For Baby Names, Jayden Rises to the Top

By Jennifer 8. Lee

Remember, City Room called it last year.

Jayden has become the most popular name for baby boys, with 872 male newborns given that name in 2008, according to an announcement made by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene on Wednesday. It has surpassed perennial classics like Daniel, Michael, Matthew and David, which collectively round out the top five.

The baby name cognoscenti note that Jayden’s rise is remarkable since there has historically been less innovation with boys names. Unlike girls names — Lisa, Jennifer, Madison and Ashley have risen and fallen within decades — the top boys names tend to be timeless, with Biblical or kingly flavors.

Nationwide, Jayden ranked only 11th last year, according to Social Security Administration data — respectable, but not a blockbuster.

The difference? New York’s demographic mix. For whatever reason, Jayden is popular with minority groups. It has been the most popular boy’s name among blacks and Hispanics in the city. Hispanics, specifically, seemed to have embraced the name with fervor. They may make up some 25 percent of the city’s population, but they account for more than 50 percent of the Jaydens, with 463. “When you think of it in terms of actual Spanish, it’s actually unpronounceable,” said Laura Wattenberg, a baby name expert. “Hai-dane, or something like that.”

Jayden also ranked 14th among Asian-American boys. But notably, it was a relatively dismal 60th among whites. Still, Ms. Wattenberg said, 60th is relatively high.

Why has it become so popular? Is it because of the Britney Spears effect (she named her son Jayden James in 2006)?

Ms. Wattenberg gives credit to Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith for naming their son Jaden in 1998: “For them, Jaden was a twist on Jada.”

Since then, she has watched the ascent of Jayden and all its variant spellings (Jaden, Jaiden, Jaydan, Jaidon, etc.). But she said Ms. Spears standardized the spelling.

The name has a lot going for it. Notably, it ends in “n,” which has become the most popular name ending in the two decades. “A third of all boys born in America will get a name ending in ‘n,’ which is historically bizarre,” Ms. Wattenberg said. “It has taken over in a way that no ending has taken over before, for boys.”

Also, it belongs in the “rhymes with Aiden” family, which also includes Hayden and Caiden (and all their variant spellings). Forty names rhyming with Aiden ranked in the top 1,000 names for newborn American boys in 2008, Ms. Wattenberg said.

Jayden has had a steady climb in New York City. It ranked second in 2007, and 10th the year before (though with all the variant spellings, we think Jayden was actually first in spirit).

Incidentally, Sophia ranks No. 1 among girls in the city, followed by Isabella, Emily, Olivia and Sarah. But the preferences varied between different ethnic groups. White parents favored Olivia. Hispanics’ top pick was Ashley, while Madison became the new favorite with black families. Sophia, the top pick for Asian girls in 2007, stayed on top in 2008.

The rise and fall in the fashion of names has long fascinated City Room, especially since New York City’s immigrant mix makes it different from the country at large. An analysis of baby names dating back to 1920 found that some names have fallen out of favor (like Giuseppe), while others have risen (like Fatoumata, a West African variant of Fatima).

We’ve always wondered what would happen if we made the city’s underlying data available to the public to work with. So we asked the health department for baby names and created comma-separated value files, which can be downloaded and opened in Microsoft Excel.

The first one is all baby names dating back to 1920 [csv]. The second file is baby names broken down by ethnicity, but only back to 1990 [csv], when the health department started keeping standardized race data.

City Room hopes that people can do interesting visualizations or programming with them, perhaps in the same spirit as the programmers who have analyzed the 9/11 Wikileaks pager messages.

We, too, will be seeing what interesting things we can do with the baby name data.

Here is a breakdown of the top baby names for 2008 in New York City

New York City Hispanic Black White Asian
Girls
1 Sophia Ashley Madison Olivia Sophia
2 Isabella Isabella Kayla Esther Chloe
3 Emily Emily Makayla Sarah Emily
4 Olivia Brianna Nevaeh Sophia Tiffany
5 Sarah Mia Jada Rachel Fiona
6 Madison Samantha Brianna Emma Isabella
7 Ashley Sophia Chloe Chaya Olivia
8 Mia Melanie Destiny Ava Sarah
9 Samantha Genesis Alyssa Leah Angela*
10 Emma Kimberly Gabrielle*
Imani*		 Miriam Vivian*
Boys
1 Jayden Jayden Jayden Daniel Ryan
2 Daniel Justin Joshua Joseph Eric
3 Michael Angel Elijah Michael Jason*
4 Matthew Anthony Jeremiah David Matthew*
5 David Christopher Christian Matthew Daniel
6 Joshua Daniel Michael Alexander Ethan
7 Justin Joshua Justin Jacob Kevin
8 Anthony Kevin Daniel Nicholas Justin
9 Christopher Brandon* Ethan Jack Ivan
10 Ethan*
Ryan*		 David* Tyler* Samuel Vincent

* = tied

Comments are no longer being accepted.

akapluto December 2, 2009 · 6:17 pm

I hope my taxes didn’t pay for this completely point and useless study. Inane articles like this really sadden me

Perley J. Thibodeau December 2, 2009 · 6:17 pm

Strange that Biblical names for boys are still in fashion but Biblical names for girls are nowhere in sight.
Are these mothers trying to prophesy something?
I’ll stick with the name Perley, thank you.
It’s not only easy to remember but, I know how to spell it!

Brid December 2, 2009 · 7:47 pm

Both Esther and Sarah are Biblical names.

Warren Howie Hughes December 2, 2009 · 8:19 pm

Hey, Mr. Perly man, aren’t you thrilled I’ve never had a problem with the spelling of your name.
Sorry, My friend, I just couldn’t help myself! yuk yukety yuk

Architect December 2, 2009 · 8:54 pm

I have lived in NYC for 30 years, and have yet to meet a single person named Jayden.

BDH, Tokyo December 2, 2009 · 9:16 pm

Esther, Sarah, Rachel, Leah and Miriam are certainly Biblical (check the “white” column).

a mom December 2, 2009 · 9:23 pm

Perley –

On the list of names for white babies, several of the girls’ names are Biblical in origin. Sarah was the wife of Abraham, Rachel and Leah were sisters who were both wives of Jacob and Miriam was the sister of Moses. Chaya is from the Hebrew for life (Chai) and Esther is the name of a Jewish woman who married the King of Persia and saved the Jewish people from destruction. Her story is told in the Book of Esther, which is not part of the Bible (Old Testament) but is part of Jewish tradition and culture. What this list says to me is that Hasidic women are having lots of baby girls.

With regard to the other lists, I would point out Genesis, being the name of the first book of the Torah, is about as Biblical as you can get and the Nevaeh is Heaven spelled backwards.

David Thoreau December 2, 2009 · 9:58 pm

@akapluto

Sociology and demographics are an interesting and important way to look at our society. How people name their children gives insight into live in New York. It may not be appreciated by all, but it is still important.

tamarisk December 2, 2009 · 11:08 pm

Jayden and Madison/Madissen are going to be what names like Sophronia and Ephraim (or Ronette and Elvis), were to previous generations. Something that dates the person saddled with it, and becomes associated with frumpiness, mustiness and everything else middle-aged.

And they’re already in horrendously bad taste. Saints and royalty, people. Stick with saints and royalty.

tamarisk December 2, 2009 · 11:15 pm

@ “The second file is baby names broken down by ethnicity, but only back to 1990 [csv], when the health department started keeping standardized race data.”

The DoH should track LGBT parents, too.

as December 3, 2009 · 12:35 am

Jayden is too trendy and common now. We named our boys two beautiful names, both ending in an -n, 5 -6 letters, 2 syllables each, very unusual (< .005%), both mellifluous sounding but appropriately masculine, and just the right mix between Western and exotic sounding. What are they? Not going to tell you! Don’t want to start a trend, where every other kid has my kids’ names! (We didn’t make up the names or create them out of contractions of existing names. They are established boys’ names.)

wjs December 3, 2009 · 12:49 am

Re: Perley’s comment about Biblical names for girls being “nowhere in sight.”

***

Look closely – there are certainly bliblical names for girls listed – Esther, Sarah, Sophia (Wisdom in the Greek), Rachel, Leah and Miriam. You can also cite Genesis and Imani (Faith in Swahili) as well as Angel(a).

Kit Kat December 3, 2009 · 12:50 am

What a colossal bore and waste of time.

MrManhattan December 3, 2009 · 1:32 am

I’m surprised that girls are now being named after ’70’s Rock bands. Genesis, Destiny? Should we expect to see KISS or Blue Oyster Cult next year?

neversleep December 3, 2009 · 2:37 am

While Sophia (Greek for wisdom, and the name of Cathedral of Constantinople) came in first at 511 usages, when combined with all variants– Sofia, #19 with 251; Sophie, #46 with 141; Sonia #132 with 14; Sonya, #152 and Safia, #156 with 10, this saintly name totalled 961.

Isabella, supposedly a close second fades when Isabel, Isabelle and Isabela are added, with 821.

Clearly Biblical Sarah, at #5 with 396 and Sara, #26 at 207, plus variants Sarai, Sariah, Sarina and Sariyah totals 685 and moves past Olivia (Olive) gettings close to Emily (Amelia, Emilia, Emely, Amelie and Amalia) at third place with 725.

The biblical names fare better when the variants are combined… they’ve been around a long time and some people just can’t spell.

Harri I. Junttila December 3, 2009 · 6:20 am

Interesting information, indeed!

Jayden sounds like a name that will come and go quickly. It does not have any kind of presence in time. It is like trinket.

I thinki this is not waste of tax money. This is funny and easy to do service, it has nothing to do with study.

Perley J. Thibodeau, you do have one fine name!

Elizabeth December 3, 2009 · 8:45 am

@tamarisk

Good advice, but I think today’s generation would rather stick with bimbo celebrities.

George December 3, 2009 · 9:26 am

#5 – did you read the story first? The rise in this name’s popularity is only over the last several years.

So, unless your regularly “hangin'” with infants and toddlers – it’s unlikely you’ve met a Jayden — yet….

Greg December 3, 2009 · 9:39 am

I live in the Bronx and my daughter is in Kindergarten. All through preschool and now in her class there has always been at least one Jayden around, and now it’s the only name in her class that is shared by more than one student. And true, they have all been Black or Latino.

I also feel vindicated about the “rhymes with Aiden” statistic. My son is 10 months old and our main criteria for a name included “cannot end in ‘n'” and certainly “cannot rhyme with Aiden.”

It will be interesting to see if the “rhymes with aiden” names continue to be popular or fall off the map and become indelibly linked to this time period.

It’s also fascinating about the fact that Jayden can’t be pronounced well in Spanish, and yet it’s so common in the Latino community — this may be a small sign of assimilation. My wife’s family all speaks Portuguese, and we wanted to pick a name that could be pronounced well in both English and Portuguese (this severely limited the pool of boy’s names). Looking at the Jayden example in spanish speaking families, I guess our concern isn’t as common as one would have thought.

Also, Chaya is a relatively common name in India (when I was little, my dog was named Chaya), and a variant Chayya is the name of a nonprofit working in the Asian Indian community in NYC. I don’t know if this is influencing any of the naming in NYC, though.

And to neversleep, “The biblical names fare better when the variants are combined… they’ve been around a long time and some people just can’t spell”…

All of the examples you gave are real variants on names, not misspellings. Both of my kids’ names are actually biblical variants, but neither is some kind of unique spelling mistake; though I will admit misspellings are a real issue — see the Freakenomics chapter on baby names!

Perley J. Thibodeau December 3, 2009 · 10:18 am

Yeah?
And how many men have called their wives Jezebel?
And further;
Michael, the most beautiful of the Arch Angels and the one God loved the most keeps getting prefaced with the name Mayor!

Ruth in Texas December 3, 2009 · 10:33 am

Boy, am I tired of people complaining that certain articles are not news. What, by your criteria, IS news? Only the driest current events? News can be interesting even if it’s not absolutely vital to world politics.

Just because you self-identify Latino doesn’t mean you want to give your kids Spanish names. My Latino friends, most of whose families have been in the U.S. for generations, all speak English most of the time (or all of the time; some of them don’t speak Spanish), and many of them have–and have given their children–non-Spanish names. “Latino” does not mean you are foreign (I’m German-American, but I don’t speak German and I don’t feel obligated to give any children I have German names).

I also find it weird that there is so much commentary on non-Spanish names among Latinos, and so little on non-Asian names among Asians. I imagine “Matthew” is a little awkward in Japanese.

Perley J. Thibodeau December 3, 2009 · 10:41 am

By the way;
Isn’t Mayor a Jewish name?

Roberta Higginbotham December 3, 2009 · 11:15 am

Personally, I’ve always thought that Roberta is by far the best name for a girl.

Ralphinjersey December 3, 2009 · 12:47 pm

Take this to the bank: We will never again read the phrase “Ms. Spears standardized the spelling.”

katekilla December 3, 2009 · 1:32 pm

One online group calls those names “Chik-Fil-Adens.” And yeah, they will all sound very dated. Too bad for those folks for whom Hayden is a family name, because from now on it’s going to sound like just another rhymes-with-Aiden entry.