How AI Is Changing the Way Parents Choose Baby Names

You're pregnant and baby names are on the brain. Loved ones keep asking, "do you have a name yet?" and you don't, not one you're set on, anyway.

Instead of flipping through a baby name book, what if you were deep in conversation with AI? Giving it all your name details, like syllable count, family heritage, sibling names, how it sounds against your last name, names that are definitely on your no-list.

It's a real shift. AI has worked its way into one of the most personal decisions new parents make, and it's changing things in two ways: how parents are searching for names and which names feel like a fit.

A baby name book gives you options. A top-100 list tells you what everyone else is already choosing. An AI generator does something different. It takes your specific pieces of information (what letter the name should start with, places of origin, name inspiration you already love) and filters names your way that could potentially be a great fit for your family.

But the appeal goes beyond personalization. Many parents are turning to AI for reasons that say as much about the experience of naming a baby as they do about the technology itself.

• Decision fatigue is real. There are more name options available to parents today than any previous generation has faced. A 60,000-entry baby name book or not knowing where to start or what to pick can make the overwhelm worse. 
• It's a judgment-free zone. When family members have strong opinions and partners can't agree, AI offers something close to a neutral third party. It doesn't have feelings about your mother-in-law's suggestion.
• It's always available. Name research can often happen in anxious, sleepless pregnancy moments. The conversational back-and-forth of AI—"I like that but can you make it less popular?"—mimics having an actual dialogue whenever you want it to happen.
• It's essentially a baby name consultant in your pocket. For parents who can't justify the cost of a professional naming service, AI offers some version of that experience for free.

"AI can be a helpful starting point when you're looking for baby name ideas," says Rebekah Wahlberg, baby name trends specialist at BabyCenter. "It can put together lists, tell you name meanings and origins, and help you narrow down options."

The key word there is starting point.

Parents are using AI a lot these days. Think meal planning, sleep schedules, developmental questions, what to do when your toddler won't eat anything green. Baby naming is just the latest addition to that list.

But naming feels a bit more personal, doesn’t it? It's one of the first things you give your child. It will be called across playgrounds and written on diplomas and introduced at job interviews. There's a reason people keep the name secret until the birth announcement; it feels intimate in a way that asking about how to prepare for a family trip when crossing time zones doesn’t.

So what happens when someone compliments your baby's name and asks where it came from?

There's certainly no wrong answer. But "we used AI" feels different than "it was my grandmother's name" or “I found it thumbing through a book one night” or even "we hired a consultant." A baby name book is passive, since you do the searching and the deciding. A baby name consultant brings expertise, cultural knowledge, and a human conversation to the process. AI is somewhere in between, and parents are still figuring out how they feel about that.

What Rebekah Wahlberg at BabyCenter makes clear is that AI works best as one tool among many. "Picking a baby name isn't just a logical decision—it's deeply personal and emotional, and AI can't help you with that part," she says.

The name still has to feel like something. And that part hasn't changed.

It turns out, yes, just not in the way you might expect.

Parents aren't naming their babies Claude or Gemini. In fact, according to BabyCenter data, Claude, Gemini, and Cortana haven't been chosen by a single parent on their platform so far this year. Alexa, once a perfectly mainstream name, now ranks No. 1,315. And Siri sits at No. 13,206 for girls. Both have been in definite freefall since being claimed by the technology world in the early 2010s.

"We haven't found that technology plays a big role as a source of inspiration — except when it's driving people away from certain names," says Wahlberg. "Both Siri and Alexa have all but disappeared from the baby name charts since they were coined as tech products."

The pattern extends beyond voice assistants. Elon dropped hundreds of spots after Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and launched his Grok AI assistant. "His name still hasn't recovered," Wahlberg notes.

It makes sense that many parents make a conscious effort to avoid names tied to public figures, worried a name might later be "ruined." The same logic, it seems, now applies to tech products and AI tools.

The names rising with AI

So what are parents loving instead? The data points somewhere between classic, nature-based, and the cosmos.

"Names are softer and longer this year, which gives them a more classic, analog feel rather than sounding modern and tech-forward," Wahlberg says. "Parents are paying close attention to pop culture for inspiration — names from recent hits and time-tested classics are rising in popularity."

According to data from the Social Security Administration, celestial and nature-forward names like Nova, Luna, Aurora, and Phoenix are gaining momentum, alongside classic-feeling names like Archer and Arthur, as well as names that feel rooted in the natural world rather than the digital one.

Rising names for boys: Atlas, Ezra, Arlo, Finn, River, August, Felix, Silas

Rising names for girls: Maeve, Juniper, Iris, Clover, Wren, Elodie, Freya, Soleil

The names fading out 

On the other end, a wave of millennial-era names is declining sharply. BabyCenter data shows names like Erin, Kelsey, Chelsea, Kendra, Alexis, and Taylor, all popular during the 1980s and '90s, are no longer being registered in large numbers. Royal family–inspired names like Catherine, Anne, Philip, and Edward are fading too, each falling more than 100 spots.

Fading names for boys: Jaden, Cannon, Albert, Jamal, Esteban, Donald

Fading names for girls: Nicole, Abby, Gabrielle, Jamie, Payton, Allie, Skyler

Think of it the way you might think of a thesaurus. AI can be useful for generating options, expanding what names you hadn't considered, and helping you get unstuck when all the names on your list suddenly sound terribly wrong. But it’s up to you if you want it to be the thing that makes the final call.

Pam Redmond, co-founder of Nameberry, puts it plainly: "Are you really going to let a chatbot name your baby?"

BabyCenter research shows that nearly 1 in 10 parents regret the name they ultimately choose. More options and better filtering only get you so far. At some point, you have to say the name out loud in the car on the way home. You have to imagine calling it across a backyard.

No algorithm can tell you how that feels, only you can.