Top Baby Names

I was sitting at my kitchen island at 37 weeks pregnant with my oldest, eating dry cereal out of the box, staring at a yellow legal pad that looked like the diary of a madman. It was just a giant list of crossed-out words. Every time my phone buzzed, it was someone offering unsolicited input on my child’s future identity.

My mom told me to pick a classic because "you don't want a resume that looks like a Scrabble accident." My mother-in-law cornered me at a family dinner to suggest using a family name, strongly hinting at her great-uncle Eustace. Bless her heart, but absolutely not. Then my best friend texted me a voice memo saying I had to go completely off the grid because if I picked any of the top baby names, my kid would just be one of five in his kindergarten class.

It's exhausting, y'all. You’re already bloated, your back hurts, and now you've the pressure of naming a whole entire human adult. You aren't just naming a squishy little baby; you're naming a future teenager with an attitude, a thirty-year-old middle manager, and an eighty-year-old grandpa. I'm just gonna be real with you—sorting through baby names will test your marriage faster than assembling IKEA furniture.

Stop hyperventilating over the popularity charts

There's this massive panic among millennial and Gen-Z parents about picking a name that's "too popular." We all look at the top baby names of 2024—your Olivias, your Emmas, your Liams, your Noahs—and we immediately break out in hives thinking our kid is going to be known as "Liam P." for the rest of his natural life.

But I read somewhere—I think it was a name consultant on TikTok, or maybe an actual statistician, I honestly can't remember because my brain is mostly mush these days—that the math on popular names has totally changed. Back when we were kids, the top ten names made up a huge percentage of the population. Every other girl was a Jessica, an Ashley, or an Amanda. Today? The concentration is completely watered down because everybody is trying so hard to be unique. So even if you look ahead to the top baby names 2025 is bringing to the table, being number one on the list doesn't mean extreme saturation anymore.

I say this as a cautionary tale: I panicked so hard about my oldest son's name being too trendy that I legitimately tried to convince my husband to spell it with an "x" and a random "y" in the middle. I thought I was being so creative. Thank the Lord my husband vetoed that nonsense, because teaching a four-year-old to write his name is miserable enough without making it a cryptographic puzzle.

Three real-world tests you actually need to run

Before you commit to anything and sign that birth certificate, you've to run your final list through a few gauntlets. If I could go back in time, I'd force every single pregnant woman to do this before they buy a single customized nursery item.

The Back Porch Scream Test: You need to open your back door, step onto the porch, and yell the first and middle name at the top of your lungs like they just threw a baseball through a window. If it feels weird in your mouth or makes you sound like a pretentious British royal, cross it off.
The Exhausted Barista Test: Go to a busy coffee shop, order a drink, and give the barista the baby name you're considering. If you've to spell it out for them, or if they shout out something that sounds completely different when your latte is ready, you might want to rethink your strategy. Imagine your child having to correct people every single day for eighty years.
The Corporate Email Disaster: You have to write down the first initial and the last name mashed together to see what it spells. If you name your sweet baby girl Penelope Upton, her standard work email is going to be pupton@company.com. Don't do that to her.

Once your chosen name survives that gauntlet, then—and only then—can you start thinking about buying things for the nursery. I learned the hard way not to monogram a single thing until the ink on the birth certificate is dry. Which is why I completely fell in love with the Colorful Dinosaur Bamboo Baby Blanket.

Honestly, it's my absolute favorite thing in my youngest's room. I didn't get his name stitched on it, I just got the blanket because it's 70% organic bamboo and 30% organic cotton, meaning it actually breathes. My boys are human furnaces when they sleep, and this blanket doesn't trap heat and leave them waking up in a puddle of sweat. The dinosaur print is actually cute and lively, not that cheap, stiff cartoon junk you find at the big box stores, and the fabric just gets softer every time I throw it in the wash. At around thirty bucks, it’s a totally reasonable price for something we use literally every single day. Buy the good blanket, just hold off on the embroidery until the baby is physically in your arms.

Do yourself a favor and zip it until delivery

Here's a piece of advice my grandma gave me that I completely ignored with my first kid and then rigidly adhered to with my next two: keep your mouth shut. Sharing your baby name ideas before the baby is born is the biggest rookie mistake you can make.

People simply can't control their facial expressions. If you tell your aunt you love the name Hazel, she will inevitably scrunch up her nose and tell you about a mean girl named Hazel who bullied her in middle school in 1968. Suddenly, a name you adored is totally ruined. But if you wait until you're holding a squishy, breathing newborn and you introduce her as Hazel? Nobody says a word. People don't insult a baby to its face. They just say, "Oh, she's beautiful."

Also, keeping it a secret totally eliminates the risk of name sniping. If you mention to your pregnant sister-in-law that you're dead set on using your grandmother's maiden name, don't act shocked when she goes into labor two months before you and steals it. Just keep your list between you and your partner, smile politely when people ask, and tell them you're waiting to meet the baby to decide.

If you're nesting right now and looking for things that genuinely hold up to real-life parenting, take a second to browse Kianao's organic baby blankets. They're a lifesaver.

The teething trenches and the matching sibling trap

If you've twins or kids close in age, naming them things that are wildly matchy—like River and Ocean—is setting them up to be a novelty act instead of human beings.

You have to treat them like individuals, which is a lesson you learn real quick the second they start popping teeth. Because let me tell you, what works for one kid is going to completely enrage the next. When you're in the thick of the fourth trimester and they're drooling through three outfits a day, teether toys are basically currency.

With my middle kid, I bought this Bubble Tea Teether. I mostly got it because I thought it was hilarious and I'm a sucker for a funny shape. It's made of 100% food-grade silicone and it's perfectly safe, but I'll be honest—it was just okay for us. It’s cute for a photo, but my son mostly just chucked it at the dog and preferred to scream while trying to chew on my actual car keys. It cleans easy in the dishwasher, which is great, but it didn't hold his attention for more than three seconds.

What really saved my sanity with my youngest was the Bear Teething Rattle. My pediatrician mentioned once that hard wood can seriously provide better counter-pressure for those stubborn molars than the squishy silicone stuff. Now, I personally think half of pediatric medicine is just well-educated guessing, but she was right about this. This rattle has a smooth, untreated beechwood ring and a sweet little crochet cotton bear. My youngest would sit in his high chair and gnaw on that wooden ring for twenty minutes straight while I frantically chopped onions for dinner. It’s chemical-free, lightweight, and looks like a sweet vintage toy rather than a loud piece of plastic garbage.

honestly, whether you pick an ancient mythological name or a classic family moniker, your kid is going to make the name their own. They will eventually cover your favorite rugs in spit-up, throw their expensive toys across the room, and become their own messy, wonderful person regardless of what's printed on their birth certificate.

Before you drive yourself completely crazy reading another forum about whether Theodore is too trendy right now, go take a breath. Put the legal pad away, stop answering texts from your mother-in-law, and if you need to distract yourself with some retail therapy that won't give your baby a rash, go check out Kianao’s full lineup of sustainable baby gear.

Frequently asked questions from the trenches

Should I let my older kids help pick the new baby's name?
I tried this, and my oldest genuinely wanted to name his little brother "Batman Truck." So, no. You can let them feel involved by giving them two options you already love and letting them "vote," but never give a toddler a blank check for naming a human.

What if my partner and I completely disagree on every name?
This happens all the time. My husband loves very traditional, slightly boring names, and I like things with a little more edge. We ended up using an app where you swipe right on names you like, like Tinder but for baby naming. It forced us to find the middle ground where our tastes overlapped without just arguing in circles.

Is it rude to tell family members we aren't using family names?
Let them be offended! I'm serious. It's your baby, and you're the one who has to yell that name across a playground for the next decade. You can soften the blow by using a family name as a middle name, but you owe exactly zero apologies for picking a first name that you really love.

How do I handle it if my favorite name suddenly shoots up the popularity charts?
Take a deep breath and use it anyway. If you've loved the name Charlotte since you were ten years old, don't abandon it just because it's currently popular. A name being common just means a lot of people agree that it's a good name. Your child will survive having the same name as someone else in their gym class.

Should we plan the nickname before the baby is born?
You can try, but it rarely works the way you plan. I swore up and down we would never call my son by a shortened nickname, and within three months I was calling him "Bubba" 90% of the time. Put the formal name you love on the birth certificate and let the nicknames happen naturally.