The Cool Baby Names of 2023, According to TikTok’s Professional Consultants

 

The Cool Baby Names of 2023, According to TikTok’s Professional Consultants

“I've always had an aggressive interest in cool baby names,” says Jessie Paquette, a professional baby-name consultant whose Dream Baby Names TikTok account dedicated to the subject has more than 5 million likes. “I was not pleased with how my mom named me. Jessica just did not seem like enough. You put in a lot of work to have me and then you named me Jessica?”

You can't blame her for wanting something more unique. From 1985 to 1990, Jessica was the most popular name for baby girls born in the United States—at its peak, in 1987, more than 55,000 children were given the moniker. Today it languishes in the mid-600s behind Anne, Madelyn, and Trixie.

It wasn't unusual for millennials to be one of several Jessicas, Ashleys, or Jennifers in their class. (Remember when it seemed like everyone on The Bachelor was named Lauren?) Which is perhaps one reason, as the generation becomes parents themselves, the norm has become seeking names for their little ones that are as unique as possible over more traditional names. A whole new industry has even arrived to meet this demand: baby-name consultancy.