2010 Popular Boy Names

Thanks to the Social Security Administration's newly publicized list of 2010's most popular names, I spent the past few days considering and hypothesizing about last year's naming trends.  On Friday I posted my opinion about the 2010 Popular Girl Names and below are my thoughts on the boy names.

The names Bentley and Mason were 2010 favorites.  Their traditional and non-traditional (Bentlee, Bently, Masen and Mayson) spellings all made the list, with Mason being #12 and Bentley at #101 (jumping from #515 in 2009).  For that we can probably thank Teen Mom and Kourtney Kardashian.  There were also a TON of first timers (versus names that returned after a year or more of absence) - Kingsley, Rayden, Callen and Lathan name only a few.  Leighton made the boy's list for the first time after making the girl's list for the first time in 2009, perhaps Leighton Meester was the muse?  Theo made the list for the first time since 1945.  I'm from the Boston area and maybe (read: am) biased, but I'm thinking Red Sox GM Theo Epstein was the clear reason.

Dale, Elmer, Reuben and Mack were amongst the names that are no longer in the Top 1,000.  All reached their peak of popularity in the early or mid 20th century and down hill from there.  Denzel Washington and Stone Phillips have seemingly become old hat because intrigue in the names Denzel and Stone came to a close.  While Joshua and Nicholas remain very popular, their coinciding nicknames, Josh and Nick, didn't make last year's list.  Finally, after decades of namesake tributes, Elvis is no longer in the Top 1,000 list of boy names.  Sad.

These boy names were in the Top 1,000 for 2009 and dropped off in 2010:

• Addison
• Adolfo
• Anton
• Braedom
• Brenton
• Carlo
• Chaz
• Dale
• Denzel
• Dereon
• Eliezer
• Elmer
• Elvis
• Ethen
• Fredrick
• Garrison
• Geovanni
• German
• Immanuel
• Isaak
• Jamarcus
• Jamel
• Jarrett
• Josh
• Jovan
• Jovanny
• Juelz
• Kalel
• Karl
• Kasey
• Kenyon
• Landin
• Mack
• Marquise
• Nathen
• Nick
• Nikhil
• Reuben
• Reynaldo
• Rigoberto
• Savion
• Stone
• Tervin
• Tyshawn
• Yehuda
• Zavion

These boy names joined the Top 1,000 list for 2010 (were NOT on the list in 2009):

• Aarush
• Ameer
• Benson
• Bentlee
• Bently
• Bode
• Bodhi
• Braxton
• Callen
• Camdyn
• Channing
• Clarence
• Crew
• Daylen
• Destin
• Edison
• Eliot
• Emmitt
• Gibson
• Hank
• Iker
• Jedidiah
• Jencarlos
• Johann
• Joziah
• Kingsley
• Kyron
• Landry
• Lathan
• Legend
• Leighton
• Lennox
• Leroy
• Lionel
• Masen
• Mayson
• Pierre
• Rayden
• Rowen
• Sheldon
• Tatum
• Thaddeus
• Theo
• Xavi
• Yousef