I know I’m cutting it a bit close. I mean, every May, we get brand new data. Aaaand it just so happens to be April 29th. But regardless, I want to piece together my idea of what next years data will realistically look like. Because I’m attempting to stay as close to the upcoming data as possible, this won’t be the most exciting article where you see a host of brand new names somehow jumping into the top ten. But I think that it would be fun to look back at this when the data drops and celebrate how right we were (or how positively wrong I got all of these). Thank you so much to Name Warehouse reader Connor for recommending this wonderful topic. I’ve recently gotten a huge wave of reader suggestions that I am incredibly grateful for, but I haven’t been the best at getting through them due to my monthly Celebabies as well as the birthday hype, so thank you for your patience, and I will do my best to have your requested articles published!
Boys-
My 2020 Guesses SSA 2019 Data
Liam 1. Liam
Oliver 2. Noah
Noah 3. Oliver
Elijah 4. William
William 5. Elijah
James 6. James
Lucas 7. Benjamin
Benjamin 8. Lucas
Ethan 9. Mason
Mason 10. Ethan
As you can see, I left Liam alone. Although I had initially predicted that Liam wouldn’t last long on top, I’ve had quite the change of heart. I don’t think he’ll be the long-laster that Michael proved to be, but I certainly don’t think that Liam will let any names near his #1 for the moment. I did swap Oliver and Noah, though, sticking to my commentary from last year. Oliver ranks at #1 in the UK and has consistently risen for so long that I don’t think descending Noah has any shot of being strong enough to compete to hold #2. I also swapped Elijah and William around, giving Elijah the upper hand. While William is evergreen, I think Elijah has so much more of what modern day parents look for in a name. He’s biblical, has soft sounds and a sweet nickname option, and most importantly, is fresh and new enough to appeal.
Below the top five, I did a very extensive reconstruction. I kicked Benjamin down a spot, as I think that some of the other, more contemporary choices in or near the outskirts of the top ten have more modern potential, as well as looking at the data. It’s been a while since Benjamin’s heyday, and at this point, there’s nowhere for him to go but down. Instead, I have Lucas replacing him, a handsome boy name on the up and coming. He’s slick, stylish, and has the perfect blend of hard, traditionally masculine sounds and those soft, in-demand sounds, a name fit for this day and age. Below them, Mason and Ethan duel it out, the slowly falling Mason succumbing to Ethan, at least in my rankings. Although Ethan isn’t the most reliable choice either, having quite the rocky popularity if you really look into it.
Girls-
My 2020 Guesses SSA 2019 Data
Olivia 1. Olivia
Emma 2. Emma
Ava 3. Ava
Charlotte 4. Sophia
Sophia 5. Isabella
Amelia 6. Charlotte
Isabella 7. Amelia
Harper 8. Mia
Mia 9. Harper
Evelyn 10. Evelyn
The top three go untouched. I was all pumped up to switch those coveted top three positions up, down, around and around, and bring in some completely random choices (Artemisia is definitely top three potential, don’t ya think?) But in the end, I just wasn’t convinced that anything would change. Olivia is a reigning queen, Emma has been on top so long, it’d be hard to pull her back down, and Ava is… well she’s not super straightforward to predict for, similar to Ethan in the sense that her popularity has fluctuated in a way that doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense. However, I did drag Sophia down a spot, a result of the rising popularity of Sofia (#17), and also because it’s getting to that point in time where if you’re not a true classic (Elizabeth, Catherine, William), you don’t have too much life left to anything but fall. Of course, that’s a bit dramatic. I’ve barely given her the benefit of the doubt with one spot of falling. Charlotte replaces her with a 2 step hop, something that I think is completely plausible. A large part of this article for me was staring at numbers and clicking things together like a logic puzzle, and Charlotte at #4 was just one of the final pieces that clicked perfectly when all the other pieces were already in their place.
After we took a look at our top five champions, I did play around with some rearrangement. I bumped frilly feminine yet feisty and spunky Amelia up a spot due to her recent rise and British success, replacing her #7 spot with Isabella. Isabella’s case is a lot like Sophia’s. She’s just timing out in terms of how fresh and appealing parents see her as, and she’s been falling ever since her #1 in 2009. Under Isabella, I moved Harper up a spot, as it’s a logical thing to do. This sparky, adorable surname name holds all of the contemporary cuteness we love in our girl names, a choice that feels just masculine enough to have a coolness and an edge but also girly enough to make it mainstream. Ever since she was first discovered, Harper has been leaping up the rankings, and it’d be no surprise if she continues to do so. Mia takes Harper’s spot for a number of reasons. For one, although Mia has the same sounds of the successful Amelia, she peaked a couple years ago and has been slowly descending since. Mia also lacks the frilliness and multiple syllables we’ve begun to turn to as Olivia unthrones Emma and names like Matilda and Elowen are the ones we see all over our naming forums.
That’s all for my predictions for the top ten names of 2020. I’m definitely amped up and ready to go for my data analysis series this year, and am very grateful for Connor’s suggestion of this article to further hype the arriving stats. What will rise the fastest? What will fall the hardest? And most importantly, will my predictions prevail? Feel free to comment your own predictions for the top ten down below if you want your guesses on record for when the victorious names are revealed. Thank you so much for reading, friends, and have a lovely rest of your day!
Sincerely,
-Delphina Moon
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