'Social Security’s Top 10 Baby Names of 2022' for Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! For this year's celebration, I'm returning to a pre-pandemic theme of the previous year's popular baby names, which I had moved to Father's Day weekend because the announcement had been delayed during the pandemic. Watch Social Security’s Top 10 Baby Names of 2022.

Just arrived! Find out the top 10 baby names of 2022 from Social Security, the source for the most popular baby names each year!

From the SSA website.

Olivia and Liam are once again America’s most popular baby names in 2022.

Liam has topped the list for six years in a row, and Olivia has been the top choice for new parents for four years. There is only one new name in the top 10, with Luna crawling into the top 10 for the first time.

Luna replaced Harper, last year's number ten among girl's names. Here's the list of the top ten from the SSA website.


There was some shuffling of names in the top ten. Among boy's names, James and Elijah swapped places, Henry jumped over Lucas and Benjamin, which also swapped places, while the rest remained in their ranks from last year. Girl's names showed more stability, with Sophia and Isabella leaping over Ava, but the rest staying in their slots other than Luna replacing Harper, which appears in the next list.


Harper slipped to eleventh, as seen in the top 20 names, so it didn't fall far. On the other hand, a name I've been tracking for years, Mateo, the name of Jane's son in "Jane the Virgin," continued its rise to eleventh from fifteenth in 2021, twentieth in 2020, 26th in 2019, and 37th in 2018. I wouldn't be surprised if Mateo reached the top ten this year or next. Xiomara, the character's grandmother's name, also continued gaining in popularity, rising to 494 from 551 in 2021, 606 in 2020, and 652 in 2019. Considering the show ended its run on the CW in 2019, these names serve as testament to its continued popularity. On the other hand, the popularity of Jane itself continues to sink, dropping to 290 from 265 last year after peaking at 261 in 2020. Still, not bad.

AARP examined names from another popular show to bolster this as the Sunday entertainment feature.

Homer was a reasonably popular name in the early 20th century, ranking 80th in 1900, according to the SSA. Its last appearance on the list was in 1983, well before the debut of The Simpsons, which probably doomed the name for decades. (For completists, Maggie was the No. 295 girl’s name in 2022, Lisa was at No. 933, Bart last made the top 1,000 in 1987; and Marge dropped off the list in the late 1940s.)

Other than awards show nominations, I don't write about "The Simpsons" much here, even though I went to college with the animator of the show's opening sequences. I even marched in the UCLA Band and played in the same section as him.

Now for the fastest-rising names last year.


AARP had the following to say about this list.

For soon-to-be parents on the cutting edge, the fastest-rising names of 2022 were Dutton for boys, making its first appearance on the list at No. 835, and Wrenlee for girls, debuting at No. 712 (not to be confused — or, perhaps, often to be confused — with Wrenley, No. 284).

Amiri, this year's fifth-fastest rising name, made the list last year as a boy's name, where it's the fourteenth fastest rising name this year, jumping 238 places to 521 from 759. Search revealed that Amiri is the name of a fashion designer of men's and women's clothing, shoes, and accessories. It's still not as popular as a boy's name as Armani, which was 398 last year. I take both names as displaying aspirations of wealth and luxury, as well as being entertainment-adjacent.

I may return with "Star Wars" and "Game of Thrones" names for Father's Day. In the meantime, Happy Mother's Day!