Top Baby Names of the Decade

Baby names are a trend all their own, and so we can't ignore the top baby names of the decade. The most popular baby names of the decade, according to BabyCenter, are:

Girls' Names:

1. Emma
2. Emily
3. Madison
4. Isabella
5. Ava
6. Sophia
7. Kaitlyn
8. Hannah
9. Hailey
10. Olivia

Boys' Names:

1. Aiden (I know one guy who named his son Aidan)
   
2. Jacob
3. Ethan
4. Matthew
5. Nicholas
6. Jack ("We named the monkey 'Jack'"- Captain Barbossa*)
   
7. Joshua
8. Michael
9. Ryan
10. Andrew

Apparently, names starting with the letters J, K, and L have been trendy, though they don't dominate the top ten of either list above; Jack and Joshua are common American names regardless of the year. Parents are into pop culture (ahem, Twilight) when choosing baby names, though: Bella was #67 for 2009, but nowhere to be seen in previous poll years. Oh, and Marley is gaining ground as a gender-neutral name. This means that, yes, parents are likely naming their kids after a dog. After all, Bob Marley has been part of the pop-culture firmament for a generation, but the name is only trending after a certain Owen Wilson movie?

According to the US Social Security Administration, the most popular baby names from 2008 were:

Girls:

1. Emma
2. Isabella
3. Emily
4. Madison
5. Ava
6. Olivia
7. Sophia
8. Abigail
9. Elizabeth
10. Chloe

Boys:

1. Jacob
2. Michael
3. Ethan
4. Joshua
5. Daniel
6. Alexander
7. Anthony
8. William
9. Christopher
10. Matthew
    

Hey, I have a gender-neutral name... though I got mine in the seventies. Ahead of my time, you see.

(* The actual monkey in Pirates of the Caribbean is named Levi)