2000s Baby Names

45,773 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

#289
Peter Peter is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "rock."
26,160 in the 2000s
#290
Damian Damian is a boy's name of Greek origin, from damao, meaning to tame or subdue.
26,063 in the 2000s
#291
Kendall Kendall means the valley of the River Kent, and Scotland ranks it 309th — above the United States at 329th, which is unusual for a name whose modern use is almost entirely American.
26,058 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
#293
Jeffrey Jeffrey is a boy's name from Germanic roots whose first element is disputed, though the second means peace.
25,956 in the 2000s
#294
Brendan Brendan is not Irish in origin — it comes from a Welsh word meaning a prince, borrowed into Irish, and its saint is credited with a transatlantic voyage six centuries before Columbus.
25,898 in the 2000s
#295
Travis Travis is a boy's name from an occupational surname meaning a toll collector, one who worked at a crossing.
25,766 in the 2000s
#296
Natalia Natalia is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "birthday," specifically Christmas Day.
25,558 in the 2000s
#297
Fernando Fernando means bold journey, and it is Germanic rather than Spanish — the Visigoths brought it to Iberia, where it became the royal name of Castile and Aragon and then traveled to the Americas.
25,257 in the 2000s
#298
Conner Conner means desiring hounds rather than loving them — the Irish joins a word for a hound or wolf to one meaning desire, and the softer lover of hounds gloss smooths over what was a warrior's name.
25,117 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
#300
Andres Andres is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "manly" or "brave."
24,832 in the 2000s
#301
Javier Javier means the new house, and it is Basque rather than Spanish — Saint Francis Xavier was named for his family's castle at Xabier, so the name is a place that became a surname and then a first name.
24,702 in the 2000s
#302
Shawn Shawn is a boy's name, the phonetic American respelling of the Irish Seán, which is itself the Irish form of John.
24,543 in the 2000s
#303
Giovanni Giovanni is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious," the Italian form of John.
24,443 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
#305
Skyler Skyler is Dutch and means a scholar — it respells Schuyler, a surname carried by one of New York's founding families, and it has nothing to do with the sky despite the spelling.
24,260 in the 2000s
#306
Rylee Rylee is a girl's name of Old English origin meaning "rye clearing."
24,227 in the 2000s
#307
Braden Braden means descendant of the salmon, and the fish is not decorative — the Salmon of Knowledge is the center of one of the best-known Irish stories, in which Fionn gains all wisdom by burning his thumb on it.
24,209 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
#309
Devon Devon is the English county, named for the Dumnonii — a Celtic people whose own name may mean the deep ones, possibly referring to mining.
24,094 in the 2000s
#310
Margaret Margaret is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "pearl," from margarites.
23,931 in the 2000s
#311
Jonah Jonah is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "dove," from Yonah.
23,882 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
#315
Bradley Bradley is a boy's name from an English place name meaning broad meadow.
23,757 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
#317
Cesar Cesar is a boy's name from the Roman family name Caesar, whose own meaning the Romans could not agree on.
23,677 in the 2000s
#318
Emmanuel Emmanuel is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is with us."
23,619 in the 2000s
#319
Manuel Manuel is a boy's name meaning God is with us, the Spanish short form of Emmanuel.
23,469 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
#322
Kelly Kelly is a name from the Irish surname Ó Ceallaigh, borne almost entirely by men for most of its history and now 86 percent female on record.
23,158 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
#327
Edgar Edgar is a boy's name meaning wealthy spear, and it is one of very few Old English names still in wide use.
22,615 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
#329
Mario Mario is a boy's name from a Roman family name of uncertain meaning, and the video game character was named after a real landlord — Mario Segale, who owned the warehouse Nintendo rented in Seattle.
22,474 in the 2000s
#330
Erik Erik is a boy's name meaning ever-ruler or sole ruler, from Old Norse.
22,449 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
#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
#335
Edwin Edwin is a boy's name from Old English meaning rich friend, borne by a Northumbrian king whose fortress may have given Edinburgh its name.
22,139 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

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.