Iowa’s Latest Most Popular Baby Names Are Getting Old-School

Not every name is ending in -eigh anymore.

Years ago, it was the trend to end names in -eigh, intentionally misspell them, and/or throw in extra vowels. It was referred to as the 'tragedeigh'.

Now, the U.S. Social Security Office has released the most popular baby names in Iowa for 2025. It seems like the trend in names, for both boys and girls, is shifting more towards the 'your great-grandmother's name' instead of 2012-wide-brimmed hat baby names.

And honestly, it's been a while since I've seen an intentional misspelling of a name on a social media scroll.

So here are the top 20 most popular baby names within the last year in Iowa:

Boys

1. Oliver
2. Liam
3. Henry
4. Theodore
5. Cooper
6. Hudson
7. James
8. Noah
9. Bennett
10. Owen
11. Elijah
12. Jack
13. Beau
14. William
15. Waylon
16. Leo
17. Miles
18. Mateo
19. Weston
20. Asher

Think about it- would you have guessed within the last 10 years that 'Theodore' would become a popular baby name? It, along with William, James, Henry, and a few others are very traditional male names.

Now for the girls:

Girls

1. Charlotte
2. Evelyn
3. Emma
4. Amelia
5. Eleanor
6. Olivia
7. Sophia
8. Lainey
9. Harper
10. Violet
11. Hazel
12. Nora
13. Ava
14. Lucy
15. Aurora
16. Ellie
17. Ivy
18. Elizabeth
19. Isabella
20. Millie

Do you notice the same trend of more old-school names? Charlotte is a perfect example of the comeback of more traditional names. There are several others on the list, like my great-grandmother's name really was Lucy. Evelyn, Emma, Eleanor, Violet, Hazel, and Elizabeth are more name trends that reject the '-eigh' trend.

Out of the list of the top 100, there are still some unique names that are apparently used often enough to make the list. You can see the full list from the U.S. Social Security office at this link.