Celebrity Baby Names Not an Influence on Popular Baby Naming

Names like Apple, Moses, Coco, Phinneaus, Pilot Inspektor, Suri, Lucky, and Shiloh are not the names of new products. These names belong to baby celebs---the children of celebrities like Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jason Lee, and Katie Holmes. Recent celebrity baby names are getting more unusual and unique. However, America could really care less.

Every year, the Social Security Administration releases the most popular male and female baby names. 100 percent of the Social Security Card applications are completely filled out to include the year of birth, sex and state of birth, and of course new baby names for the year. And guess what? Celebrity influence on the name Americans give their children is minimal. Society might look to celebrities as the paragon of beauty and talent but when it comes to baby naming Americans aren't following in celebrity footsteps.

Some interesting notes about how the Social Security Administration ranks the most popular names in the nation:

1. A name must be more than two characters long to be included

2. Different name spellings (like Jenny, Jeni, Jenni) are considered separate names

3. To protect privacy, only the top 1,000 names (and 100 names by state) are listed

4. Names are ranked according to sex, so names that apply to both genders (Jordan, Shannon, etc.) will have separate rankings by sex

5. Name data is not edited, which means names such as "Unknown" or "Baby," or those listed with the wrong sex, are included in the count

6. Names, of course, seem to come in and out of fashion along with hairstyles, slang terms

and clothing trends. Just take a tour down the decades of the last century to see how popular names have changed.

The Top Baby Names:

2006

Boys Girls

1. Jacob Emily

2. Michael Emma

3. Joshua Madison

4. Matthew Abigail

5. Ethan Olivia

6. Andrew Isabella

7. Daniel Hannah

8. Anthony Samantha

9. Christopher Ava

10. Joseph Ashley

1980

Boys Girls

1. Michael Jennifer

2. Christopher Amanda

3. Jason Jessica

4. David Melissa

5. James Sarah

6. Matthew Heather

7. Joshua Nicole

8. John Amy

9. Robert Elizabeth

10. Joseph Michelle