Fresh Take: Sophie Kihm of Nameberry on the Baby Names We'll Be Seeing in 2026

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood | Parenting Tips From Funny Moms

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood

Kids & Family, Comedy, Parenting

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Amy talks with Sophie Kihm, editor-in-chief of Nameberry (the world’s largest baby name website!) about the top baby name trends predicted for 2026, and why naming a child feels more complicated—and more meaningful—than ever. Sophie explains how Nameberry analyzes real-time search and save data, alongside Social Security statistics, to forecast which baby names are poised to rise quickly through the ranks. Together, Amy and Sophie walk through Nameberry’s 10 biggest baby naming trends for 2026, from ancient civilization names and soulful, subtle spiritual names to showgirl-inspired choices influenced by pop culture and Taylor Swift. Along the way, Sophie shares how modern parents use Nameberry tools like forums, "Name DNA," and curated lists to find baby names that feel personal, flexible, and future-proof. Here's where you can find Sophie and Nameberry: https:://nameberry.com @nameberry on IG @nameberry.com on TikTok Read about the top 10 trends for baby names in 2026 here What Fresh Hell is co-hosted by Amy Wilson and Margaret Ables. We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/ Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at ⁠www.monarchmoney.com/FRESH Ready to raise money-smart kids? Start now with your first month FREE at acornsearly.com/FRESH! What Fresh Hell podcast, mom friends, funny moms, parenting advice, parenting experts, parenting tips, mothers, families, parenting skills, parenting strategies, parenting styles, busy moms, self-help for moms, manage kid’s behavior, teenager, tween, child development, family activities, family fun, parent child relationship, decluttering, kid-friendly, invisible workload, default parent, baby name trends 2026, baby names 2026, Nameberry baby names, Sophie Kihm Nameberry, baby naming trends, modern baby names, unique baby names, rising baby names, gender-neutral baby names, baby name popularity trends, ancient baby names, vintage baby names, boomer baby names, romantic fantasy baby names, anime baby names, Utah baby names, number baby names, vowel-heavy baby names, literary baby names, baby name ideas, baby name inspiration, name nerd podcast, parenting podcast episode, pop culture baby names Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everybody. Welcome to Fresh Take from What Fresh Hell Laughing in the Face of Motherhood. This is Amy. Today I'm talking to Sophie Kean. She is the editor-in-chief and lead name consultant at Nameberry, the world's largest website devoted to names and identity. And today we're going to be talking about the trends and baby names
0:22.3	that name Barry is seeing and predicting for 2026 and why naming your kids seems more complicated
0:29.3	than ever. Welcome, Sophie. Thank you so much for having me. So first tell us, how does name Barry
0:36.5	sort of aggregate and measure trends in baby names?
0:40.9	This is what we prepare for all year long. Our Super Bowl, basically, is predicting the top baby
0:49.4	name trends of the yearhead, which we typically do in the fall as we're going into the new year.
0:56.2	And so we look at a bunch of different factors to determine these trends.
1:01.6	The first is the national data that the Social Security Administration uses, but we only
1:08.2	have data from the year before, right? So today in 2025, we have the 2024 data,
1:13.6	but that's not really telling us, okay, how are things changing? Just to pause, it seems like
1:17.6	that's been saying Sophie and Emma for girls and Liam and Noah for boys for a couple of years now.
1:22.3	Yeah. At the very top of the charts, there's not a lot shifting. And so when we're thinking of trends,
1:30.1	we're examining what are the names that are most likely to rise really fast and become a lot more
1:36.8	popular. We can say with near certainty that Liam's probably going to be the number one boy
1:43.2	in 2025, Olivia's probably going to be the number one boy. 25, Olivia, is probably going to be the number one girl name.
1:47.0	But that's a lot less interesting than saying, okay, these are the names that are getting
1:52.2	popular under the surface, rising really quickly.
1:56.1	And for that, we often go to our nameberry statistics.
2:00.0	I mean, we keep track of the names that people are
2:02.4	looking at. And so we have that real time data that we publish on the site. Oh, I see. Yeah.
2:10.6	This is what the parents to be, right? The people who are looking at baby names right now,
2:16.2	who are maybe having babies in
	...

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