Life comes at you pretty fast. One moment, you might think you’ve named your child something completely different — and 10 years later, you realize she’s sharing her bunk at summer camp with nine other girls with the same baby name. you thought it was special. A summer camp counselor named Yaya shared in a viral TikTok video some of her observations when it comes to popular girl names for tweens today.
“I worked at an all-girl summer camp this summer,” she explains in the popular video, which has garnered thousands of comments and views. “These are the top 10 names for girls between the ages of 10 and 12.”
Before diving into baby names, Yaya explained that she’s “in love with name culture” and thinks naming trends are “so interesting,” but she noticed that a lot of content around them focuses on newborn names.
“I don’t think we realize how common it is — how we’re all in the same way of thinking, so by the time your kid goes to kindergarten or summer camp, there’s like, 10 of the same kid, and think “This is exactly what happened with these ‘unique’ names — we ended up with 15 of them at the same summer camp,” he said.
Without further ado, here are the names.
“Charlotte comes in at number 10, or any variation of that nickname: Charlie, Lottie, Char, etc.”
Next on the list? Lilly, Mackenzie (with any and all spelling variations), Isabelle, Claire, and Audrey.
Elle came in at number five.
“It’s a lot,” Nanny said. “Elle, Ella, Ellen, Elly. Elle is big.”
Madison was next, and then Emma was number two, but with the important caveat that it’s always short for Emerson — Nanny says her camp “literally has 14 girls named Emerson .”
“I’m sure one was on a blog like, 12 years ago called ‘Cool New Names for Your Little Girl,'” he joked.
And finally, the top name.
“The most popular name right now is Zoe, spelled many different ways,” says Nanny. “We have 18 Zoes this summer.”
Before signing off, Yaya offers some advice for parents who want to avoid accidentally giving their children “unique” names that aren’t too unique: Compare your baby’s name to the census. If you have a name you like that appears in the census records a few years before you plan to use it, this is a good indication that your child will share that name with several other children their age.
