Across the country last year, the most popular baby names were Jacob and Sophia, according to the Social Security Administration’s latest count.
Sophia is a newcomer to the No. 1 spot, knocking off Isabella. Jacob has been in the top position for 13 years on the boys list.
The only totally new name to the Top 10 was Mason, which ranked No. 2 on the boys list last year.
All of the top names are on the Social Security website.
Here’s the list of the most popular boys’ names: Jacob, Mason, William, Jayden, Noah, Michael, Ethan, Alexander, Aiden and Daniel.
For girls the names were: Sophia, Isabella, Emma, Olivia, Ava, Emily, Abigail, Madison, Mia and Chloe.
The government folks credit pop culture with some of the names. Mason, for example, is TV personality Kourtney Kardashian’s son’s name. It’s also belongs to Green Bay Packers kicker Mason Crosby and is popular in Wisconsin.
Briella, lower down on the popular list, may come from Briella Calafiore, the hair dresser/reality star from “Jerseylicious.” Brantley, on the boys list, may come from college football star/country singer Brantley Gilbert.
“Picking a baby’s name is often an emotional and difficult decision, but can be a fun one for parents as well,” said Lori Kantziper, nurse manager of Greater Baltimore Medical Center’s PostPartum Unit and a nurse specializing in care for new mothers and infants.
She said some parents want to see the baby before they name them and sometimes siblings pick. They mostly try to avoid names that can be easily turned into embarrassing nicknames or have already been given to the family pet.
Still some like to be different and go with out-of-the-ordinary names or different spellings.
Some are personal: One family named their daughter Acadia because the parents met at Acadia National Forest.
