Madisson, Bennett, and 91 Other Names Just Crashed the Top 1000
The SSA's 2025 list is out, and 93 names just elbowed their way into America's most popular — pushing Karim, Aubrie, and 91 others out the back door. Naymt breaks down who's in, who's out, and why.
Naymt Research · May 9, 2026
Every year the Social Security Administration publishes its top 1000 baby names — the most-used names in America. And every year, the list quietly reshuffles. The 2025 release just dropped, and the most surprising new entrant isn't a first-time name at all. It's a respelling of one we've all known for thirty years: Madisson, with two S's, debuted at rank 319 — the highest-ranked newcomer of the year.
Key Finding
93 names entered the top 1000 in 2025 — 49 boys and 44 girls — displacing an equal number of names that fell out. Madisson (girl, #319) and Jasai (boy, #439) are the highest-ranked debutants. Madison itself, with one S, sits at #40 on the girls' list.
America's baby name landscape isn't static. Each year, roughly 5% of the top 1000 cycles out, replaced by a fresh class of contenders that crossed the SSA's publication threshold for the first time — or finally pushed past more established names. The 2025 reshuffle tells a clear story about where modern naming is heading.
The Biggest Crashers
Madisson (girl, #319) is the year's most prominent newcomer — a respelling of Madison that broke through the noise of the original. It's a sign that variant spellings aren't fringe anymore; they can debut deep inside the top 500 on their first appearance. Other notable girl entrants include Klarity (#791, a phonetic respelling of Clarity), Brylee (#992), and Maizie (#901, a homophone respelling debuting alongside the traditional Maisie at #233).
On the boys' side, Jasai (#439) is the highest male entrant. Below it, the new names skew biblical, vintage, and surname-as-first: Boaz (#891), Eliezer (#893), Hollis (#894), Foster (#901), Marcello (#900), Stone (#916), Beck (#913), and Montgomery (#962). All evoke either Old Testament gravitas or American-vintage stoicism.
The Crossover Effect: When a Boy's Name Becomes a Girl's Name
One of the more striking patterns this year is gender crossover. Bennett debuts as a girl's name at #912 — but it's been firmly entrenched in the boys' top 100 for years (#40 on the 2025 boys' list). Karter enters the girls' chart at #989 while sitting at #270 on the boys' list. Landry does it on both sides simultaneously — debuting as a boy's name at #996 and a girl's name at #935 in the same year.
And then there's Arden, the most interesting case of all. In 2024, Arden was a boy's name at #942. In 2025, it didn't just fall out of the boys' top 1000 — it crossed the aisle entirely, entering the girls' top 1000 at #975. A complete gender flip in a single calendar year.
This isn't an accident. Surname-style names like Bennett, Karter, Landry, and Arden have a built-in gender ambiguity that parents are increasingly comfortable with. Once a name reaches critical mass on one chart, it tends to leak across — or, in Arden's case, switch teams outright.
The Departures: Who Got Pushed Out
For every name that crashes the party, one has to leave. Among the 49 boys' names that fell out of the top 1000 in 2025, several had only just made it on in recent years: Karim (was #821), Allan (was #857), Watson (was #868), Castiel (was #817 — a Supernatural-driven name now fading from its peak), and Zen (was #956). Pop-culture-driven names like Zendaya (girl, was #943) and Kingsley (boy, was #983) also fell out, suggesting their celebrity-tied bumps were temporary rather than structural.
On the girls' side, the departures lean heavily toward names that were always borderline: Aubrie (was #999, the very last spot), Lavender (was #993), Maelynn (was #994), Bailee (was #991). Names that just barely held on in 2024 didn't have the runway to survive the 2025 churn.
What the New Names Tell Us
Three clear patterns emerge from the 93 newcomers:
1. Variant spellings are no longer a novelty. Madisson, Klarity, Maizie, Brylee, Kaycen, Neythan, Caius, Naylani, Roselyn, Ashlynn, Stettson — these aren't outliers. American parents are choosing personalized respellings of established favorites, and the SSA list now reflects that volume.
2. The biblical and surname revival is still building momentum. Boaz, Eliezer, Hollis, Foster, Marcello, Stone, Beck, Bennett, Beaux, Aurelius, Macklin — all carry either Old Testament weight, Anglo-vintage texture, or surname-as-first energy. None are flash-in-the-pan; they're additions to a slow, sustained shift toward names that feel anchored in something.
3. Cultural and global names are crossing into the top 1000. Veer (Sanskrit), Saanvi (Hindu), Khadija (Arabic), Layan (Arabic), Yuna (Korean), Tara, and others reflect America's evolving demographics.
The Full Class of 2025
For reference, here are all 93 names that entered the SSA US top 1000 in 2025.
Boys (49): Jasai, Akari, Eziah, Kasai, Neithan, Barron, Haziel, Brewer, Yadiel, Aslan, Coast, Denim, Boaz, Eliezer, Hollis, Kaleo, Marcello, Foster, Kael, Nael, Scottie, Koah, Beck, Stone, Eitan, Frankie, Neythan, Caius, Agastya, Isa, Kreed, Syaire, Veer, Josias, Jethro, Montgomery, Beaux, Harlem, Kaycen, Azlan, Toby, Dominik, Joan, Aurelius, Blaine, Palmer, Landry, Oziel, Macklin.
Girls (44): Madisson, Kyomi, Alara, Merritt, Rynlee, Kiyomi, Evelina, Klarity, Romi, Layan, Tara, Colbie, Odette, Mariel, Naylani, Liora, Maizie, Kollyns, Bennett, Anayah, Eliora, Winifred, Ailanny, Landry, Darla, Elara, Sunday, Marcella, Sariah, Yuna, Kinslee, Bexley, Leylani, Arden, Roselyn, Ashlynn, Cordelia, Khadija, Karter, Laken, Brylee, Jaslyn, Simone, Corinne.
Patterns Observed
The 2025 reshuffle reinforces three structural trends Naymt has been tracking. First, the rise of variant spellings — Madisson, Klarity, Maizie, Brylee — signals that personalized respellings are no longer a fringe behavior; they're producing top-300 chart entries on their first appearance. Second, the biblical-and-surname revival continues to displace pop-culture-bump names: Boaz and Eliezer enter while Castiel and Kingsley exit. Third, gender crossover — especially for surname-style names like Bennett, Karter, Landry, and Arden — is accelerating, with names appearing simultaneously on both lists in the same year. The pendulum is swinging away from invented or celebrity-tied names and toward names that feel anchored in tradition, geography, or family lineage.
About Our Data
Naymt compared the official SSA top 1000 lists for birth years 2024 and 2025 (US, both genders), identifying every name that appeared on the 2025 list but not the 2024 list (entries) and vice versa (departures). The official SSA top 1000 displays a single name per rank by breaking ties internally. All 93 entrants were verified against the SSA national dataset (yob2025.txt) for birth count and gender.
Please cite Naymt when referencing this data in your piece.
