2011 Most Popular Baby Names

Where did your first name come from? Were you named after a movie star, a relative, a good friend of the family, a favorite name in a song or book, or do you have your mom or dad's first name or middle name? To find out more about your name you can do a family history. You may have been named for a great great grandmother or grandfather. Your name may have come from the occupation of your uncle a century or so ago. Who knows, maybe your name was just popular at the time.

I am not having a baby (thank you Lord!) but I do have nine grandchildren ranging from age 3 to 21 years old and I found that many of their names are still popular today. I didn't research 2012's most popular names because most of 2012 is in the future. We'll know those at the beginning of next year. Instead, I've listed the 20 most popular 2012 boys and girls names below, and as an added bonus I researched the meanings of the top five boys and girls names. Is your name one of 2011's most popular names? Do you know what your name means?

The top 20 most popular boy's names in order are:

Mason, Liam, Noah, Ethan, Jacob, Aiden, Jackson, Logan, Jack, Lucas, Ryan, Benjamin, William, Michael, Jayden, Elijah, James, Matthew, Alexander and Nathan.

Of these I have a Jacob, Aiden, Lucas, Ryan, Benjamin, Michael, Matthew and Nathan in my family. Only 2 are my grandson's names (Jacob and Ben), one is my son (Matthew- don't forget to see my hub, "My Son is Going in the Military") and the rest are nephews. And yes, Jacob is not only my grandson but he is also a wholehearted friend!

Below are the meanings of the top five boy's names.

1.) Mason- Stone worker

2.) Liam- Guardian

3.) Noah- Rest

4.) Ethan- Strong one

5.) Jacob- Whole-hearted friend

The 20 most popular girls names in 2011 are: Emma, Olivia, Sophia, Isabella, Ava, Madison, Ella, Emily, Abigail, Chloe, Lily, Mia, Addison, Avery, Charlotte, Amelia, Grace, Zoe, Natalie, Hannah and Elizabeth.

Of these I have 2 granddaughters- Emma and Ella, the others, Hannah and Elizabeth, are nieces. My youngest daughter's name is Allison however, Addison is her grandfather's middle name. I also have a step grandson named Avery. My granddaughter, Emma's name means elegant and she is anything but elegant. She is 5 years old and a tom boy, spending tons of time in the barn with her grandmother. Ella is the elegant one, very prissy, a sweet princess, and never stops talking. She just loves people!

Below are the meanings of the top five girl's names:

1.) Emma- Elegant

2.) Olivia- Peace of the olive tree

3.) Sophia- Wisdom

4.) Isabella- God's promise

5.) Ava- Desired

You may find different meanings of these names at different websites. As I learned about the meanings of our first names I found many sources that gave meanings that were related to the origin of the name. For instance, the name Jacob from the Hebrew origin (held by the heel) had an entirely different meaning than the Dutch meaning of the name (wholehearted friend). This was the same on each website that I looked at. It only means that the family may be of Hebrew descent or they may be of Dutch descent. I could have also found out the meaning of last names too but the website that I looked at charged a fee, but you really don't have to pay a fee to find out. You could do a genealogy of your family to know more about your last name. If you want to know more about your name you can click on the link under the logo at the top of this article. If you would like to know where last names first originated you can read the hub that I wrote below. Thank you!