A new baby name trend is baffling experts. Parents face many difficult decisions throughout their child’s life, but one of the first ones is choosing what to name their baby.
With a myriad of monikers available, it’s hardly surprising that new parents can be influenced by trendy picks as the list of popular names shifts each year. Those at their wits’ end trying to pick the ideal name might turn to a baby name expert for inspiration, and one such specialist has recently disclosed this year’s unexpected parental preference.
US-based baby name consultant Morgan Kline has noticed that numerous clients are seeking the same characteristics in baby names for 2025, and it’s a pattern she did not anticipate. Morgan pointed out that there’s an up-and-coming trend particularly for baby boy names, focused on “rare” yet somewhat traditional names.
She mentioned that parents desire a name that isn’t ranked in the top 50 national names but still remains conventional enough to avoid any potential mockery aimed at their child’s name.
“She remarked: “The most surprising baby name trend I’ve seen come out of 2025 so far is what I’m calling rare but mainstream baby boy names. I’ve only seen this with boys, but they are parents who want a very normal, very kind of ‘plain’ name, but they still want it to be rare.
“They’re coming to me saying they like names like James, Lucas, Michael, and Daniel, and they want that vibe, but they just don’t want names that are in the top 50 or top 100.”
Morgan revealed that due to the regularity of this request from her clients, she’s compiled a list for reference during consultations with parents seeking such names.
On her roster are names including Austin, Adam, Emmett, Vincent, Calvin, Dean, Elliot, Tyler, Justin, Peter, Joel, Edward, Oscar, Brandon, Patrick, Grant, Stephen, Cody, Reid, Spencer, Edwin, Colin, Conrad, Sean, Corey, and Chandler, all selected from outside the US’s top 100 baby boy names.
Austin topped her list with 3,475 instances in 2024, a stark contrast to the US’s most popular boys’ name, Liam, which had 20,802 uses. In the UK, the top five boys’ names for 2024 were Muhammad, Noah, Oliver, George, and Leo.
Many of Morgan’s suggestions would also work for UK parents wanting a name outside of the top 50, but there are a few exceptions. While Oscar was an unpopular name in the US, it was actually the 9th most popular name over here. Edward and Adam also made the list, ranking 30th and 41st respectively.
Morgan summed up her video by saying: “When I started doing consultations, everyone was looking for that one-of-a-kind, razzle-dazzle, wow factor baby name. I’m still getting a lot of those for girls, but I noticed this shift started last year, where a lot of people wanted very normal but less common boy names. It’s interesting to see how things change.”