2000s Baby Names

25,258 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

#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
#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
#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 genuinely 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
#259
Courtney Courtney is a name from a Norman family whose surname is usually read as short nose, though a place-name derivation competes.
28,509 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 genuinely 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
#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
#333
Caitlin Caitlin is a girl's name of Greek origin, the Irish form of Katherine, and its English mispronunciation generated a whole family of new names.
22,315 in the 2000s
#334
Summer Summer is a girl's name of Old English origin taken from the season, from sumor.
22,238 in the 2000s
#336
Ruby Ruby is a girl's name of Latin origin naming the red gemstone, from ruber, meaning red.
22,086 in the 2000s
#337
Genesis Genesis is a name taken from the Greek word genesis, meaning "origin" or "beginning."
22,070 in the 2000s
#338
Valerie Valerie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "strong" or "healthy," from the verb valere, meaning to be strong or to be well.
22,001 in the 2000s

What made a 2000s name

Nothing about the sound of it. A name is on this page because children in the United States were registered with it between 2000 and 2009, and its position is simply how many. Every list of "2000s names" you will find elsewhere is somebody's sense of the period; this one is the register.

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.