Rankings
Fastest Rising Boy Names (2013 vs 2023)
Boy names with the largest percentage growth over the past decade.
- Theo
- #1 name
- 50
- names ranked
Data updated Jun 2026
The verdict
Theo tops fastest rising boy names (2013 vs 2023) at +1034.2% -- it takes just +200.7% to crack this 50-name list, a 5.2x spread from #1 to #50.
- +1034.2%
- Theo, #1
- +200.7%
- Killian, #50 (the cutoff)
- 5.2x
- spread, top to bottom
Same ranked rows that render the table below -- row 1 here is row 1 there.
Theo tops the fastest rising boy names (2013 vs 2023) list with a growth % of +1034.2%.
According to Social Security Administration data, Theo leads the fastest rising boy names (2013 vs 2023) ranking at +1034.2%, ahead of Atlas (+1014.9%) and Stetson (+838.7%). This ranking covers 50 names total, sorted by growth % from SSA birth-registration files.
- Theo #1 by growth %
- Atlas #2
- 50 names ranked
What This Ranking Tells Us
The fastest rising boy names reflect parents moving away from the dominant trends of the 2000s-2010s (Jayden, Aiden, Brayden) toward a new aesthetic. Biblical and classic names are resurging (Theodore, Ezra, Silas), alongside international names (Mateo, Luca, Kai). Unlike girl names, boy name trends tend to be slower and more conservative, a fast-rising boy name often takes longer to peak and declines more gradually. The growth percentage compares 2023 births to 2013 births, requiring at least 100 births in 2013 and 500 in 2023 to qualify.
What the Data Says About This Ranking
This ranking lists 50 names drawn from the Social Security Administration's baby-name archive, filtered and sorted by growth %. The #1 entry is Theo with a growth % of +1034.2%, followed by Atlas at +1014.9% and Stetson at +838.7%. The bottom of the list, Killian (+200.7%), helps define the cutoff qualifying a name for inclusion here. Every name in this ranking meets the SSA's five-occurrence minimum threshold for public disclosure, so private rare names are excluded from consideration.
Across all 50 ranked entries, the average growth % is +366.0%, giving a statistical center of gravity for what "popular" means in this specific ranking context. The fastest rising boy names reflect parents moving away from the dominant trends of the 2000s-2010s (Jayden, Aiden, Brayden) toward a new aesthetic. Rankings of this type are sensitive to how the underlying data is cut: a top-50 list reflects different signals than a top-500 list, and combining spelling variants (Sophia + Sofia) versus keeping them separate, as the SSA does, produces materially different orderings. The rankings displayed here use the SSA's raw spelling-specific data without combining variants.
Because the SSA updates its baby-name files annually (typically each May), this ranking can shift year over year as new birth cohorts are added and historical revisions are applied. Names that appear to be rising or falling should be interpreted against the five-year-minimum sample sizes SSA requires; short-term movement on a single-year basis can be noisy. Source: Social Security Administration, Baby Names Data. This page summarizes publicly released SSA data and is provided for research and informational purposes only; it is not intended as personal naming advice or a recommendation of any specific name for a given child.
The bar to make this list
Where the #50 cutoff (Killian, +200.7%) sits among qualifying boy names
201% Top 9% higher than 91% of 533 qualifying boy names
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more qualifying boy names. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source Social Security Administration, Baby Names Data · 2026-06-08
Source: Social Security Administration, Baby Names Data - U.S. Social Security Administration, Baby Names from Social Security Card Applications (ssa.gov).
Source: SSA Baby Names Methodology, names with fewer than 5 annual occurrences are excluded to protect privacy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are boy naming trends different from girl trends?
Yes. Boy names change more slowly, are less diverse (fewer total names in use), and parents are more conservative with boy name choices. A top-10 boy name like Liam captures a much larger share of all births than a top-10 girl name like Olivia. Boys are also more likely to receive traditional family names or names honoring relatives.
Which boy name trends are emerging?
Key emerging trends include: old-man chic names (Theodore, Arthur, August), one-syllable names (Kai, Lux, Jude), nature connections (River, Forrest, Brooks), and international crossovers (Mateo, Luca, Enzo). The -aiden/-ayden trend of the 2010s has largely peaked and is declining.
Nearby Rankings
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
According to the Social Security Administration, as of June 2026 this ranking is computed directly from the agency's public-use baby-name files, which document 105,966 distinct names across 2,181,032 national year-by-name records spanning 1880-2025.
What to do with this ranking
- Theo leads this list at +1034.2%, 5.2x the #50 entry (Killian, +200.7%) -- a steep drop-off across the list.
- See Theo's full history -- year-by-year SSA data, decade breakdown, and state popularity. Theo's profile
- Want to weigh two names from this list against each other? Compare names
Every name in this ranking meets the SSA's five-occurrence minimum threshold for public disclosure.
Cite this page
NameAlmanac Editorial. "Fastest Rising Boy Names (2013 vs 2023): Theo Is #1." NameAlmanac. Accessed via https://namealmanac.com/rankings/fastest-rising-boys. Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Name Almanac is rendered directly from the Social Security Administration's public baby-name files, no number is typed in by an editor. This growth % ranking is computed directly from the SSA's raw name files, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.