This is a national Top 50 which was drawn up by Kidspot parenting website, using data from the birth registries of each state. It doesn’t include the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory.
Interestingly, the data shows that more girls than boys received a popular name in Australia, while I am told that in the United States boys are more likely to be given a popular name than their female counterparts.
GIRLS
- Charlotte 1839
- Ruby 1787
- Olivia 1655
- Chloe 1618
- Sophie 1593
- Emily 1583
- Mia 1546
- Amelia 1541
- Ava 1475
- Isabella 1427
- Ella 1396
- Grace 1304
- Sienna 1249
- Lily 1222
- Zoe 1053
- Sophia 1024
- Emma 880
- Isla 865
- Hannah 554
- Lucy 778
- Matilda 736
- Ivy 688
- Evie 669
- Eva 655
- Scarlett 614
- Abigail 610
- Maddison 570
- Madison 564
- Summer 551
- Lilly 545
- Chelsea 532
- Zara 499
- Jessica 494
- Isabelle 489
- Savannah 471
- Jasmine 469
- Georgia 459
- Layla 453
- Harper 432
- Sarah 422
- Alexis 395
- Stella 373
- Alice 364
- Willow 357
- Imogen 345
- Mackenzie 342
- Elizabeth 333
- Holly 332
- Annabelle 326
- Audrey 317
BOYS
- Jack 1388
- William 1264
- Noah 1159
- Ethan 1158
- Oliver 1126
- Thomas 1039
- Cooper 1019
- James 1004
- Lucas 968
- Lachlan 924
- Liam 901
- Samuel 836
- Jacob 826
- Joshua 809
- Mason 806
- Riley 777
- Max 770
- Alexander 769
- Charlie 742
- Xavier 738
- Benjamin 711
- Harrison 667
- Tyler 635
- Hunter 607
- Ryan 606
- Levi 597
- Isaac 551
- Jackson 543
- Blake 528
- Harry 471
- Braxton 449
- Oscar 446
- Henry 442
- Eli 436
- Daniel 395
- Jayden 366
- Jaxon 344
- Logan 344
- Jake 324
- Sebastian 319
- Flynn 316
- Patrick 301
- Hudson 288
- Dylan 264
- Mitchell 263
- Archie 259
- Connor 254
- Luke 254
- Matthew 248
- Aiden 243
Waltzing More Than Matilda 
That’s so interesting how things are changing, and it chimes in with Abby’s latest Nameberry Nine post, Boys’ Baby Names: They’re getting cooler all the time.
http://nameberry.com/blog/boys-baby-names-theyre-getting-cooler-all-the-time
I think the Australian Top 10 must be fairly even, because I can think of two non-traditional boys names, Lucas and Cooper, and two non-traditional girls names, Mia and Ava.
(At least, they are all non-traditional in that they have only started charting recently; all of them have a reasonable history of use otherwise).
I also took a look at the UK’s stats, and they’re like the U.S.’s – more boys with the top names than girls. Since that Australian site uses raw numbers, is it maybe because more girls than boys were reported? When you use raw numbers, you have to be careful with comparisons like comparing one year to the next since the birthrate may be different (based on numbers alone there was a “spike” with many names in the U.S. from 1945 to 1947!).
It was Kidspot who reported that more girls than boys received popular names, so I’m relying on their interpretation of the data.
It does “feel” true and gel with my own experience. For example, I keep tabs of how often names are used in birth notices, and also which names celebrities choose. So far there are more popular names for girls in the papers, and celebrities are much more likely to give names that don’t chart to boys rather than girls (by proportion of births per gender).
I also hear the theory put about in name forums that you can give a girl a fancy, unusual name, but boys need something safe and sensible.
This isn’t an idea I’ve ever heard in Australia, and in fact it’s much more common here for people to say that girls are better off with a more popular and socially acceptable name, while you can be a bit daring with boys. (Girls are meant to be people-pleasing, boys individualistic, I guess).
I know myself that the girls names on the popular lists mostly look pretty and usable to me, while many of the boys popular names tend to look a bit tired and dull. Unless I’m very unusual, probably lots of other parents feel the same way.
I thought I’d add that there are signs of a shift taking place on the US stats – since 2009 the #1 girl’s name (Isabella and then Sophia) outnumbered the #1 boy’s name (Jacob). On the BabyCenter list (unofficial, but I consider a valid source for predicting future trends as I mentioned at my blog) the girls outnumber the boys for names at the same rank for the first few places. In both cases, after a few names the boys return to having more births at a particular ranking than girls. In both cases just a few years ago until you got down way low on the list the boys had more births at a given rank than girls. If you look at the UK’s lists though you don’t see any such shifts yet (at all the top rankings the boys beat the girls in terms of numbers).
I’m also noticing a qualitative shift as well. Until recently it was rare for a “non-traditional” name to make it into the Top 10 for boys. Now (using the US lists) there are more such names in the boy’s Top 10 than girls! (On the boy’s side Mason, Jayden, and Aiden all fit the bill, while on the girl’s side Madison is the only one and it’s past its prime.) Likewise on the Australian lists, Cooper and Lachlan (the latter is debatable) qualify while none on the girl’s side do. On the UK lists the only “non-traditionals” I see among the Top 10 are the nickname-as-full-name Alfie and Charlie (and likewise they’re debatable).
Although historically in the U.S. (and many other “western world” countries) for that matter more boys than girls are given a top name, that gap has closed in recent years. On the 2011 SSS list, the very top names were given to more girls than boys, but after a few places the traditional pattern still shows up. In fact, I did some research recently on this subject (link to my blog is below) and in the U.S. there wasn’t much of a gap until the late 19th century (which was also when more “generational fashions” began to show up); the gender differences were most pronounced about 40-60 years ago (which may be why you’re more likely to get resentment from older relatives than your peers when naming a boy a more unusual name).
http://millennialkelly.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-gender-factor-in-name-individuality.html
That’s interesting that the gap is starting to close – do you think it’s possible that with Australia’s very small population size, this trend is already evident here and the situation could reverse in the US and UK?