What Did You Name Your New Baby?

Title: What Did You Name Your New Baby?

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now that we've been through birth and death over our last 200-year segments, we're going to take the last few minutes of the show today, we have about 10 minutes, to talk about baby names. 212-433-WNYC. What did you name your new baby in 2024? That is literally the question. Anybody out there who had a baby in 2024 or even if you're a grandparent of a new baby in 2024, what's the baby's name and where do you think it fits into the most popular names? Maybe you have a Most creative baby name.

212-433-WNYC, 433-9692. Why do I ask? I have data here from New York City which recently put out its list of the most popular baby names for the previous year, 2023. They haven't crunched it for '24, I guess. Emma, Mia, and Sophia were one, two, and three for girls, Emma, Mia and Sophia. For boys, Liam, Noah, and David, and that's based on birth records. Emma, number one for girls, Liam, number one for boys, have been the most popular for a number of years now.

Listeners, one question for you. Did you name a baby with this in mind? Did you ask yourselves, "How many Liams are going to be in this kid's class in first grade or how many Emma's?" Those are popular across the country too, not just in New York City according to Social Security registrations. The most popular girls named nationally, however, was Olivia, followed by Emma and then Charlotte. Liam and Noah were number one and two for boys nationally as well as locally.

Oliver was number three nationally. Michael, which used to be the number one name for boys for many years, is now in ninth place nationally in the city. Muhammad has crept into the top 10 for boys for the first time. Michael and Muhammad were tied for ninth place in boy names. Some other fun stuff, nature and season, Pearl, Daisy, Rose, and Sage were some names that were on the rise. The city highlighted some other categories too. Phoenix was the most popular place name that people gave babies.

Brooklyn was also on the list. Milan, popular for both boys and girls. There are some names that the city labeled vintage which are making a little bit of a comeback apparently. Doris, Harriet, Miriam. How many of you have grandparents and friends of your grandparents who knew a whole bunch of Doris and Harriet's and Miriams? They're coming back a little bit. Similarly for boys, Bernard, Bruce, and Graham.

Call in with your 2024 baby name, whether it was one of the most common and if you grappled with that or if you came up with a creative name, whether it was a place name or a plant name or anything from whatever your heritage is. Let's share our fun and interesting baby names and your deliberations about them. 212-433-WNYC, and you can text. We'll take your calls and text after this.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now to your calls and texts on your 2024 baby names. I guess if you had a baby in the last couple of days, the first days of 2025, you can shout that out, too. We'll start with a text. Listener writes, "I'm 31 and I hardly ever meet Noah's older than myself, but I hear parents shouting it at their kids everywhere I go. It was something like number 250 in terms of popularity when I was born in 1994, and it peaked at number one in 2013 or so" There's a 31-year-old Noah who used to not meet a lot of Noahs, and now he hears parents screaming it at their kids all the time. Christine in Ditmas Park. Hi, Christine. You're on WNYC.

Christine: Hey, Brian. We just had our baby on Christmas Eve and we literally named her at the 11th hour as I was about to get discharged. We went with the name Aura Lee.

Brian Lehrer: Does it mean something?

Christine: We had a whole list of just various Japanese avant-garde designers that we could repurpose but decided that it was too on the nose, so we came up with something on our own.

Brian Lehrer: Very nice. Thank you very much. I guess she implies a whole other category is naming your kids after public figures of one kind or another who don't have any particular family connection. I have a friend who named his son Langston, obviously after Langston Hughes, and that was to honor what Langston Hughes represented in the world. David in Rochester, you're on WNYC. Hi, David.

David: Oh, hey, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Did you have a baby?

David: We had our son earlier in 2024 and we named him Remco, which is not a family name at all. It's a Dutch name, but we actually named him after a Belgian bike racer. He's the current world champion and just a fantastic guy. We were really stumped on baby names. We did not have any good family names. My dad is Donald. We didn't want to go with that. We were a little bit stumped and we just started looking at people that we thought were cool.

I will say, I wanted to go with Jonas after the Danish bike racing champion, but my wife was worried people would call him Jonas. He became Remco and it seems to suit him well.

Brian Lehrer: Love it. David, thank you very much. Casey in Ditmas Park, you're on WNYC. Hi, Casey.

Casey: Hey, Brian. Today is my daughter's first birthday and her first name is Kirby and her middle name is Rose. The name Kirby was chosen because my husband and I were looking for a gender-neutral name that had some family significance. It was my great-grandmother's surname, but the last living being who held the name Kirby in my family was my grandfather's blue parakeet, who loved to drink beer and eat cheese crackers. I'm not sure if I'll tell her she's named after the bird or the grandparent, but it's a fun name.

Brian Lehrer: That is such a great set of reasons. Another trend that you cited for Kirby is looking for a gender-neutral name. Why in your case?

David: Interestingly, I have a gender-neutral first name, Casey, and that was pretty progressive of my parents in the late '80s when they named me. My dad said he didn't want me to be discriminated against on job applications. In fact, I think that has proven to be true. I've become friends with some people who hired me and I said, "Hey, am I who you expected to walk through the door?" and consistently they said no. My dad was onto something.

Brian Lehrer: There you go. Casey, thank you very much. We have a minute and a half. Let's do some speed ones. Elliot, in Jersey City, what'd you name the baby and why?

Elliot: Hi. I named my son Ori. If you want the true story, I was eating Oreos, and my wife and I were having trouble coming up with boys' names. I thought Ori sounded nice and I looked it up and it meant my light in Hebrew. I thought that was a nice fitting name.

Brian Lehrer: My life eating Oreos. Thank you. Roxy in Queens, you're on WNYC. Hi, Roxy.

Roxy: Hi, Brian. We gave birth a month ago and we named our son Harlan Simi after our two sides of the family. I'm Jewish and my husband is not, so in Judaism, you name after a person who's passed away, but in my husband's family, they named after living people. So Harlan is from my husband's side and Simi is my grandma who passed away this past June at 101. Her dying request to me was that-- she told me the last time I saw her, "The greatest honor is to name your first board after me." She didn't even know I was pregnant yet.

Brian Lehrer: Congratulations, Roxy. Let's sneak one more in here. Philip in Manhattan, what'd you name the baby?

Philip: Hi. Grandchild, Zinn in honor of the great historian Howard Zinn.

Brian Lehrer: In honor of Howard Zinn, who wrote A People's History-

Philip: People's History of the United States.

Brian Lehrer: -of the United States. Philip thank you very much. Thanks to all of you for your baby names. Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Stay tuned for Allison.

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