817 Jaydens Were Born in New York City Last Year

Is this the original Jayden?

It's that time of year again! Let's look at what we all named our babies in New York City in the last year, and figure out which name is the "most popular," which really means your kid is just going to get called by a first and last name, or some other nickname, all his or her life, so as to differentiate him or her from the swarming masses who share said name. Take it from a Jennifer.

The winning names for 2010 are...

...Well, the winning names for 2010 are not that surprising, as they were the winning names of 2009. Isabella, a/k/a, the name of the anti-heroine in the Twilight series? And Jayden, which, according to its Wikipedia entry, "is a unisex given name...of recent origin, possibly an elaborate form of Jay, combined with the name Hayden." Mmhm.

Of the total 124,791 New York City births in 2010, there were "nearly" 600 Isabellas and more than 800 Jaydens (817, to be exact). Other popular names -- Sophia, Olivia, Emily, Madison, Ethan, Jacob, Michael, Daniel -- also remained popular. Creatures of habit, we are, always having babies and naming them.

The New York City Health Department has some other interesting data on baby births in 2010. Approximately 2,000 fewer babies were born, compared to 2009. In terms of numbers of babies born, Brooklyn was the winner (41,469), followed by Queens, the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island (5,580).

Also interesting is the breakdown of names across racial and ethnic groups, which shows some new names -- Esther and Joseph were actually the top baby names for white babies; Sophia and Ethan for Asian and Pacific Islanders; Isabella and Jayden for Hispanics, and Madison and Jayden for black newborns. (See the full breakdown here.)

Brooklyn hangs in there overall as the #138 baby name. No one, it appears, has named their baby Staten Island. Yet.

Health Department Announces New York City's Favorite Baby Names from 2010 [NYC.gov]

[JDoll / @thisisjendoll]

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