“What’s in a name? What we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” -
Willam Shakespeare

Perhaps the bard meant Rosalee because girl names ending in “Lyn” and “Lee” are rising quickly in popularity.

Lakelyn is moving up 184 places.

Adalee up 276.

Rosalee up 289.

BabyCenter is in its 20th year of tracking baby name trends. They are the world’s leading digital parent resource, and they’ve just released their report on 2025 Baby Name Trends.

Forget Sarah. It was in the Top 100 girl names for six decades but fell out for the first time down to 108.

Ellie, however, is blazing hot, moving from 15th place to 9th.

Suppose you’re expecting a boy you may (or may not) want to consider a name beginning with the letter E. They’re growing quickly in popularity. Emry shot up an amazing 839 spots to land in the Top 1,000. Other fast-moving E names are Enrique, Emir, Eliel, and Eliseo. E names that cracked the Top 100 are Everett at 93 and Easton at 92.

You might say a growing trend is to choose a name that’s not trendy. About 48% of parents are selecting a name that’s not popular. That also depends on the region of the country. For example, in the South, parents are more likely to still seek popular names, but in the Midwest and Northeast, parents are shunning popular names.

How does pop culture shape baby naming trends?

BabyCenter found after Justin Timberlake’s DWI arrest this summer, the name Justin fell in popularity by 59 places down to 277.

The rising popularity of the WNBA has influenced names, with Caitlin, Kamilla, and A’ja seeing significant climbs in popularity.

Is the upcoming Super Bowl halftime show influencing things, or is Kendrick Lamar just winning the beef battle? The boy named Kendrick rose 33 spots while the name Drake sank by 103.

Did the Paris Olympics even influence naming trends? The No. 2 boy's name in France is Raphael, and it jumped 121 spots in the United States. Louis, France’s No. 4 name, climbed 87 places here. Louise for girls is No. 1 in France and rose 63 spots here.

Read the full report here. 

LOOK: Baby names that are illegal around the world

Stacker scoured hundreds of baby name databases and news releases to curate a list of baby names that are illegal somewhere in the world, along with explanations for why they’re banned.

Gallery Credit: Annalise Mantz

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

Report a correction 👈

More From New Jersey 101.5 FM