Choosing a name for your baby is perhaps one of the most important and difficult decisions for new parents. If your daughter’s name is Emily, or you are thinking about naming your new baby Emily, you may be either very pleased or upset by the fact that it has landed on the list of top ten baby names for the year 2007, and has been for the last twelve years. That means that out of all of the girls in the United States, more of them are named Emily than anything else, and it has been this way for more than a decade. Ema and Ava come right after Emily, followed by names like Madison, Sophia, Olivia, and Abigail among the top names for female children.

The most popular male name for 2007? It’s Jacob; that is an unexpected one for many people. Jacob for a boy’s name was followed closely by Michael, Joshua, and Matthew, all good names for respectable boys growing into men.

Other names that are popular for female children are names that have a divine meaning, like Serenity, Trinity, Destiny, and Faith. These are names that more spiritual parents give their children as a constant reminder of their spirituality, and for that reason they are one of the top types of names for girl babies every year.

By now, you might be wondering how anybody gets this information. As a matter of fact, the Social Security Administration compiles, keeps track of, and releases this information. Their website offers a wealth of information on baby names that have been used for further back than most people would ever care to look for. Information as far back as the late 1800s is available regarding popular baby names, and it can all be accessed through the Social Security Administration website.

This information is keep track of for a variety of reasons, but most people use it to help give them inspiration for their child’s name. The site gives you the option of checking what the most popular names are for male and female children for the year in particular. It will also allow you to search back and see what names were the most popular for both sexes in any given year. At the same time, you can look back and see how the popularity of any certain name has changed over the years. Try looking up your name or the name of your child, or the name you are thinking about for a child if you don’t have any yet. Put in the name, the sex that it is associated with, and the number of years that you want to look back. That should pull up the information that you need, and you may be surprised at what you find.

The Social Security Administration website also gives you the opportunity to look back and see what the most popular names were the year you were born, and just so long as you are not under 12 years old, the most popular name for your year should not be Emily.