The more things change, the more they stay the same.
While baby names go through a major shift with each decade, as names rise and fall in popularity, some names manage to cling to the top spot for several years.
That's the case this year, as the parenting website Baby Center says 2018's most popular choices are the same as they were six years ago.
In fact, variations on this year's most popular name for girls, Sophia (meaning "wisdom" in Greek), have topped Baby Center's list for nine years in a row.
A press release from the website chalks Sophia's success up to the name's "worldwide appeal," since it can be pronounced in multiple languages.
Meanwhile the most popular name for boys, Jackson, is a modern twist on an old classic.
Jack has been in the Social Security Administration's top 50 names for boys since 1999, but peaked much earlier in 1929, when it was the 14th most popular boy's name in America.
Other surprising entries on this year's list include two new ones: Layla and Oliver.
Oliver is experiencing a true renaissance in America, jumping from the 140th to the 9th most popular name for boys in just 10 years.
Layla has experienced a similar bounce, rocketing from the 85th most popular name for girls to the 26th over the same time period.
And, of course, popular trends and TV shows had an impact on baby names this year.
Along with names inspired by the Kardashian family, Chip and Joanna Gaines have made their children's names (Emmie, Ella, Drake, and Crew) more popular, and even "Magnolia" is climbing the list as a girl's name.
Names inspired by the video game Fortnite - including Ramirez, Bunny, and Dakota - also seem to be gaining popularity.
Baby Center's complete list of popular names, which they make based on "hundreds of thousands" of names collected from their user profiles, also groups similar-sounding named together (e.g. Sofia, Sophia) to gauge their "true popularity."
Here are Baby Center's complete top 10 name lists:
- Sophia and Jackson
- Olivia and Liam
- Emma and Noah
- Ava and Aiden
- Isabella and Caden
- Aria and Grayson
- Riley and Lucas
- Amelia and Mason
- Mia and Oliver
- Layla and Elijah
You can read Baby Center's full list of this years 100 most popular names by clicking this link.
