Fastest-growing baby names: Would you consider them?

The fastest growing baby names for boys, King and Messiah, suggest great power, while the fastest-growing baby name for girls, Arya, comes from a fierce princess in 'Game of Thrones.'

By Stephen Ohlemacher,?Associated Press / May 13, 2013

Luggage tags with children's names are displayed in East Montpelier, Vt. Jacob and Sophia top the list of most popular baby names again, but King and Arya are the fastest-growing baby names.

Toby Talbot / AP

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Talk about high expectations for a newborn: King and Messiah are among the fastest-rising?baby?names?for American boys.

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They're just a little behind Major, the boy's?name?that jumped the most spots on the Social Security Administration's annual list of popular?baby?names.

Jacob is the most popular for boys ? again ? and Sophia is the top?name?for girls, according to the list released Thursday.

It was Jacob's 14th straight year at the top. Next were Mason, Ethan, Noah and William. Liam cracked the top 10 for the first time, coming in at No. 6. Daniel slipped out of the top 10 for the first time since 1998, to No. 11.

It was Sophia's second year in a row at the top for girls. Next were Emma, Isabella, Olivia and Ava.

But what about those rising boys'?names?

Typically, says Laura Wattenberg, author of "The?Baby?Name?Wizard" and founder of Babynamewizard.com, "You don't get a lot of Messiahs. You can have a lot more Majors."

"I have no doubt Major's rising popularity as a boy's?name?is in tribute to the brave members of the U.S. military, and maybe we'll see more boys?named?General in the future," said acting Social Security Commissioner Carolyn W. Colvin.

Wattenberg said Americans have long given their children "aggrandizing?names." She noted that Noble and General were on the list of popular boys'?names?for much of the 20th century, though neither ever cracked the top 100.

"We've pretty much run out of presidential?names, all the Jeffersons and Jacksons and Madisons, so we're moving on to the aristocracy, I guess, or to the military."

Jennifer Moss, author of "The One-in-a-Million?Baby?Name?Book" and founder of Babynames.com, says she discourages parents from giving children "expectation?names, like Justice and Chastity."

"We feel that it kind of puts an undue pressure on the child when you use those kinds of grandiose or puritynames," Moss said.

Chastity was in the top 1,000 for more than two decades before dropping off the list in 1994. Justice was on the list in 1880 but then fell off for more than 100 years. The?name?reappeared in 1992 and was No. 518 last year.

Jacob's popularity endures because the?name?has much of what parents look for in a boy's?name, said Moss.

"It's easy to pronounce, and it's easy to spell. It's a solid manly?name," she said. "It's a biblical?name, and biblical?names?are always in style."

On the girls' side, Sophia first cracked the top 100 in 1997. Isabella dropped off the list from 1949 to 1990.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/ESfpjh_7GD4/Fastest-growing-baby-names-Would-you-consider-them

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