Want to know the top baby names for 2022 that are trending to date? Here is a list of the top boy, girl, and gender-neutral baby names of 2022 that are trending for the first four months of the year with commentary by BabyNames.com co-founder, Mallory Moss:

So far, the top most popular names of 2022 have yielded some shocking surprises…and some not so surprising, since we predicted them. Which trending names of 2022 are your favorites and which would you like to be over? View the past 20 years’ name rankings.

Top Baby Names of 2022…so far

Girl names with V in them have not only taken up nearly half of the top 10, but Violet has currently taken over #1 from Charlotte. Other new top 10 names with a V or two in them include Ivy, Evelyn and Genevieve. Sophia, which keeps scattering to different numbers in the top 100, seems to be gaining popularity again. Other strongholds that remained in the top 10 for girls include Aurora, Amelia, and Hazel, showing that “old lady” names are still in.

Oliver seems to holding at #1, over the U.S. favorite, Liam. As per usual, the boy names have less turnover in the top 10 than the girl names. Others that remained in the top 10 include Asher, Theodore, Jasper and Finn. Henry jumped into the top 10 this year but the real surprise was Alastair, which went from #55 to #8. Alastair is a Scottish form of the name Alexander, meaning “Defender of the People.”

On the gender-neutral list, Willow remains at #1 and Rowan, Logan, Quinn and River shuffled amongst themselves. New names on the gender-neutral top-10 include Sage, Riley, and Harper.

For the second half of the top 20, we see some falls in names that have been hugely popular, such as Ava, Olivia, and Aria. However, with the waning of the Game of Thrones influence, Aria is sinking as fast as Cersei Lannister’s ego in the series finale. Also of note among girls is the jump of Lily/Lilly into the top 20, which we predicted would happen when the U.K.’s prince Harry and wife Meghan named their new daughter Lilibet. Mark our words, it might make the the top 10 by the end of the year!

For boys, the top 20 shows the ongoing popularity of Hebrew names such as Levi, Caleb, and Ethan, although we do note that they are slowly decreasing in the popularity they once had, at times predominating the top 10. Also in the top 20 is Everett, which shows us that, along with Jasper, the Twilight effect is still holding strong.

Luca is just one off at #11 than Ezra #10 in the gender neutral names. We believe this continues to happen among boys names that end in A. We also see Harlow which jumped from #45 last year to #12 s far this year, also a huge bump. The name Jude also jumped more than 20 spots to #17.

The old-fashioned names remain strong in the top 30, including Eleanor, Adeline, Nora, and Alice. Atticus and Milo remain strong and Jackson/Jaxon/Jaxson is still holding. There are some really cool names in the gender neutral group including Lux, Addison, and Echo. I’m not a fan of Lux as I feel it sounds too much like Lex, as in arch-villain Lex Luthor, plus it has an expectation element, as in Luxury.

The next group of 10 highlights the trend of flower names, including Juniper, Rose, and Poppy. Poppy is a particularly interesting gender neutral name as we don’t see many flower names in that category. Also interesting among the gender neutral names include Briar and Aero, a homophous name for the more popular Arrow.

The last groups comprising the top 50 include another Twilight name (Rosalie), a Friends name (Phoebe), and a royal name, Anastasia. The boys show some more Biblical names, such as Luke, Micah, and Isaac. In the gender neutral names, we see Ash (a short form of the names Asher, Ashton, or Ashley), Piper, and Remy. I prefer the name Remy to the more popular Remington. The name Piper rose in popularity after the debut of the HBO Series, Orange is the New Black.

In this next group of names we see some traditional names such as Hannah, Lucy, Daisy and Claire. Vivienne, like Shiloh, show that the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie baby names are still strong. I predict Vivienne will rise higher as it has two V’s in it, which as stated above is becoming wildly popular. The boys names are predominantly traditional, such as Jack, Arthur, James, Simon, and Adam. In the gender neutral names, I think Parker might increase, as well. I would not use Oakley as I’m not a fan of brand names for baby names. Also of note, Keiran is in this group for boys and its variation Kieran is in this group for gender neutral names, the difference only being the order of the vowels.

This group of names, from 61 to 70, shows some interesting commonalities. The girl names are all super feminine, such as Victoria, Aurelia, Dahlia, and Delilah. The boy names often end in AN/EN/ON, including Adrian, Lachlan, and Holden. Among the gender neutral names, is Arrow – a “themed” variation on the more popular Archer. The other gender neutral names in this group are pretty traditional but also show that same trend you see among boys, including Emerson, Madison, Evan, and Hayden.

We have Mila in the 70s, and due to Mila Kunis’ popularity and her Ukrainian origin, I believe this name will further increase. The double LL names are interesting among the girls, including Brielle, Abrielle, and Isabella. I think Florence is probably affected positively by the band Florence and the Machine, as well as it being an old lady name. The Hebrew/Biblical names are all over this group of 10 for the boys, including Ezra (which we already pointed out is on the gender neutral top 10), Matthew, Jacob, Joshua, Aaron, Eli, and Peter. I would like to point out Alaric, which is kind of like the rise of Alistair: unusual and surprising. Alaric is a German name meaning “noble ruler” or my preferred definition: “Elf Ruler.” I mean, c’mon, we need more elf rulers in this world. As far as gender neutral names, Zephyr and Clove are pretty interesting.

From 81-90, Saoirse is a celeb name that has been climbing the charts, however it might be difficult for Americans to sound out (SEER-sha). I’m also surprised by Matilda, which I feel is rare nowadays, but might just become popular and overused. I am a fan of Eliza as an alternative to Elizabeth.

The boys show more traditional names again in this group, including Joseph, Zachary, and Isaiah. We are surprised that Lincoln fell down more than 20 spots and it seems its rise in popularity is over. Gender neutral names include Caden and Cayden…please folks, don’t start that up again, regardless of gender or gender-neutrality. I do think Blue is a cool name for either gender, but if you are going to use it, don’t follow it with a noun name. An adjective-noun combo (like Blue Sky for example) could set your child up for ridicule.

We round out the list with Willow on the girl’s side in addition to it ranking #1 for gender-neutral. A sure  indication that the name is rising. We see Aaralyn and Adalyn, very similar to each other, as well as the same synchronicity with Serena and Sienna. For boys, we see some ultra-macho names such as Apollo and Axel actually falling in the charts. Is this the end of the God names, already?

Max, one of my all time favorite names is here, as is the unusual name Caspian, which could be used as an alternative to Casper. Interesting 3-letter names on the gender-neutral list include Ari, Kit and Ren, all names which have been used as nicknames, but not as common on their own. There’s also Ciel, which means “sky” in French. I guess the sky’s the limit when it comes to baby names!

What I’m noticing most among the trends so far in 2022 is the prevalence of the letter V in girls names, and the boys charts are remaining more traditional and Biblical. The gender neutral names are interesting and certainly most flow well within the gender spectrum.

My predictions for changes by the end of the year include: 1) Lily will overtake Charlotte in royal baby monikers; 2) names with V in them will continue to rise for all categories; 3) Henry will take over Oliver in the boy names and Liam will continue to fall as no one wants a name that popular; and 4) Quinn and Kai will continue to rise on the gender-neutral names.

What names did you love on this year’s list so far? What names do you wish would go away forever? Join us in our Facebook Group to chat about these and other trending baby names!

Mallory Moss

Mallory Moss is the co-founder of BabyNames.com and co-host of The Baby Names Podcast. Mallory has a PhD in psychiatric nursing and has written articles for The Huffington Post on names and name trends. She has one grown daughter, Veronica, who lives in Austria.