Cool kids: The most popular baby names for boys and girls

Expecting a baby is an exciting time, and one thrilling element of anticipating your little one’s arrival is choosing the name your son or daughter will carry for the rest of their lives. While some parents-to-be try hard to pick a name that no one else will have, others love the idea of selecting a name that’s experiencing a surge in popularity. The popularity of certain names tends to be cyclical (like how the name Henry was incredibly popular in the 1880s and has seen resurgence in the last several years). In fact, names are so fascinating, there’s a whole field of academic study, called onomastics, dedicated to examining the origins and history of names.

Each year in the United States, the Social Security Administration releases its list of top baby names (10 top boy names and 10 top girl names), based on what names parents’ put on their children’s birth certificates. If you’ve found a name on the most popular list you absolutely love but you want to make your child stand out, don’t worry! There are still ways to be special. Some new parents will make a name unique with a slightly different spelling, a clever nickname derived from a popular name (like naming a baby girl Evelyn, but calling her Evie) or pairing a popular name with a less-common middle name.

No matter what name you choose for your baby, rest assured that your child will be absolutely unique, even if your Noah is on a baseball team with a few others who share his name.

Here’s the current list of top baby names for boys and girls in the U.S.