Top 1000 Baby Boy Names

Choosing a name for your baby is a huge responsibility but it can also be a lot of fun. There are so many different ways to approach the choices and decisions to be made that finding a bit of advice or tradition can be beneficial for most families. Here are some things to consider as you name your baby boy.

The traditional number of names in the United States is three names: a first name, a middle name, and your family or last name. There are certainly some families who have a tradition of two middle names, or no middle name at all. You might ask around and see how the number of names in your family varies, particularly as you merge two families' traditions around baby naming.

Naming a baby for a family member is a tradition that a lot of families share. While the thought process behind sharing a name may be common, how families execute this sharing of names is very different. Some families use a junior or senior style sharing of names where the son has the exact same name as the father, at least for the first child. If this extends beyond the original father and son, you typically use Roman numerals to depict this designation, for example: II, III, IV, V, etc.

There may also be name sharing that is less traditional. One example would be using the same first names but different middle names and calling the son by their middle name to help differentiate between the two. Another example would be to use different names, but ones that have similar meanings or sounds.

Up until about the late 1990s, baby names were decidedly girl names or boy names, with a few exceptions. The trend to have names that are gender neutral has drastically changed the landscape for some baby names. Gone are the days when you could look at a list of names and with one hundred percent certainty know that the names represented either a boy or a girl.

This is something to keep in mind when choosing a name for your baby boy. Does the name you are choosing have a history of being male only? Is the name you're considering a name that is more gender fluid? Do you have a problem with that? Boys named Sue face obvious issues, but boys named Taylor or Keegan or Jayden, they may occasionally be mistaken for girls. This is something that is not a huge deal for most people, but if it matters to you, there are tools you can use, like the Social Security Administration's website with baby names.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) releases birth certificate data around Mother's Day. It compiles the most popular baby names from the previous year and provides you with the most popular numbers. In addition, you can search their database for over one hundred years worth of data from 1879 forward.

This year's list of the most popular baby boy names includes a swap in the top two leading boy names. In 2016, Noah was #1, but in 2017, Liam overtook the popular biblical name to nab the #1 spot. Mason also dropped in popularity, going from #4 to #7 in the top 10 list, overtaken by the name "James." The name "Oliver" is a newcomer to this year's top 10 list, ranking in at a #9 spot, a jump from #12 in 2016. Here is a full list of the top 1,000 baby boy names of 2017: