2024 Is The Year Of The “Cool Girl” Names

When your friend, co-worker, whoever announces they’re pregnant, is the first question you ask them, “Do you have any names picked out?” Naming a baby is one of those decisions that comes down to a little bit of art, a little bit of science, and a whole lot of sentimentality. Because hey, you have to love it, right? Interestingly, what parents love tends to follow a few themes — these are Romper’s baby name trend predictions for 2024, based on our most-read name roundups, celebrity baby names that stole our hearts, and more.

The Social Security Administration hasn’t released its 2023 list yet, but the 10 most popular baby names of 2022 in the U.S. were:

1. Liam & Olivia
2. Noah & Emma
3. Oliver & Charlotte
4. James & Amelia
5. Elijah & Sophia
6. William & Isabella
7. Henry & Ava
8. Lucas & Mia
9. Benjamin & Evelyn
10. Theodore & Luna

Clearly, names that end in -a, and those with classic, timeless vibes, are very much in right now. Will that hold true throughout 2024, and what new monikers will arise to challenge their positions in the top 10? Romper is home to hundreds of baby name lists, and we analyzed which ones attracted the most eyes this year (like asking a data-driven crystal ball what names we may see more of in the new year). Of course, celebrity baby names and big pop culture moments could sway some parents’ naming choices, too.

Nature names are here to stay.

Luna breaking into the top 10 U.S. names for girls should tell you all you need to know — nature names took the naming game by storm in 2023. Whether they found Romper’s nature-related roundups via social media or search engines, parents-to-be visited these stories in droves:

• 32 Lovely Ocean-Inspired Names For Your Baby Girl — Mira, Maren, Yara — these names flow like the sea, and are all featured in this list, the most searched baby name roundup on Romper in 2023.
• 30 Spring Boy Names That Radiate Joy — If you’re having a spring baby, consider gems like Callum, Rhodes, and Arki to pay homage to the season.
• 21 Earthy Baby Girl Names For Your Little Force Of Nature — Someone needs to make Cove happen (Chrissy Teigen is already working on Wren).
• 40 Botanical Baby Names For Your Little Sprout — Given the popularity of all things cottagecore and mushroom this year, are you surprised? Of course names like Arlo and Meadow are highly sought after.
• 25 Unique Baby Names Inspired By The Sea — Kai sounds fresh and modern, while Calder and Douglas sound vintage and strong.
• 35 Flower Names For Girls That Are Totally Swoon-Worthy — Will your baby be bright like a poppy, graceful like an Iris, or wild like Clover?

“I get a lot of requests for nature-inspired names, more on the girl’s name side of things. The water theme is huge,” says Amber Schoenberg, a baby name consultant known on TikTok and Instagram as The Name Fairy. “The name Ocean for a boy or a girl is kind of growing. Marina, Rio. Cove is another one. I’ve seen that really big in the influencer world. I think that’s going to continue to be a trend for sure.”

Celebrities are all in on nature names, too. In 2023, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend welcomed babies Wren (a gorgeous bird name) and Esti (which Teigen has said in interviews is a variation of Esther, meaning “star”). English singer Jessie J also gave birth this year, and named her adorable son Sky. Even if nature names aren’t favorited for first names this year, they seem to be popular among celebs as middle names. In 2023, we met Elio Ocean (Bonnie Wright and Andrew Lococo’s little boy), Adira River (Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian’s daughter), and Tupelo Storm (Riley Keough’s baby girl). Using a nature-related moniker as a middle name is a great way to harness that uniqueness and meaning you love, while still giving your baby a classic first name.

“Old people names” will hold strong, too.

Last year, we predicted that old people baby names would become a major thing. And, well, they definitely have. Lots of celebrity babies born in 2023, like Louetta Thomas Willis, Barry Bruce Trainor, and Matilda Carmine Richie, all sport names that harken back a few generations. These Romper stories had more than their fair share of visitors this year, which means plenty of parents will bestow vintage-sounding names on their babies well into 2024.

• 114 Vintage Baby Names That’ll Never Go Out Of Style — The vast majority of top 10 baby names the last few years would fit in this list. If you want something with the same vibe but less common, consider Greta, Nathaniel, Vivienne, or Clive.
• 34 “Old Man” Baby Names Your Partner Will Hate — Frank? Amos? Emmett?! They’re just too good to pass up, folks.
• 25 Sassy “Old Lady” Baby Names — Ida, Constance, and Alice are gorgeous. Many of these names have ties to nature too, like Flora, Myrtle, Esther, and Rosemary.

Schoenberg says she receives tons of requests from parents for vintage names. “I’ve even had people say, ‘I love little old grandma names. That’s the type of name I want.’” Henry, James, and William have been in the top 10 names for nearly a decade, she points out, so this trend may be here to stay for a bit, but it could be time for some new old names to enter the chat. Schoenberg loves Bonnie, for starters.

“That is such a cute girl name that used to be super popular in the 1920s and ‘30s, and I’ve seen kind of a resurgence of that. So that is here to stay for a while, I think. For a boy — I’ve tried to recommend it so many times to my clients because I love it — is the name Ernest, which used to be in the top 50 back in the 1920s. I really like Harvey too, and I also love the girl name Eloise.”

Fantasy-inspired names will have their moment.

A Court of Thorns and Roses. Fourth Wing and Iron Flame. And don’t forget Throne of Glass and Crescent City. Fantasy romance books (romantasy for short) have taken over bestsellers lists this year, capturing the hearts of all the millennial readers who grew up waiting in line at midnight for the new Harry Potter book releases. These series are by far the best known, and they incorporate lots of fairies, witches, dragons, and in the case of Fourth Wing, a ton of Gaelic names.

If the number of visitors to Romper’s relevant baby name roundups are any indicator, the bookworm moms are considering giving romantasy-inspired names to their babies.

• 58 Perfect Literary Boys’ Names — Dorian comes to mind first as a character from classic literature whose name may see a resurgence thanks to Dorian Havilliard, a magic-wielding king from the Throne of Glass series.
• 40 Fairy Names For Your Magical Baby — There are quite a few names that appear in the aforementioned books and this list, including Rowan, Nuala, and Elida (also Tamlin, but no one who’s read ACOTAR is naming their kid after him).
• Gaelic Boy Names You Won’t Hear Every Day — Connell and Liam are both beloved characters in popular fantasy books and made our list, too.

“I hope fantasy names become a thing. I personally haven’t had any requests like that for name recommendations or name lists, but I could definitely see it happening,” Schoenberg says. “The first thing that came to mind when you said that was the A Court of Thorn and Roses series and Rhys. I could for sure see that starting to blow up, or Feyre becoming a popular name.” Parents have requested Harry Potter-inspired names from Schoenberg in the past, so who knows — this could totally take off (especially since many popular characters’ names overlap with the nature and vintage themes).

Short first and middle names will be preferred.

Short middle names are stylish and utilitarian — they pair well with just about any first and last name. Whether using a short middle name is a trend-related choice or just a practical one could be debated, but our readers certainly flocked to these stories, which makes us think short names are likely to be favored over long ones in 2024.

• 52 Short & Sweet Middle Names For Girls — Is there a first name that Claire doesn’t pair well with? Quinn, Tara, and Una stand out too.
• 27 Short Middle Names For Your Baby Boy — Dean, Vaughn, and Cole are such great picks.
• 29 Short & Sweet Unisex Baby Names — There are lots of nature-inspired names here too: River, Sky, and Dylan, for example.
• Just A Few (115) Of Our Favorite 4-Letter Boy Names — Ross, Wolf, Luca, Femi...they’re all just so good.

Place names (and small-town names) will gain some traction.

Names like Brooklyn, Bronx, and Paris have been popular for years, but in 2023, celebrities leaned into city names (even some less common ones) for their babies. Perhaps the highest profile example is Paris Hilton’s new baby girl, London, and her older son Phoenix. There are older celeb kids with city names too, like Kim Kardashian’s Chicago and Tia Mowry’s Cairo.

“I definitely think there’s going to be an uptick in place names and I have gotten requests like that, too,” Schoenberg says. “A lot of times it is something sentimental to the person, like, ‘Oh, my partner and I honeymooned in Australia or Ireland and we want names that are cities from those places or even rivers, anything you can find that could tie to this place.’”

Riley Keough, star of Daisy Jones & The Six and granddaughter of Elvis Presley, welcomed a baby girl in 2022 and revealed her name toward the end of the year in a Vanity Fair interview. Her daughter’s name is Tupelo in honor of Tupelo, Mississippi, the birthplace of the King of Rock ‘n Roll. In 2024, it’d be nice to see more baby names honoring places the parents hold dear, and that are a little farther off the beaten path. Schoenberg agrees, noting Memphis (in Tennessee) and Ravenna (a city in Italy) as excellent options.

Names with nicknames will reign supreme.

“My number one upcoming trend prediction is names that have a nickname. I get asked for this all the time, especially in the last six months,” Schoenberg says. “People are looking for names that their child can grow into. They'll often tell me, ‘We want them to have a really classic, more serious name, but we're going to call them a nickname in their childhood.’”

Naming your baby Maxwell, Max for short, using Wesley and Wes, or calling a Callan or Callahan, Cal, are all common options, Schoenberg says. She sees girl parents lean toward Josephine and Josie, Cecilia and Cece, or Aurora and Rory to achieve the same goal. Romper’s coverage of names with nicknames also got considerable traffic in 2023, and might help you find just the right fit, if you want a name like these for your little one:

• 25 Baby Names With Unique Nicknames So Your Family Has Options
• 20 Traditional Baby Names With Cute Nicknames

“Cool girl” names are coming in hot.

With the ultra-feminine -a endings dominating the top 10 list, it’s hard to imagine a world where little girl Carsons and Logans are more prevalent than Avas and Olivias. But Schoenberg’s clients request unisex names for their daughters all. the. time. “Some people literally call them cool girl names, and then they’ll give me examples of what they mean, and they’re all unisex names,” she says.

Some names she sees gaining traction that fall into this category: Reese, Sawyer, Tatum, Chandler, Blake, and Palmer. Schoenberg even hesitantly shared a baby name from her own personal list that is so incredibly cool for a girl: Elliot. *Swoon.*

Surnames as first names will continue to be popular.

This style of name has been trending for a while, Schoenberg says, but she still gets requests for them often (especially for boys). Some common winners among her clients include Anderson, Sullivan, Baker, Wells, Rhodes, Banks, and Gates.

For girls, Schoenberg says the name Miller is becoming pretty popular. “I looked it up the other day to see where it is on the charts for the U.S., and it's not even in the top 1,000 currently or for last year, which shocked me because I feel like I've heard of so many baby girls recently named Miller. And so I think it's going to break into the top 1,000 next year for sure. And going back to nicknames, Millie is super cute.”

Whether you’re expecting a baby next year and deep in your research, or you just have a special interest in naming, 2024’s naming trends promise to keep us on our toes.

Source:

Amber Schoenberg, baby name consultant @thenamefairy