Breaking Down 2012’s Most Popular Baby Names

When it comes to baby names, the popular picks at one local hospital were pretty consistent with national trends in 2012.  

Over at Emerson Hospital in Concord and across the nation, according to BabyCenter.com, girls names this year had a certain retro chic, with classics like Emma, Sophia and Olivia claiming top spots on both lists.

There was a bit more variety among boys born at Emerson and the most popular names among the nearly half-million parents who shared their children’s names with BabyCenter: William, Owen and Mason were the top three locally, yet only the latter cracks the Top 10 nationally.

The most commonly given girls names have been more or less the same in recent years, and perhaps that’s because these popular names have been popular in popular culture.

Emma, for example, is the name of a key character in ABC’s primetime fairy tale “Once Upon a Time.” And there are many Olivias – Munn, Wile and whomever John Mayer’s crooning about in his track “Something Like Olivia.” 

Boys names are a little harder to figure, but at least of them can be linked to headlines of the past few years.

With William, which tops the Emerson lists and claims the 15th spot with Baby Center, there’s the buzz from the British royal family. And then Mason has that Kardashian connection and Jacob can thank “The Twilight Saga” for its recent popularity.

Check out the charts below for Emerson's most popular baby names through the end of November, and Baby Center's list as of Thursday, Dec. 27.

Emerson Hospital

Girls Name Number Emma  16 Olivia 10 Sophia 9 Abigail 8 Ava 8 Boys Name Number William 11 Owen 11 Mason 10 Matthew 9 Ethan 8 Ryan 8

BabyCenter

Girls Boys Sophia Aiden Emma Jackson Olivia Ethan Isabella Liam Ava Mason Lily Noah Zoe Lucas Chloe Jacob Mia Jayden Madison Jack