By Pamela Redmond Satran

　　The new Number 1 baby names in the US are….the old Number 1 baby names in the US. For the second year in a row, Emma and Noah top the official US baby names popularity list for 2015.

　　And the entire Top 10 stayed more the same than it has in a decade, with the Top 3 girls’ names and the Top 6 names for boys remaining in the exact places they occupied last year.

　　There was only one new name on the Top 10 for each gender: Harper replaced Madison for girls and Benjamin took the place of Daniel on the boys’ side.

　　The Top 10 baby names for 2015 — the newly released list counts the names of 4 million babies born last year — and their standing compared with 2014 are :[column1]

　　girls

　　Emma   =

　　Olivia =

　　Sophia =

　　Ava +1

　　Isabella -1

　　Mia =

　　Abigail +1

　　Emily -1

　　Charlotte +1

　　Harper +1[/column1]

　　[column2]

　　boys

　　Noah =

　　Liam =

　　Mason =

　　Jacob =

　　William =

　　Ethan =

　　James +2

　　Alexander =

　　Michael -2

　　Benjamin +2

　　[/column2]

　　The full Top 1000 baby names can be found here.

　　Nameberry’s Number 1 boys’ name Ezra is a new entrant to the Top 100, standing at Number 92. Other new baby names on the Top 100 include Hazel, Aurora, Quinn, Cora, and Reagan for girls, and for boys, Theodore, Mateo, Sawyer, and squeaking on at Number 100, Elias.

　　Emma and Noah are both also popular throughout much of the rest of the Western World. Emma, a German name that means “universal,” is also Number 1 in Germany and Norway and ranks in the Top 100 throughout Great Britain, in Australia and New Zealand, as well as in France, Spain, Sweden, and The Netherlands. Noah, the name of the Biblical patriarch that means both rest and wandering, in in the Top 100 throughout the English-speaking countries as well as in Germany, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, and Portugal.

　　The Biblical Benjamin has been widely used since the 1970s, but this is its first appearance in the Top 10. Harper has risen into the Top 10 after appearing on the Top 1000 for the first time just a decade ago.

　　There were more surprises on the list of fastest-rising names, all but two – Kaison and Omari – new to the Top 1000 in 2015. These hot names are more international, more diverse in every sense of the word, and more heavily influenced by pop culture.

　　The fastest-rising names including the number of places they’ve jumped are:[column1]

　　girls

　　Alaia +2012

　　Meilani +1836

　　Aitana +1721

　　Aislinn +1385

　　Taya +1107

　　Adaline +1029

　　Briar +597

　　Zelda +512

　　Adley +495

　　Lennox +416

　　[/column1]

　　[column2]

　　boys

　　Riaan +1360

　　Huxley +392

　　Wilder +360

　　Jaziel +276

　　Canaan +271

　　Kaison +251

　　Brixton +212

　　Ridge +204

　　Omari +198

　　Jabari +194

　　[/column2]

　　Not surprisingly, Isis was the fastest falling baby name in 2015, slipping more than 1000 places to fall out of the Top 1000.

　　Further up the list, the fastest-rising names may signal choices that are bound to leap even higher — into the Top 10 or maybe even to Number 1 — in the years ahead. The fastest-rising names that made the Top 100 (or close to it) are:

　　girls

　　1. Hazel — +42 places to Number 63

　　2. Aurora — +37 places to Number 79

　　3. Luna — +33 places to Number 110

　　4. Alexa — +31 places to Number 32

　　5. Quinn — +29 places to Number 97

　　6. Willow — +25 places to Number 111

　　7. Mila — +19 places to Number 53

　　8. Eleanor — +18 places to Number 60

　　9. Cora — +15 places to Number 88

　　10.Stella — +15 places to Number 51

　　Other notable girls’ names rising quickly toward the top include Everly, Athena, Cecilia, Clara, Alice, Margaret, and Delilah.

　　boys

　　1. Everett — +32 places to Number 135

　　2. Kai — +32 places to Number 145

　　3. Theodore — +27 places to Number 99

　　4. Ezra — +26 places to Number 92

　　5. Lincoln — +21 places to Number 66

　　6. Mateo — +21 places to Number 85

　　7. Sawyer — +16 places to Number 94

　　8. Hudson — +15 places to Number 65

　　9. Oliver — +13 places to Number 19

　　10. Declan — +10 places to Number 112

　　Other notable boys’ names rising quickly include Greyson/Grayson, Luca, Asher, and Matteo/Mateo.

　　Baby names new to the Top 1000 include, for girls: Heavenly, Zaylee, Royal, Amaris, Dalary, and Kalani. For boys, names making big leaps into the Top 1000 include Kashton, Cairo, Otis, Denver, Achilles, and Shiloh.

　　For more details, check out the Social Security website.