Fastest Rising Boy Names (2013 vs 2023)
Boy names with the largest percentage growth over the past decade.
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.
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 +1036.5%, followed by Atlas at +1018.1% and Stetson at +838.2%. 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.
| # | Name | Growth % |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Theo | +1036.5% |
| 2 | Atlas | +1018.1% |
| 3 | Stetson | +838.2% |
| 4 | Luka | +744.1% |
| 5 | Thiago | +704.8% |
| 6 | Legend | +666.9% |
| 7 | Arlo | +551.1% |
| 8 | Adonis | +514.3% |
| 9 | Zayn | +507.7% |
| 10 | Callum | +472.5% |
| 11 | Adriel | +446.0% |
| 12 | Maverick | +435.2% |
| 13 | Enzo | +430.4% |
| 14 | Walker | +378.1% |
| 15 | Elian | +376.6% |
| 16 | Matias | +372.7% |
| 17 | Theodore | +356.3% |
| 18 | Briggs | +332.5% |
| 19 | Ace | +323.9% |
| 20 | Hayes | +319.4% |
| 21 | Crew | +317.7% |
| 22 | Bodhi | +315.1% |
| 23 | Luca | +310.3% |
| 24 | Waylon | +307.5% |
| 25 | Kohen | +299.5% |
| 26 | Brooks | +285.5% |
| 27 | River | +274.8% |
| 28 | Sonny | +268.3% |
| 29 | Beckham | +264.7% |
| 30 | Lennox | +260.2% |
| 31 | Rowan | +251.7% |
| 32 | Apollo | +249.8% |
| 33 | Hendrix | +249.5% |
| 34 | Otto | +247.8% |
| 35 | Callan | +243.7% |
| 36 | Kyrie | +242.9% |
| 37 | Royal | +239.3% |
| 38 | Malakai | +235.1% |
| 39 | Ares | +233.2% |
| 40 | August | +231.2% |
| 41 | Camilo | +220.4% |
| 42 | Rhett | +217.7% |
| 43 | Beau | +215.2% |
| 44 | Archer | +215.1% |
| 45 | Matteo | +215.0% |
| 46 | Mateo | +214.4% |
| 47 | Milan | +213.0% |
| 48 | Tatum | +208.2% |
| 49 | Ezra | +207.4% |
| 50 | Killian | +200.7% |
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.