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Most Popular US Names Continue to be Jacob and Isabella

by Kathy Jones on May 8 2011 8:23 PM

 Most Popular US Names Continue to be Jacob and Isabella
The US Social Security Administration has announced that Jacob tops the list of most popular boys names in the United States for the 12th year in a row, while Isabella is the most widely chosen girls name for the second year running.
Among boys, Ethan, Michael, Jayden and William round out the top five; for girls, numbers two through five in popularity are Sophia, Emma, Olivia and Ava.

Sophia has had a remarkable jump; in 2008 it was the seventh most popular name, a year later it had climbed to number four before reaching number two in 2010.

The agency noted that names like Isabella, Ava and Chloe, which had all but disappeared from the top 1,000, have surged in popularity in recent years.

Popular culture continued to play a large role in US baby naming.

The two names that had the biggest jump in popularity in 2010 were, among boys, Bentley, which soared from 515th most popular to 101st most popular. Among girls, it was Maci, which climbed from 655th in popularity in 2009 to 232nd in 2010.

The agency noted that Maci Bookout and her infant son, Bentley, were featured on the US television show, Teen Mom and its predecessor, 16 and Pregnant.

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The Twilight novels and movie series sparked a name craze in 2009, the agency said, and this year is no different.

The second fastest riser on the boys' name list is Kellan, which is the name of actor Kellan Lutz, who plays Emmett Cullen on the Twilight series, the Social Security Administration said.

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The third fastest-rising name is Knox, the name of one of the toddler twins of actor Brad Pitt and actress Angelina Jolie.

The agency also noted, with sadness, that for the first time since 1954 the name Elvis has slipped out of the top 1,000 names.

"This news about Elvis has me all shook up," Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue said in a press release.

The agency website, www.socialsecurity.gov, lists baby names since 1880, and has been compiling a variety of baby names lists since 1997.

Source-AFP


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