The *Predicted* Top Baby Names in 2020

Whether or not you’re trying to come up with a name for a baby on the way, you can’t deny that baby name conversations are always fascinating. Why are all of your friends named Emily and Sarah? How many boys named Miles are in your kid’s school right now? And of course, which baby name will be on every mama’s lips next year?

Nameberry may know, as it has released its predictions for 2020’s top baby names. The site analyzed its traffic to calculate which names had the biggest increases in interest this year.

“These include newly minted names, rediscovered antiques, plus names imported from around the world,” Nameberry co-founder Pamela Redmond writes.

If you are in fact pondering names for your own child, this could either be a good place to start or a list of names to avoid, depending on how you feel about being one of many or the outlier in a group.

Here are Nameberry’s predictions for the top baby names in 2020.

Girls’ names

1. Adah

2. Reese

3. Mika

4. Paisley

5. Amina

6. Teagan

7. Nova

8. Aura

9. Pearl

10. Billie

Boys’ names

1. Austin

2. Alva

3. Acacius

4. Tate

5. Diego

6. Easton

7. Lucius

8. Cash

9. Ash

10. Luca

There’s quite a mix of rationale for choosing each of these names. Some, like Reese, Mika, and Billie, are likely inspired by the famous women with those names (Witherspoon, Brzezinski, and Eilish, respectively). Some are continuations of current trends. The biblical name Adah extends the trend for “Ad” girl names, and Lucius is likely to follow the popularity of Lucy, Lucia, and Lucian, Nameberry says.

We’re surprised by a couple of the names on this list. Alva is the number two boys’ name, for instance. “Every American schoolchild knows this as the middle name of the great inventor Thomas Edison, whose surname has also become popular,” Redmond writes. “With Alma and Alba now stylish for girls, Alva could gain visibility for boys.”

They’re also going out on a limb with the girls’ number eight, Aura, which was used only 120 times in 2018. The rationale here is that it’s similar to current fave Aria/Arya. We’d also add that all things witchy and supernatural are trendy again.

We won’t know if this list is right until the Social Security list for 2020 comes out in May 2021, but as soon as the data comes in we’ll let you know which names really topped 2020. Only time will tell if Adah and Austin are the next Liam and Emma.

[A version of this post was originally published November 8, 2019.]