Top 1000 Baby Names
For Every Year Since 1990

The Top 1000 Baby Names List is a fun tool that lets you look at how baby naming trends have changed since 1990. Each year, as the U.S. Social Security Administration releases the most popular baby names for the previous year, this list is updated. Jacob and Isabella earned the distinction of top baby names for 2009.

The big surprise in 2009 was the name Emma, which slipped from its top spot on the girls' chart after only one year, and was replaced by Isabella. This makes Emma the shortest-lived number one girl's name in history! Will another name appear next year to displace Isabella? It's possible, and it may reflect a new era in baby names, as parents continue to choose from an ever-widening pool of names, and fewer names become long-term classics.

Something of this trend may also be showing up on the boy's chart. While the top three names, Jacob, Ethan and Michael remained the same, 2009 was noteworthy as the year in which the name Christopher dropped out of the top ten for the first time in more than 40 years! And the name Matthew, another classic, slipped out of the top ten for the first time since 1971, plunging all the way to 15. Meanwhile, the name Jayden continues its stunning race up the rankings, all the way to number 8. The name Jayden only broke into the top 100 names six years ago.

Girls' names have typically been more diverse than boys' names, which tend to follow tradition more closely. But as with many aspects of baby names, that may be changing.

Visit our page top 100 baby names for more info on top names.