It is quite fascinating as well as interesting to note the trends in children’s names over the past two decades. For me, from the moment you find out that you are going to have a child, searching for a good name is one of the most exciting and challenging tasks at hand. Some parents-to-be have their favorite names already in mind even before a child is conceived. For others, they research on the best names, take suggestions from family and friends or even look at foreign cultures to find the perfect name.

Nowadays, the internet has become the favorite tool for parents to research on good names. If you take a look at the website of the American Social Security Administration, you will find the most popular names by year listed on the site. While going through the data on children’s names, I found some really fascinating facts.

For starters, the name Jacob was the most popular choice for a boy’s name in the year 2009. But what caught my attention was the same name was most popular from 1999 till date. Before researching on the most popular names for the past decade, I would never have imagined the name Jacob would top the list 10 years in a row. Of course what is even more fascinating is the fact that the same name does not even feature in the top 20 most popular names in the year 1989. This means the name Jacob has got really popular in the past decade, popular enough to top the charts year after year.

The other interesting trend, but not one that surprised me a lot, was that the name that consistently featured in the top 3 most popular boy names was Michael. To be honest, I had imagined Michael would be the most popular name year after year but looking at the data, I realized although it is a popular name, it is not the number one name today. But like I said, it is the name that is consistently appearing in the top 3 not just for the past decade but for the past 20 years as well.

Of course I must mention here, studying the trends of popular boy names is not as interesting as studying the trends in girl names. For boys, I noticed almost the same names kept appearing on the top 20 year after year. When it came to girl’s names though, it was a whole new ball game. There were so many interesting names appearing and the popularity changed each year. For example, in 2009 Isabella was the most popular name for a girl. However, in 2008 Emma was the most popular name and in 2007, Emily came on top.

Also the variety in girl’s names in the top 20 for the past two decades was far greater than in the boy’s list. For those parents who are still looking out for a good name for their yet to be born child, I do suggest researching on the most popular names. It will give you an idea whether you would prefer a name that is popular and is widely used or use a unique name which does not appear in the top 20 names for children over the past decade.