America’s newest names, and what Britain makes of them

In 2023 Ailany made America's top 1,000 girls' names for the first time, in 855th place. In 2024 it was 101st. In 2025 it was 14th, ahead of Harper and Elizabeth.

In England and Wales in 2025, four girls were called Ailany. In 2024 it was too few to appear in the official list at all, which means fewer than three.

Ailany is the biggest of 457 names that have joined America's top 1,000 since 2015. We looked up every one of them in the British figures. Most are names Britain hardly uses. The few it does use, it uses far more than America does.

How we counted

America publishes its top 1,000 boys' names and top 1,000 girls' names every year. We took every name on the 2025 lists that was not on the 2015 list for the same sex. That gives 213 boys' names and 244 girls' names. The same number dropped off, because each list always has 1,000 names.

For America we use ranks only. The newest American counts we hold are for 2017, before most of these names arrived, so quoting them would be misleading. For England and Wales we used the ONS file for 2025, which lists every name given to three or more babies, boys and girls separately. We call a name in real use here if it went to 50 or more babies. Below that, a name's British ranking jumps about too much to mean anything.

Ten new names, 185 babies

Here are the ten newcomers that have climbed highest in America, boys and girls together. Between them they went to 185 babies in England and Wales in 2025. Nine of the ten went to fewer than 50. Only Aziel, with 63 boys, clears the bar.

Eithan is the only new boys' name in America's top 100. It went to 11 boys here. Wrenley, 159th there, went to 21 girls here, and Oaklynn and Ailani, both in America's top 170, to four and three.

Most of America's new names stay in America

Across all 457 newcomers, 124 went to 50 or more babies in England and Wales in 2025. That is about one in four. Another 250 went to between three and 49 babies. The other 83 are not in the British file at all.

That is low, but it is not the lowest. Of the 1,543 names on America's list in both 2015 and 2025, 787 are in real use here, about half. Of the 457 names that dropped off America's list, only 31 are, one in 15. So the names joining America's list are about four times as likely as the names leaving it to be in real use in Britain. Counted in babies, 31,306 children in England and Wales were given a name that joined America's list, and 9,312 a name that left it.

The ones Britain uses, it uses more

Now the 124 newcomers that are in real use here. 106 of them rank higher in England and Wales than they do in America. Seven are in the top 100 here, and two of them are in the top ten.

Florence is the fifth most popular girls' name in England and Wales, with 1,924 babies. In America it first made the top 1,000 in 2017, in 982nd place, and it is 391st now. Archie is 11th here with 2,465 boys and 301st there. Teddy only got onto America's list in 2024. Here it is 34th. Just outside our top 100 are Nellie, Cleo and Winnie, all of them new to America's list too.

It is tempting to say Britain got there first. We cannot show that. The British files we hold are for 2024 and 2025 only, and in 2024 these names were already about as popular here as they are now. What the figures do show is that these names are big here and still climbing there.

Fast and slow

Look at the two tables and you might think America's own new names climb faster. Ailany went from 855th to 14th in two years. Eithan went from 850th to 97th. Meanwhile Poppy has been on America's list since 2016 and is 292nd.

Across all 457, it does not hold. We took each name's biggest climb in a single year. For the names in real use here, the typical biggest climb was 105 places. For the rest it was 114. That is no real difference. Ailany is fast, not typical.

The other way: names America dropped

A few names have left America's top 1,000 since 2015 and are still going strong here. Ronnie was 773rd for American boys in 2015 and was out of the list in 2025. In England and Wales it is 39th, with 1,281 boys. Bobby left America's list in 2021 and is 94th here. Billy is 110th here and Brodie 158th. Both were on America's list in 2015 and are not now.

The old-fashioned ones are here too. Reginald went to 217 boys in England and Wales and Ernest to 185. For girls, America dropped Mollie, Tabitha and Annabel, which went to 192, 143 and 119 girls here.

What it means for you

If you are in Britain and you like one of America's new names, you will have it almost to yourself. A girl called Wrenley here would be one of about 20 born that year. A boy called Colter, one of 18.

It works the other way too. An American family who picks Archie or Florence is choosing a name outside America's top 300 that is in the top 11 in England and Wales.

The data shows which names arrived and how far they climbed. It does not tell us why. For the names that sit at opposite ends of both countries' top 100, see Top 100 in both countries, opposite ends.