Boys:
Ethan - I was surprised when this entered the top 10 in the U.S., and I was even more surprised when I found out that it was #3 in 2007.
Kevin - I didn't realize that it was still in the top 50. I thought it's popularity would have dwindled more by now.
Wyatt - I didn't expect it to make the top 100.
Cooper - Same with
Wyatt. It also surprised me that it's been in the top 1000 since the 1980s and has been rising ever since. It just doesn't strike me as a name that would be popular.
Girls:
Arabella - I'm really surprised that this isn't more popular because it's similar to
Isabella (very popular), Ariana/Arianna (top 100), and Ariel/Arielle/Ariella.
Isadora - It's not even in the top 1000 and never has been in the U.S. I imagined that people would have turned to this as an alternative to
Isabella by now and that it would have gained more popularity for that reason.
Nevaeh - This name just seemed to appear out of nowhere and now it's in the top 50.
Layla - I didn't realize that it was in the top 100 until recently.
Nicole - I'm surprised that it's still in the top 100. I would have imagined that it would only still be popular as a MN.
Jennifer - It's hard to believe that it's still in the top 100.
Ashley - I'm surprised that it's still in the top 15.
Lillian - It was surprising to see it at #33 in the U.S.
Addison - I guess it's not all that surprising that this name is popular given that
Madison is very popular, but what surprised me is that this name got really popular all of a sudden. It jumped from #106 in 2005 to #28 in 2006 and then to #11 in 2007.
Gemma - I'm surprised that this has never made the top 1000 names list in the U.S. It seems like more people would be using it considering how popular
Emma is.