Most Popular Baby Names of 2026 Revealed: US and UK Top 10s

If you’re searching for the “2026 baby names,” here’s the useful thing to know first: both the US and the UK have, within the last couple of months, published brand-new official rankings — and both of them count babies born in 2025. That is what “2026’s reveal” actually means. No government has a ranking of 2026-born babies yet, because the year isn’t over.

Here are the newest official top 10s on both sides of the Atlantic, what moved, how the two countries differ — and, at the end, what the “2026 prediction” lists are really telling you.

Everything below was checked on 10 July 2026.

What “2026 baby names” actually means

Two official releases sit behind this, and both are recent:

• United States: the Social Security Administration released its list on 8 May 2026, drawn from Social Security card applications for babies born in 2025.
• England & Wales: the Office for National Statistics released “Baby names in England and Wales: 2025” on 9 July 2026 — just days ago — also covering 2025 births.

So the two countries are, unusually, reporting the same birth year, which makes them cleanly comparable. Anything you see labelled a “2026 names” list — from BabyCenter, Nameberry, TheBump or others — is a prediction or a commercial site’s own user data, not a government birth count. We keep those separate, at the bottom.

Most popular US baby names (SSA, 2025 births)

Olivia and Liam stayed at number one for the seventh straight year.

The real movement was among the girls. Charlotte climbed to #2, ending Emma’s six-year run as runner-up and pushing Emma to #3. Eliana entered the top 10 at #10, and Ava dropped out of the top 10 for the first time in years. The boys’ top four — Liam, Noah, Oliver, Theodore — didn’t budge.

If you want the names climbing fastest rather than the ones already at the top, the SSA’s biggest year-over-year jumps were Kasai for boys (up more than 1,100 places) and Klarity for girls (up nearly 1,400).

Most popular UK baby names (ONS, England & Wales, 2025 births)

Olivia is #1 for girls for the tenth consecutive year. Below her, Lily rose to #2, pushing Amelia to #3, and among the boys Leo climbed high enough to push Oliver out of the top three.

On the #1 boys’ name: Muhammad tops the England & Wales list for the third year in a row, with 5,957 babies given that name in 2025. One methodological point matters for reading the list accurately: the ONS counts every spelling as a separate name, so “Muhammad” is ranked on its own, with other spellings such as Mohammed and Mohammad appearing separately further down the list rather than being combined. That is simply how the ONS compiles the table.

The UK is really three different lists

“The UK” doesn’t have one baby-name chart. The ONS covers England and Wales only; Scotland and Northern Ireland publish their own.

Scotland’s National Records office reported Noah on top for boys and Freya for girls — Freya reaching #1 for the first time, overtaking Olivia. Northern Ireland’s 2025 figures, published in April, also put Noah first for boys, with Grace for girls — a name that has sat in the top three there for nearly two decades. In fact Noah quietly does better across the UK than the England & Wales #1 suggests: it tops both Scotland and Northern Ireland and is runner-up to Muhammad in England & Wales.

How the US and UK compare

They agree at the very top for girls and diverge sharply for boys.

• Olivia is the #1 girls’ name in both the US and England & Wales, and Amelia is a top-three girl in both.
• Several boys’ names cross over — Noah, Oliver and Theodore all appear in both countries’ top 10s.
• But the #1 boys’ names are completely different: Liam tops the US and doesn’t come close to the England & Wales top 10, while Muhammad tops England & Wales and does not appear in the US top 10 at all.
• The UK lists lean noticeably more “vintage” and floral on the girls’ side — Florence, Elsie, Ivy, Poppy and Lily — a flavour the US top 10 has less of.

What about the “2026” prediction lists?

These are the lists that use the word “2026” — and they are forecasts, not counts. They’re fun, and sometimes prescient, but they are a different thing from the official data above.

• Nameberry (based on what its users search) tips names like Cosmo, Callum, Sienna and Phoebe, and flags trends it calls “romantasy,” names meaning light, and a revival of 1950s “grandma and grandpa” names.
• BabyCenter (its own registry data) highlights risers such as Oaklynn and Sienna and fire-and-light names it links to the Year of the Fire Horse.
• MadeForMums predicts a UK swing from vintage toward more modern picks — Luna, Margot, Ezra, Jaxon, Arlo.

Treat all of these as educated guesses about where naming is heading, not as records of what parents actually did.

Frequently asked questions

What are the most popular baby names of 2026?

The newest official rankings, both released in 2026, cover babies born in 2025. In the US, Olivia and Liam are #1. In England & Wales, Olivia and Muhammad are #1. There is no official list of 2026-born babies yet — the year isn’t finished.

What is the most popular boys’ name in England?

Muhammad, for the third consecutive year in the England & Wales figures (2025 births), counted as a single spelling. The ONS lists other spellings such as Mohammed separately rather than combining them.

What is the #1 baby name in America?

Olivia for girls and Liam for boys — each for the seventh year in a row, according to the Social Security Administration’s 2025 data.

Are the US and UK baby names the same?

Partly. Olivia is the top girls’ name in both, and names like Amelia, Noah and Oliver appear on both lists. But the top boys’ names differ completely: Liam leads the US, Muhammad leads England & Wales.

Is there a 2026 baby names list yet?

Not an official one. Government statistics currently go up to 2025 births. Any “2026” list you see is a prediction from a baby-name website, based on searches or forecasts rather than birth registrations.