The Surprising Name Trend of 2015

The year 2015 saw an unusual naming trend emerge. According to the parenting website BabyCenter.com, millennial parents have started to name their babies after Instagram filters.

While it’s common for parents to draw inspiration from popular culture, many may still find it surprising to hear that the popular photo sharing app’s filters are the source of inspiration.

Image: National Media Museum / Flickr

If you’re a frequent user of Instagram, you may immediately recognize these unusual names. Names such as Ludwig, Amaro, Reyes, Hudson and Kelvin were on the rise this year for boys. While girls saw the names Juno, Valencia and Willow climbing. The most popular name from the app was Lux, used for both girls and boys. The names were gathered from over 340,000 parents.

Unusual naming trends have often been popular with celebrities. Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are no strangers to unusual names. They recently revealed the name of their newborn son, Saint West. The couple are also parents to daughter, North. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg recently revealed the name of his daughter Maxima, or Max for short. Could these signal the start of a new naming trend for 2016?

While the U.S. Social Security Administration’s official 2015 list of most popular baby names will not be released until next year, the BabyCenter’s findings may give us a glimpse at what it might reveal. Here’s BabyCenter’s 2015 top ten names for both girls and boys:

10 Most Popular Girl Names of 2015:

1. Sophia
2. Emma
3. Olivia
4. Ava
5. Mia
6. Isabella
7. Zoe
8. Lily
9. Emily
10. Madison

10 Most Popular Boy Names of 2015:

1. Jackson
2. Aiden
3. Liam
4. Lucas
5. Noah
6. Mason
7. Ethan
8. Caden
9. Logan
10. Jacob

Future genealogists will certainly have some interesting names in their family trees! What do you think about this latest naming trend?