Experts Say These Are the Hottest Baby Boy Name Trends of 2027

When it comes time to choose a baby name, one of the most important considerations is how popular the name is—or will be. Each family has to decide for itself what the optimal level of name fame is, since some like to have a name that everyone knows and can spell, while others prioritize being totally unique.

The first step is to see how common the name truly is: The Social Security Administration (SSA) keeps a list of the Top 1,000 most popular baby names in the United States. But that data only goes so far. There are forces at work that boost some of these names to the top of the chart, while others fall off into obscurity.

This year’s crop of experts looked at what’s rising and falling, polled the parents, and studied the culture to come up with the hottest baby boy name trends of 2027. When it comes to boy names this year, you can’t be too unique.

“Namemaxxed” names take things to another level

When putting together its own list of 2027 baby-name trends, the baby-naming website Nameberry noticed that more and more parents are remixing names, a trend it dubbed Namemaxxing. “Namemaxxing parents combine two names to create something totally new,” says Sophie Kihm, Nameberry’s editor in chief. “Importantly, the components of the namemaxxed names are always legible. Ezrael is a combination of Ezra and Israel, Leovanni is a mix of Leo and Giovanni, and Xavien blends Xavier and Damien. For many parents, these names are the best of both worlds—familiar yet totally new, a name that fits in but is one-of-a-kind.” The point is these names stay unique and off the SSA Top 1,000 names, but there’s always Nameberry’s Berry Trend Model to see if a name is trending up or down.

Baby names come from the court, the field, and the ice

Sports are a huge driver of baby names this year—and that’s not even taking into consideration the baby who was named Knickson Fyve after the championship run of the New York Knicks. (I commend these parents for going with the original spelling Knickson—making it a namemaxxed name for sure—and not settling for the more common Nixon.)

Elsewhere in basketball, Jalen, as in Knicks superstar Jalen Brunson, has already made a 24-place jump in rank between last year and the year before, and the variant spelling Jaylen has gone from No. 668 in 1993 to No. 361 in 2025.

But basketball isn’t the only sport affecting baby names. “Other trends we expect to heat up for boys in 2027 include World Cup Names—of course!—after the tournament was held in North America,” Kihm says. “Both Lamine and Yamal will rise, and we expect to see baby boys called Rodri and Haaland as well.”

And who can forget hockey—or at least hockey romance. BabyCenter, which keeps track of the baby-name choices of its users, notes in its roundup of 2027 name trends a big bump in Heated Rivalry and Off Campus names. Ilya, the site reports, is the champ, ascending more than 6,000 spots in rank. Pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen admitted to The Hollywood Reporter that she named her son Ilya because of her Heated Rivalry fandom. “It was an incredible show,” she told the site. “Ilya is the name of my son. Maybe, not maybe because of that show.” Ilya is not yet on the SSA list, but that’s sure to change soon. Meanwhile, Shane, the name of Ilya’s on-screen romance and on-ice rival, is down at No. 636.

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Currently Connor, as in Connor Storrie (left), is a less popular name than Hudson, as in Hudson Williams (right)—Connor is at No. 166 on the SSA list and Hudson is at No. 17. Will the popularity of their show, Heated Rivalry, change the rankings?

Heroic names look to the past

If it’s not sports, it’s the silver screen that’s driving boy names—The Odyssey in particular. Both Nameberry and BabyCenter have noticed an uptick in names associated with Greek mythology. Nameberry says that parents are looking beyond obvious Greek god names like Apollo, while BabyCenter notes that, among its users, “There is a rise in boys named Atlas (up 5 spots), Orion and Troy (both up 9 spots), Ares (up 32 spots), Evander (up 128 spots), and Perseus (up 249 spots).” And parents are not at a loss when it comes to options for epic names.

Agamemnon
Ajax
Castor
Hector
Nestor
Orestes
Pallas
Paris
Thallo
Virgil

“J” is the initial of the moment

When BabyCenter looked at its own users and the baby names they chose last year, it was clear that J-names were tops. “For boys, 14% of the top 100 names start with ‘J,’” the site reports. “[This is] the highest concentration of any first initial letter.” (For girls, it was ‘E.’) Those who think ‘J’ stands for “just right” can try these on for size: