Millennials are always in the topic of discussion for one thing or another, mainly because of how “dumb” we appear to be. But for once we are actually in the news for something uplifting and positive!
The popular baby name site Nameberry published a list of “most millennial names” based on names given to all babies born in the U.S. between 1982 and 2004. I would also like to point out that those born after 1998 are not true millennials. They are actually part of Generation Z (otherwise known as the iGeneration), not Gen Y. But anyways, this site included them in our study as well.
The most popular name for millennial girls is Jessica, and the most popular name for millennial boys is Michael.
“Jessica’s popularity is somewhat watered down by having shared the stage for so long with Jennifer, which was off its peak by the time Millennial Generation started being named,” Nameberry founders wrote on their website. “Michael is a name that feels at once traditional and modern, and provided the perfect bridge between the Old School male names like Robert and Richard by the fathers of Millennials and the new names from Milo and Maverick used for boys today.”
Here are the top 12 names in each gender and just how many babies were born within 22 years, with just how many people were born with these names.
Girls
- Jessica (757,533)
- Ashley (716,529)
- Amanda (522,245)
- Sarah (514,385)
- Jennifer (514,385)
- Emily (475,353)
- Samantha (410,105)
- Elizabeth (403,989)
- Stephanie (360,574)
- Lauren (342,725)
- Nicole (341,634)
- Brittany (341,515)
- Megan (341,174)
- Rachel (315,5660
- Hannah (284,662)
- Kayla (267,757)
- Melissa (267,513)
- Amber (267,392)
- Danielle (247,517)
- Taylor (241,847
Fun Fact: Nameberry also labeled names like Sarah, Emily and Elizabeth as classic names while Ashley and Amanda were identified as trendy.
Boys
- Michael (1,131,021)
- Christopher (925,809)
- Matthew (856,718)
- Joshua (779,372)
- Daniel (663,363)
- David (649,402)
- Andrew (629,809)
- James (609,005)
- Joseph (607,257)
- John (581,023)
- Nicholas (564,865)
- Ryan (563,706)
- Jacob (559,709)
- Brandon (541,039)
- Justin (530,206)
- Robert (518,841)
- William (516,650)
- Anthony (490,498)
- Jonathan (463,631)
- Tyler (437,610)
Let’s be real, the list of guys names is basically a list of f*ck boys, you know, because that’s what a lot of them grew up to be. But every single name is still extremely popular for baby names being used today.
Unlike the men’s list, the women’s is full of common names but the older you get you don’t know many people with these names anymore. In the men’s category you still hear a lot of those names today, and have continued to dominate in baby naming categories.
But are any of these names on either list really that shocking? Not in the slightest. They are the most basic names and definitely considered common in our generation. I can think of at least two people I know per name that would fall into our age category, if not more.
Again, I would also like to emphasize how millennials are full-fledged adults, not teenagers or children anymore, so some of these may be slightly different because of those who are not technically millennials yet.
For a full list of millennial baby names go to Nameberry.
Featured Image via Unsplash
