The Most Popular Baby Names in 2014
— -- What’s in a name?
According to the latest trends in baby names, it is the power, strength and ambition found in parents’ favorite TV characters.
Names from popular shows like “House of Cards,” “Scandal” and even “Orange Is the New Black” saw major increases among babies born in 2014, according to a just-released list of most popular baby names from BabyCenter.com.
Galina, the name of an “Orange Is the New Black” character, is up 67 percent this year, while Robin Wright, the actress who plays Claire on “House of Cards,” saw an increase in not just her character’s name but in both “Robin” (+12 percent) and “Wright" (+65 percent).
Perhaps inspired by the TV show “Nashville,” Southern-style names are increasing in popularity, including Tennessee (+61 percent), Macon (+29 percent), Virginia (+21 percent), Charlotte (+19 percent), Raleigh (+11 percent) and Austin (+11 percent).
In a trend BabyCenter.com is calling “The Shonda Rhimes Effect,” characters' names from Rhimes’ trifecta of hit shows – “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal” and “How to Get Away With Murder” – saw big bumps, including Arizona (+35 percent), Callie (+30 percent), Avery (+25 percent), Fitzgerald (+56 percent), Huck (+44 percent) and Bellamy (+ percent).
Jackson, the name of a doctor played by Jesse Williams on “Grey’s Anatomy,” reigned as the top boys' name for the second year in a row.
On the girls’ side, Sophia, Emma and Olivia remained the three most popular girl names for the third year in a row on BabyCenter.com's list.
Although Rimes may have seemed to have an impact on a generation of babies’ names, her own name is not catching on.
Babycenter.com reports that “not a single baby in our database was named Shonda this year.”
Read below for the top 10 boy and girl names:
Most popular girl names:
1. Sophia
2. Emma
3. Olivia
4. Ava
5. Isabella
6. Mia
7. Zoe
8. Lily
9. Emily
10. Madelyn
Most popular boy names:
1. Jackson
2. Aiden
3. Liam
4. Lucas
5. Noah
6. Mason
7. Ethan
8. Caden
9. Jacob
10. Logan
