2000s Baby Names

25,403 names were given to children in the United States between 2000 and 2009, ranked below by how many.

A name's place is its total across those ten years. Names that appear in only some of the decade say so, because a name recorded once is a different fact from one recorded every year.

All Girls Boys Unisex

Rankings for

#231
Madelyn Madelyn is a girl's name and a modern American respelling of Madeline, which descends from Magdalene — meaning "of Magdala," a town on the Sea of Galilee.
32,653 in the 2000s
#233
Jacqueline Jacqueline is a girl's name, the French feminine of Jacques, and it inherits the meaning supplanter from Jacob.
32,197 in the 2000s
#234
Shelby Shelby is a girl's name from an English place name of Norse formation meaning a willow farm.
32,145 in the 2000s
#235
Marissa Marissa is usually explained as of the sea, but that reading comes from the Latin stella maris — a title of the Virgin built on a mistranslation of Miriam that scholars abandoned centuries ago.
32,111 in the 2000s
#236
Leslie Leslie is a Scottish place name turned surname turned given name, and it has crossed sexes: about 71 percent of recorded births are female, though the name began firmly male and remains so in Britain.
32,022 in the 2000s
#238
Angela Angela is a girl's name from the Greek for messenger, the word that also gives us angel.
31,403 in the 2000s
#239
Jade Jade is a girl's name from the gemstone, and its origin is unexpectedly medical: the Spanish called it piedra de la ijada, "stone of the flank," because it was believed to cure kidney and abdominal ailments.
31,278 in the 2000s
#240
Aubrey Aubrey is a name of Germanic origin meaning "elf ruler."
31,053 in the 2000s
#245
Katie Katie is a girl's name of Greek origin, a diminutive of Katherine whose meaning has never been settled.
30,638 in the 2000s
#249
Catherine Catherine is a girl's name of Greek origin whose meaning is unknown — the familiar reading of pure is a later reshaping, not the original sense.
29,736 in the 2000s
#251
Diana Diana is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "divine" or "heavenly," the Roman goddess of the hunt and the moon.
29,612 in the 2000s
#252
Kennedy Kennedy is a name of Irish origin meaning "helmeted head" or "ugly head," from the Gaelic ceann, head, and éidigh.
29,283 in the 2000s
#254
Mya Mya is a girl's name, usually a respelling of Maya or Mia, and the sources disagree completely about what it means.
28,840 in the 2000s
#255
Amy Amy is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "beloved," and unusually the name is a past participle — someone who has been loved rather than someone lovable.
28,823 in the 2000s
#256
Briana Briana is a feminine of Brian, and it first appears in Spenser's Faerie Queene in 1590 — which makes it one of very few names whose earliest recorded use is a specific poem.
28,769 in the 2000s
#257
Sophie Sophie is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "wisdom," the French form of Sophia.
28,698 in the 2000s
#258
Gabriela Gabriela means God is my strength, and the archangel behind it is the one who announces rather than fights — Gabriel delivers the message in both Daniel and Luke, and in Islamic tradition brings the Qur'an.
28,609 in the 2000s
#265
Skylar Skylar is a name of Dutch origin meaning "scholar."
28,067 in the 2000s
#267
Breanna Breanna is a feminine of Brian invented in twentieth-century America, and Brian's own meaning is not settled — high or noble is the usual reading and it has never been established.
28,053 in the 2000s
#269
Gianna Gianna is a girl's name of Italian origin meaning "God is gracious."
27,880 in the 2000s
#272
Gracie Gracie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "grace."
27,521 in the 2000s
#274
Adriana Adriana means from Hadria, a small town in northern Italy that also named the Adriatic Sea — so both the name and the sea are called after a settlement most people have never heard of.
27,455 in the 2000s
#276
Christina Christina is a girl's name from the Latin for a follower of Christ, and the fullest of the family that includes Christine and Kristina.
27,252 in the 2000s
#280
Daniela Daniela means God is my judge, and its bearer survives a lions' den by that logic — the Book of Daniel turns on God judging rather than the king, which is what the name asserts.
26,716 in the 2000s
#283
Lydia Lydia is a girl's name meaning "woman from Lydia," an ancient kingdom in what is now western Turkey.
26,441 in the 2000s
#285
Kathryn Kathryn is a girl's name, the y-spelling of Katherine, and it inherits that name's unknown meaning.
26,359 in the 2000s
#287
Valeria Valeria is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "strong" or "healthy."
26,259 in the 2000s
#288
Layla Layla is a girl's name of Arabic origin meaning "night."
26,246 in the 2000s
#292
Alexandria Alexandria is the city before it is the name — Alexander founded it in 331 BC, and the feminine given name was formed from the place rather than directly from Alexandra, which took a different route.
25,979 in the 2000s
#296
Natalia Natalia is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "birthday," specifically Christmas Day.
25,558 in the 2000s
#299
Laura Laura is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "laurel," the tree whose leaves crowned Roman victors and poets.
25,081 in the 2000s
#304
Charlotte Charlotte is a girl's name of French origin meaning "free man," the feminine form of Charles, itself from the Germanic name Karl.
24,271 in the 2000s
#306
Rylee Rylee is a girl's name of Old English origin meaning "rye clearing."
24,227 in the 2000s
#308
Cheyenne Cheyenne is not the Cheyenne people's own name for themselves — it is a Sioux word meaning red speakers, applied from outside.
24,201 in the 2000s
#310
Margaret Margaret is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "pearl," from margarites.
23,931 in the 2000s
#312
Kelsey Kelsey is a girl's name from an English place name, and its two proposed meanings — ship's victory and Cenel's island — have nothing in common.
23,857 in the 2000s
#313
Naomi Naomi is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "pleasantness," from No'omi.
23,781 in the 2000s
#314
Miranda Miranda was coined by Shakespeare for The Tempest around 1611, from the Latin for to be wondered at.
23,768 in the 2000s
#316
Mikayla Mikayla respells Michaela, and the Hebrew behind both is a question — who is like God — whose expected answer is nobody.
23,743 in the 2000s
#320
Ana Ana is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "favor" or "grace," and it is the form of Anna used across Spanish, Portuguese and Slavic Europe.
23,267 in the 2000s
#321
Alicia Alicia is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble," a Latinate form of Alice.
23,166 in the 2000s
#323
Jordyn Jordyn respells Jordan, and the river came first — the name means flowing down, describing the Jordan's fall from the Galilee hills to the lowest exposed land on earth.
23,157 in the 2000s
#324
Mckenzie Mckenzie means son of Coinneach, and the z was never a z — it replaced a lost Scots letter called yogh, so the name has been mispronounced into its own spelling.
22,943 in the 2000s
#325
Jillian Jillian means youthful, and it descends from the same Roman family name as July — Julius, Julia, Jill and Jillian all come from the gens that claimed descent from Venus.
22,861 in the 2000s
#326
Daisy Daisy is a girl's name of English origin naming the flower, and its meaning is unusually literal: daisy comes from the Old English dægesege, "day's eye," because the flower opens its petals at dawn and closes them at dusk.
22,853 in the 2000s
#328
Ashlyn Ashlyn has two possible sources and they disagree completely — the Irish aisling means a dream or vision, while the English reading is simply an ash-tree clearing.
22,506 in the 2000s
#331
Reagan Reagan means little king, and birth records show the opposite of what most people assume — American births more than halved during the first two years of Ronald Reagan's presidency and did not take off until a decade after he left office.
22,400 in the 2000s
#332
Sabrina Sabrina is the Latin name of the River Severn, and the legend behind it is a drowning — a princess thrown into the river became its spirit.
22,372 in the 2000s

What Made a 2000s Name

Children in the United States were registered with it between 2000 and 2009. A name's position here is how many of them were.

Why Some Names Only Cover Part of the Decade

A name that appears in three of the ten years either arrived partway through or faded out — and either is more interesting than the total on its own. The statistics offices do not publish names given to very few children in a year, so a gap can also mean the count dropped below the threshold rather than to nothing.

Where to Go Next

Open any name to see its full curve — most of these have a hundred and forty years of it. Or compare the ends of the same measurement: the most popular names now and the rarest.