[Mom Team] The Most Popular Baby Names in Idaho Have Lots of Vowels

Girl names that end in A sound great when you sing them, and they're amazingly popular in Idaho.  And if you're having a boy, start the name with an E and he will be surrounded by lots of alphabetical friends in the lunch line.  

There sure is a lot of responsibility when it comes to naming kids.  I heard Sting say one time that parents shouldn't really be naming their kids until the kids are at least three years old because there's no possible way a parent can know a child at birth and there is a good chance the name won't fit by adulthood.  Maybe he has a point.  I mean, we have to decide if the baby looks like an Emma or a Priscilla within a day of her birth, and there's no time to wait for changes to set in to see if the name still fits even a week later.  Most of us moms and dads have names picked out by the 8th month of pregnancy, and dang it, that name is going to stick no matter what because we like it!  Gordon Summers changed his name to Sting down the road, and that must have been way off of his parents' radar but it seems to fit.

When my kids were born we had baby-naming rules.  We wanted the names to be at least semi-unique, we wanted each one to start with a different letter, and we wanted each one to end in a different letter. Miraculously, we settled on Finley, Kallan, and Piper, and they seem to fit.

In 2020, the most popular names in Idaho, according to babynames.com, had lots of vowels.  Beyond the top ten, some of the other popular boy names were Ethan, Easton, Ezra, and Everett.  And for girls, most of the popular names end in the letter A, including Mia, Isla, Luna, and Ava.

The Most Popular Baby Names in Idaho

1.  Oliver, Olivia
2.  Liam, Charlotte
3.  William, Emma
4.  Henry, Harper
5.  James, Evelyn
6.  Elijah, Amelia
7.  Lincoln, Sophia
8. Benjamin, Hazel
9. Owen, Abigail
10. Samuel, Ellie

The Billings Gazette looked into baby-naming trends of the past century, and there were a lot more first-letter consonants on the list.  Oh, and Karen made the popular list!  Good for you, Karens.  You need some love right now.

The Most Popular Baby Names of the Past 100 Years

1.  James, Mary
2.  John, Patricia
3.  Robert, Jennifer
4.  Michael, Linda
5.  William, Elizabeth
6.  David, Barbara
7.  Richard, Susan
8. Joseph, Jessica
9.  Thomas, Sarah
10.  Charles, Karen

Kids ultimately end up with whatever names their parents like, and it's a small miracle that we all end up keeping our names once we start developing our own thoughts and personalities.  My mom always teased that she had considered naming me Gertrude Smuzzledorf so it was one of life's small victories that I ended up with something that didn't sound like a sneeze.

No pressure.  Said no parent ever.

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