Categories: Florida

Top Baby Names In U.S. For 2012 Revealed

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Jacob and Sophia are repeat champions as America’s most popular baby names for 2012, according to the Social Security Administration’s top baby names for 2012 which was released today. This is the fourteenth year in a row Jacob tops the list for boys and the second year for Sophia. There is a new couple in the top 10 this year — Elizabeth and Liam replace Chloe and Daniel. Elizabeth has been in the top 10 before, but this is the first time Liam breaks into the top 10.

The Social Security Administration speculates that Liam’s new found success can be attributed to Liam Neeson’s recent major roles in “Battleship” and the popular “Taken,” “The Chronicles of Narnia,” and “Clash of the Titans” franchises.

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Many pop-culture naming trends appear in a popular feature of Social Security’s baby names website — the “change in popularity” page. This year’s winners for biggest jump in popularity in the Top 500 are Major and Arya.

The fastest riser on the girls’ list may have been influenced by the popular cable TV series “Game of Thrones.” Arya is the daughter of a leader of one of the Seven Kingdoms. She also is an expert sword fighter, so doubt her influence on the popular names list at your own risk.

For the boys, parents may associate Major with the military title. Acting Social Security Commissioner Carolyn W. Colvin said, “I have no doubt Major’s rising popularity as a boy’s name is in tribute to the brave members of the U.S. military, and maybe we’ll see more boys named General in the future.” You also might trace Major’s increase in popularity to a cable TV show. “Home by Novogratz” is a popular home design show featuring Major Novogratz, the youngest son of designers Robert and Cortney.

The second fastest riser for boys was Gael, and for girls, Perla. Both names most likely are on the rise due to the increase in the Spanish-speaking population in the United States. Perla is the Latinized version of Pearl and is popular among Hispanic-Americans. Gael’s popularity could be tied to Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal.

Social Security started compiling baby name lists in 1997, and the agency’s website offers lists of baby names for each year since 1880. Social Security is America’s source for most popular baby names because parents supply this information to the agency when applying for a child’s Social Security number at the time of the child’s birth.

Here are the top 10 boys and girls baby names for 2012 in the U.S.:

Boys:

Jacob
Mason
Ethan
Noah
William
Liam
Jayden
Michael
Alexander
Aiden

Girls:

Sophia
Emma
Isabella
Olivia
Ava
Emily
Abigail
Mia
Madison
Elizabeth

Although top baby names by state will not be released by the Social Security Administration until next week, Brevard Times has added below the top baby names for Florida in 2011, followed by popular baby names by decade in the U.S. and for Florida:

UPDATE: Top Baby Names For Florida In 2012
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**Popularity for top 100 names in Florida for births in 2011**
Rank	Male name	Number of males	Female name	Number of females
1	Jayden	1,228	Isabella	1,564
2	Jacob	1,208	Sophia	1,406
3	Daniel	985	Emma	981
4	Noah	977	Olivia	905
5	Michael	975	Emily	830
6	Anthony	972	Mia	788
7	Joshua	950	Ava	766
8	Elijah	934	Madison	699
9	Alexander	930	Abigail	672
10	Mason	923	Chloe	610

Popular Baby Names By Decade In U.S:

**Popular names of the 1960s**
Rank	Name	Number	Name	Number
	Males		Females
1	Michael	833,390	Lisa	496,957
2	David	734,157	Mary	355,203
3	John	713,623	Susan	287,648
4	James	684,980	Karen	286,034
5	Robert	650,972	Kimberly	259,080
6	Mark	441,536	Patricia	231,114
7	William	421,603	Linda	225,406
8	Richard	373,998	Donna	213,444
9	Thomas	327,219	Michelle	208,255
10	Jeffrey	302,091	Cynthia	196,601

**Popular names of the 1970s**
Rank	Name	Number	Name	Number
	Males		Females
1	Michael	707,651	Jennifer	581,749
2	Christopher	475,640	Amy	268,998
3	Jason	462,890	Melissa	253,281
4	David	445,907	Michelle	249,121
5	James	444,935	Kimberly	229,104
6	John	402,810	Lisa	228,650
7	Robert	397,420	Angela	225,204
8	Brian	322,844	Heather	203,917
9	William	283,557	Stephanie	160,451
10	Matthew	277,964	Nicole	144,652

**Popular names of the 1980s**
Rank	Name	Number	Name	Number
	Males		Females
1	Michael	663,396	Jessica	469,395
2	Christopher	554,665	Jennifer	440,793
3	Matthew	458,781	Amanda	369,668
4	Joshua	396,474	Ashley	352,104
5	David	383,481	Sarah	272,502
6	James	356,280	Stephanie	218,092
7	Daniel	345,317	Melissa	217,881
8	Robert	321,526	Nicole	210,425
9	John	320,930	Elizabeth	198,899
10	Joseph	299,302	Heather	191,823

**Popular names of the 1990s**
Rank	Name	Number	Name	Number
	Males		Females
1	Michael	462,253	Jessica	303,042
2	Christopher	360,162	Ashley	301,769
3	Matthew	351,564	Emily	237,202
4	Joshua	329,064	Sarah	224,152
5	Jacob	298,199	Samantha	223,974
6	Nicholas	275,261	Amanda	190,998
7	Andrew	272,739	Brittany	190,805
8	Daniel	272,026	Elizabeth	172,535
9	Tyler	262,251	Taylor	169,007
10	Joseph	260,540	Megan	160,342

**Popular names of the 2000s**
Rank	Name	Number	Name	Number
	Males		Females
1	Jacob	273,523	Emily	223,539
2	Michael	250,256	Madison	193,018
3	Joshua	231,674	Emma	181,098
4	Matthew	221,322	Olivia	155,892
5	Daniel	203,469	Hannah	155,558
6	Christopher	203,073	Abigail	150,775
7	Andrew	202,263	Isabella	149,354
8	Ethan	201,641	Samantha	134,173
9	Joseph	194,453	Elizabeth	133,209
10	William	194,134	Ashley	132,950

Popular Baby Names By Decade In Florida:

**Popularity for top 100 names in Florida for births in 1960**
Rank	Male name	Number of males	Female name	Number of females
1	James	2,353	Mary	1,200
2	Michael	2,113	Donna	1,081
3	Robert	2,067	Linda	1,053
4	David	2,044	Cynthia	944
5	John	1,900	Susan	874
6	William	1,522	Patricia	872
7	Mark	1,241	Lisa	822
8	Richard	1,155	Karen	821
9	Charles	1,030	Debra	768
10	Kenneth	879	Sandra	753

**Popularity for top 100 names in Florida for births in 1970**
Rank	Male name	Number of males	Female name	Number of females
1	Michael	2,524	Jennifer	1,263
2	James	2,190	Kimberly	1,247
3	Robert	1,924	Lisa	1,080
4	John	1,863	Michelle	1,059
5	David	1,859	Angela	813
6	William	1,425	Melissa	732
7	Christopher	1,255	Tammy	691
8	Richard	948	Mary	577
9	Charles	887	Tracy	565
10	Joseph	796	Stephanie	520

**Popularity for top 100 names in Florida for births in 1980**
Rank	Male name	Number of males	Female name	Number of females
1	Michael	2,481	Jennifer	2,243
2	Christopher	1,996	Amanda	1,261
3	James	1,731	Jessica	1,242
4	Jason	1,658	Melissa	1,199
5	David	1,537	Kimberly	793
6	Robert	1,527	Christina	780
7	John	1,402	Heather	741
8	Joseph	1,132	Michelle	739
9	William	1,060	Tiffany	727
10	Joshua	1,052	Nicole	653

**Popularity for top 100 names in Florida for births in 1990**
Rank	Male name	Number of males	Female name	Number of females
1	Michael	3,491	Ashley	2,373
2	Christopher	2,930	Jessica	2,289
3	Joshua	2,207	Brittany	2,101
4	Matthew	1,927	Amanda	1,729
5	James	1,641	Stephanie	1,314
6	David	1,621	Samantha	1,185
7	Daniel	1,614	Sarah	1,111
8	Robert	1,581	Jennifer	1,107
9	Justin	1,419	Lauren	964
10	John	1,397	Nicole	909

**Popularity for top 100 names in Florida for births in 2000**
Rank	Male name	Number of males	Female name	Number of females
1	Michael	1,829	Emily	1,205
2	Joshua	1,590	Ashley	1,022
3	Christopher	1,462	Hannah	1,016
4	Matthew	1,352	Samantha	954
5	Jacob	1,338	Sarah	920
6	Nicholas	1,275	Alexis	886
7	Daniel	1,251	Madison	864
8	Brandon	1,129	Taylor	856
9	Tyler	1,118	Kayla	812
10	Anthony	1,109	Brianna	809