
Counting down the boys’ names making the biggest moves on the 2018 popularity chart:
#5. Saint
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West struck a chord with their first boy’s name choice. Saint fit in with popular “exalted” names like King and Messiah, while its sound set it gently apart.
#4. Elián
In the year 2000, six-year-old Elián González was the subject of a
controversial international custody dispute, and Cuban Americans rallied around
efforts to keep in in the United States. The name Elián spiked in popularity. Last
year, a documentary about the now adult Elián brought the name back to its
highest point of popularity since that time.
#3. Kashton
Kashton brings together two popular creative-naming approaches. It’s an elaboration
on a popular short name (Cash) to create a surname-styled “formal” version,
and a C-to-K transformation. In 2018, it was also a popular mashup name in
reference to a celebrity couple named Kenzie and Ashton.
#2. Baker
Rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield gave the Cleveland Browns their brightest ray
of hope in years. He also gave parents a fresh new alternative to trade-surname
favorites like Carter, Parker and Cooper.
#1. Kairo
The name Cairo has been a rising African-American favorite. In 2018 Kairo
Whitfield, son of Real Housewives of Atlanta
star Sheree Whitfield, launched a much-talked-about modeling career and put his
his K version of the name in the spotlight.
3 Comments
Is there anything in particular that accounts for the rise of Cairo itself?
I don’t know of a specific trigger…it rose with a lot of geographic names, then a celebrity baby in 2012 (Tyga & Blac Chyna’s son King Cairo) accelerated matters.
Interesting. Thanks! It’s been steadily growing for boys in England and Wales, and I wasn’t able to account for it. I could only think of Tia Mowry’s daughter but that is too recent.