Interesting. So to summarize, the most overused baby names in this area are:

GIRLS:
Sophie/Sophia
Ella/Ellie/Elle
Ava
Eva
Evelyn
Mia/Maya/Maia/Malia
Isabelle/Isabella
Lucy
Grace
Lily/Lillian
Zoe
Olivia
Emma/Emily
Addison
Chloe
Charlotte
Annabelle/Anna
Alexandra/Alexandria
Madeline
Madison
Hannah
Leah
Quinn
Layla/Lola
Anya
Alanna (really?)

BOYS:
Jack/Jackson
Liam/William
Aiden (and all that rhyme)
Max
Alexander
Charlie
Henry
Owen
Sam
Finn
Quinn
Elijah
Mason
Micah
Matthew
Lucas
Noah
Tyler
Theo
Harrison
Gavin
Dylan
Eric
Michael

Does this sound about right? Any others?

I know many, many Quinns (mostly girls but 2 boys) and Finns. Sounds very 'Glee' but true!

Ella, Liam, Ella, Liam, oh and Owen and Olivia. And Ella and Liam.

I know it's been said a million times, but Sophie/Sophia/Sofia. Also run into a lot of Leah's. Hannah, Emily, Madison for girls. For boys, Aidan (I don't know many of the variants), Jackson, Charlie.

Anonymous wrote:My DS is a William and I know several others ranging in age from 5-newborn. We knew it was a popular name but didn't care because it's a family name and we felt that it's classic.

Great name. William, John/Jack, Andrew, Thomas, Michael, Matthew, Alexander, Samuel, etc. all very classic male names which stand the test of time. I wouldn't want my son to have some freaky, goofy 'soft' sounding name.

Sam for boys...my son has 3 friends named 'Sam'.

Girls---hands down "Sophia/Sofia"....there were SEVEN in one class at our preschool last year. Seven.

Anonymous wrote:In the group of babies under 12 months we spend time with, 2 girls are Olivia, 2 girls are Evelyn, and 2 are Annabelle.

I also check the register at the pediatrician's office and see that apparently lots of Indian people around here are naming their baby Akash, which makes me breathe a sigh of relief that we had a girl, since I had chosen that name for a son.

I have an Evelyn and noticed that it's becoming really popular. I actually had another mom get mad at me because I had the audacity to give my child the same name. It didn't matter that my Evelyn was 2 or 3 years older than hers.

Anonymous wrote:JACK!

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My son's name and he was the only 'jack' at his NW preschool for 3 years running and now is the only 'jack' in his Kindergarten class. We don't have any other 'Jack's' in our neighborhood. He is named 'John' with 'jack' as his nickname so I could care less about popularity. ..but the weird thing is his little brother has what I would definitely think of a less common name...and there are 3 others in his preschool class...and many more I meet on the playground. Go figure!

It is also very regional. None of our friends on the West Coast use the names that are popular in the 'hoods around here.

Anonymous wrote:aiden, brayden, caden, jayden... these names must die.

Agree.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most popular in DC:

1 William Allison
2 Michael Sophia
3 James Ashley
4 Alexander Katherine
5 Daniel Abigail
6 Christopher Elizabeth
7 John Taylor
8 Joshua Charlotte
9 Elijah Zoe
10 Jacob Anna

That list of names for DC sounds odd to me. Isn't DC majority African American? The AA families I know do NOT name their girls Ashley, Katherine and Zoe.

I agree that the Social Security list doesn't ring true and isn't particularly helpful. I never would have known, for example, that Theo and Finn were becoming so overused. The SS list definitely doesn't reflect this.

In my DS' daycare there's an abundance of Sophie/Sophia for girls and lots of little Erics and Michaels.

aiden, brayden, caden, jayden... these names must die.

lots of max, maya, laila/lola, anya

I think that emily/emma, taylor/tyler, brittany, cody, mackenzie have all moved to the trailer parks. hopefully all of the tanner, cooper, conner, hunter... gatherer will follow suit very soon.

More on Allison: It's nationally more popular now, in terms of ranking, than ever before.

Popularity of the female name Allison
Year of birth Rank
2009 30
2008 32
2007 46
2006 47
2005 45
2004 40
2003 46
2002 44
2001 44
2000 44
1999 40
1998 38
1997 39
1996 38
1995 34
1994 34
1993 41
1992 48
1991 50
1990 48
1989 46
1988 46
1987 44
1986 42
1985 46
1984 51
1983 59
1982 58
1981 57
1980 59

Still, in the 1990s there were more Allisons per million babies born, because parents today chose more different names. Then there were over 1,800 Allisons per million babies, now it is under 1,600 per million.

(http://www.babynamewizard.com/name-voyager#prefix=alliso&ms=false&exact=false)

Right now, in addition to DC, Allison is especially popular in Texas (#20), Nevada (#20), Maryland (#21), Georgia (#23), Arkansas (#23), etc.

(http://www.babynamewizard.com/name-mapper)

Anonymous wrote:That list of names for DC sounds odd to me. Isn't DC majority African American? The AA families I know do NOT name their girls Ashley, Katherine and Zoe.

It's 54% AA, which leaves a lot of white families. White families may choose from among a smaller number of names, which pushes their picks to the top of the list.

sophia/sofie.

In our preschool there is a class where 4/12 kids are either Sophie or Sophia! And every music class, camp, sports team we've been part of has had at least 2.