The Most Popular Names of 2012 (a psychic prediction)

I've put my super psychic powers internet searching and excel spreadsheeting skills to use one again.  Last week I went to one of my favorite online baby name resources (Baby Namescape) to check out baby name popularity by state.  Baby Namescape not only breaks down popularity by state, but it also shows popularity by city and hospital.  The mystery about Baby Namescape (that remains unsolved despite my grueling efforts) is how often the lists are updated.  I can't tell whether the lists reflect daily popularity, weekly popularity, monthly popularity, yearly popularity so far...or something different.  My frequent use of the site tells me that it's a daily aggregate of the most popular names, but I have no corroboration of this.

Below is a snapshot of the Baby Namescape website - the stats below are from yesterday (8/27/12) for New York Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, NY.  You can also look up New York as a whole and Brooklyn as a whole.  Not every hospital is included on the website, so the results aren't ironclad.  But it's certainly a great tool for researching general naming trends.  

The lists below contain the most popular baby names in the country (last Thursday, August 23) based on the number of states that had the name as the #1 most popular name.  The rest should be self explanatory.  The only thing that is not self explanatory is the most popular boy name in Iowa. 


GIRLS

• Sophia (Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin)
• Emma (Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Vermont, West Virginia)
• Ava (Georgia, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island)
• Isabella (Florida, Minnesota, Tennessee)
• Olivia (Colorado, Mississippi, New Hampshire)
• Addison (Iowa, Nebraska)
• Chloe (Louisiana, North Dakota)
• Avery (Maine)
• Ella (Utah)
• Jordynn (Delaware)
• Josie (Montana)
• Kylee (Alaska)
• Logan (Washington DC)
• Mia (South Dakota)
• Nevaeh (New Mexico)
• Rylee (Wyoming)

BOYS

• Mason (Georgia, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Arizona, New York, Virgina, Washington)
• Jayden (Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada)
• Jacob (California, New Jersey, Texas)
• Carter (Vermont, Michigan, Wisconsin)
• Liam (Indiana, Kansas, Colorado)
• William (Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina)
• Aiden (Utah, Hawaii)
• Ethan (Connecticut, South Dakota)
• James (Maine, Missouri)
• Michael (Illinois, Maryland)
• Noah (Minnesota, New Mexico)
• Alexander (Oklahoma)
• Benjamin (Wyoming)
• Brayden (West Virginia)
• Bryce (Alaska)
• Daniel (Delaware)
• Eli (North Dakota)
• Gabriel (Washington DC)
• Isaac (Oregon)
• Jace (Idaho)
• Jackson (New Hampshire)
• Jose (Nebraska)
• Joshua (North Carolina)
• Nicholas (Montana)
• Ryan (Massachusetts)
• Security (Iowa)....REALLY?!????

If this random sampling is any indication of general 2012 trends, Sophia, Emma and Isabella are going to remain on top...for a while.  On the boy's side, it seems that Mason may just overtake Jacob for the number one spot in 2012.  And where did Carter come from?  It was #36 most popular name in 2011, but it seems to be on the rise.  Is this the result of the undeniably, ever-charming Carter Oosterhouse?  Could be.  Regardless of the cause, it looks like Carter is going to make a star appearance on the 2012 list.