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Baby Names: The Most Popular of 2013

Move over, Jacob. There’s a new favorite baby name in town. That’s right, after a 14-year reign on the top of the list of baby boy names, Jacob is no longer No. 1. Instead, Noah has taken the titl...
Baby Names: The Most Popular of 2013
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  • Move over, Jacob. There’s a new favorite baby name in town. That’s right, after a 14-year reign on the top of the list of baby boy names, Jacob is no longer No. 1. Instead, Noah has taken the title.

    According to the Social Security Administration’s list of most popular American baby names for 2013, Noah pushed Jacob down to No. 3, with Liam sliding into the No. 2 slot. Mason, William, Ethan, Michael, Alexander, Jayden, and Daniel rounded out the top ten.

    This is the first time the biblical name has been at the top of the list in the 21st century. Additionally, this year marks the most popular for Liam.

    “In baby-name terms, that’s huge news,” said Laura Wattenberg, founder of the baby-name website babynamewizard.com, referring to Noah’s rise to fame. “I think it does mark a change in style, even though those are two classical Old Testament names.”

    On the girl’s side of the list, Sophia came in at No. 1 for the fourth year straight. Emma, Olivia, Isabella, Ava, Mia, Emily, Abigail, Madison, and Elizabeth were the ten most popular names for girls in 2013.

    Wattenberg attributes some of the reasoning for the popular names to the sound they make.

    “Noah and Liam are two examples of a style I’ve called ‘raindrop names’ — miniature, multi-syllable names with a perfectly smooth sound, so there are no hard edges, no stop,” she stated.

    She also believes that is one of the reasons why Sophia is so popular, because of its long “o” sound, which is hot right now.

    The two fastest-rising girl names are Daleyza, the name of the daughter of Mexican singer Larry Fernandez, and Sadie. The fastest rising boy names are Jayceon (often pronounced “Jason”) and Jase.

    The fastest falling name of 2013? Justin.

    “It has been the cute teenage boy name, but age is finally getting to it, and Justin Bieber seeming less cute to people these days have made ‘Justin’ the fastest-falling boys’ name this year,” Wattenberg said.

    Good luck next year, Justin!

    Image via Thinkstock

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