The most popular girls' names right now won't be tallied by the Social Security Administration until next May, but over at nameberry we have our fingers on the pulse of baby-naming 2010. The most-searched girls' names for the first half of the year are Charlotte at number 1, with Seraphina and Olivia following at 2 and 3.
Names making the biggest leap up the list for girls over the first quarter are Harper, Jane, Quinn (influenced, no doubt, by Glee), Clara, Clementine, Ivy (a new entrant to the Top 100), and Bryn. Other names new to the girls' list are Juliet, Jillian, and Pearl.
Names falling the fastest are Willa, Lydia, Piper, and Lauren. Off the Top 100 this quarter are Bella, Beatrix, Maya, Mila, and Yvaine (though we confess to having no idea how that made it to the most-searched roster last time around).
Of course, the nameberry list is vastly different than the official list of Most Popular Names in the U.S. The Social Security list is based on all actual births and name choices in the country, while the nameberry list measures which names our relatively style-conscious visitors are most curious about. Plus nameberry searches come from all over the world -- about a third of our visits originate outside the US -- while the Social Security list tracks which names Americans actually give their children.
Can a small number of people searching repeatedly for a specific name skew the results? No. We can see not only how many times a name was searched but by how many unique individuals, so to those of you who tried to game our system by searching for Pervis and Gomer: We're on to you.
Here, the Top 100 girls' names for the first half of 2010. Tomorrow we'll bring you the boys.
girls
1. CHARLOTTE =
2. SERAPHINA =
3. OLIVIA =
4. VIOLET up
5. ELIZABETH down
6. ISLA down
7. SOPHIA down
8. LAURA up
9. CAROLINE up
10. AVA =
11. ALICE down
12. IMOGEN up
13. LUCY down
14. AMELIA up
15. SCARLETT down
16. MAISIE down
17. GRACE down
18. CLAIRE down
19. LILY down
20. STELLA down
21. ADELAIDE up
22. HARPER up
23. ISABELLA up
24. ELLA down
25. EMMA up
26. ELIZA down
27. JANE up
28. CHLOE down
29. MAEVE down
30. QUINN up
31. AVERY down
32. EVANGELINE down
33. CLARA up
34. MATILDA down
35. RUBY down
36. CLEMENTINE up
37. AUDREY down
38. LILA down
39. ZOE down
40. SADIE down
41. LOLA down
42. IVY up*
43. PENELOPE up
44. ARABELLA down
45. ELOISE up
46. IRIS down
47. BEATRICE up
48. SARAH down
49. ANNA down
50. EVELYN down
51. ESME down
52. EMILY down
53. NORA down
54. DELILAH =
55. ELEANOR down
56. AURORA down
57. WILLA down
58. MIA down
59. HAZEL down
60. ROSE down
61. GEORGIA down
62. MARY up
63. CORA down
64. MOLLY up
65. POPPY down
66. LYDIA down
67. FIONA down
68. HANNAH down
69. JOSEPHINE down
70. PHOEBE =
71. SOPHIE up
72. BRYN up
73. ADELINE down
74. DAISY down
75. PIPER down
76. COCO up
77. WREN down
78. MARGARET up
79. EMMELINE down
80. NATALIE down
81. LEAH down
82. FLORA up
83. ELLIE down
84. HARLOW up
85. LULU down
86. JULIET up*
87. JULIA up
88. JESSICA down
89. SASHA down
90. JILLIAN up*
91. LAUREN down
92. MADELINE down
93. GENEVIEVE down
94. GEMMA down
95. MAE down
96. ABIGAIL down
97. KATE down
98. CELIA down
99. PEARL up*
100. LOUISA down
Follow us on twitter @nameberry