a Girl”), Bill Gates, Bill Hader, Bill Engval, Billy Ray Cyrus, President Bill Clinton and, from across the ocean, the U.K.’s Prince William presumably can all agree: William is a baby-name evergreen.  

3. Ava (girl)

Ava Phillippe, the sometime model and daughter of Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe, shares her name with a fellow Hollywood scion, Ava Sambora, the daughter of Heather Locklear and Richie Sambora. 

2. Noah (boy)

Part of the 2019 CMA Fest lineup, country singer-songwriter Noah Schnacky was born in the late 1990s, just as the name Noah was gaining steam. The name went from No. 50 in the 1996 baby-boy-name rankings to either No. 1 or No. 2 from 2013-2018. 

2. Olivia (girl)

The name Olivia broke into the Top 100 among baby-girl names in the 1990s. In the 2000s, it cracked the Top 10. In the 2010s, it moved into the Top 5. Mariska Hargitay’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit detective, Olivia Benson, has been there every step of the way — or, at least, every step since 1999.  

1. Liam (boy)

The name Liam has enjoyed a fast ride to the top, going from No. 98 in the 2006 baby-boy-name rankings to No. 1 in 2017 — a position it holds onto in 2018. Isn’t It Romantic‘s Liam Hemsworth has soared nearly as fast, going from Miley Cyrus’ co-star in 2010’s The Last Song to her movie-star husband in 2018. 

1. Emma (girl)

As Emma Watson, Emma Roberts, Emma Stone and Emma Thompson can tell you: There are a lot of Emmas. The Jennifer of the early 21st century, Emma has been a Top 5 baby-girl name since 2002; it has been No. 1 since 2014 (and previously got there in 2008, too).