The Names That Fell Hardest in 2025 (Ava Just Dropped Out of the Top 10)
Every year's most-talked-about names are the risers. The fallers — the names quietly losing ground — get less attention. But for parents trying to read where naming trends are going, the fallers are just as important. In 2025, the biggest faller was Ava, dropping out of the girls' top 10 for the first time since 2007.
Ava: from #9 to outside the top 10
Ava has been a top-10 girls' name in America since 2007 — that's 18 consecutive years. In 2025, she finished at #11, just barely outside the top 10. Ava had 7,800 babies in 2025, down from 10,122 in 2024. That's a 23% drop in a single year — significant for an established name.
The replacement: Eliana, who entered the top 10 at #10. Ava and Eliana share an Italianate vowel-heavy profile, which suggests parents who would have picked Ava in 2020 are picking Eliana in 2025. The trend isn't moving away from this style of name — just from this specific name within the style.
The 2025 biggest fallers (visualized)
Other notable 2025 fallers
- Madison — once a top 10 staple, fell from #46 to #59. The grunge-era cohort that made Madison famous is now naming grandchildren, not babies.
- Riley — fell from #34 to #51. The unisex naming wave is still happening, but Riley is no longer leading it.
- Hudson — fell from #28 to #42 for boys. The surname-as-first-name trend is plateauing.
- Ezra — held at #14 boys but lost momentum after a steady climb. May plateau.
- Aria — fell from #21 to #34 for girls. Earliest sign that the K-pop and Game-of-Thrones bumps are wearing off.
The pattern: oversaturation kills momentum
Every name on the falling list shares a profile: rapid rise in the 2000s or 2010s, peaked in popularity, and now showing signs that parents are shifting. The pattern is consistent — when a name reaches a certain saturation, the same parents who made it popular start avoiding it because "everyone has one."
Ava's drop is the textbook example. After 18 years in the top 10, the name had been used so heavily that the next cohort of parents started looking for adjacent-but-different alternatives. Eliana, Aria, Ariana, and Mia all picked up the displaced Ava interest.
Names to watch for next year's faller list
Based on momentum patterns, watch for these to fall in 2026: Sofia (currently #9 girls; likely to drop 2–4 spots), Hudson (already falling), Mateo (peaked at #4 boys; some softening), and Amelia (held at #4 girls but the rate of new Amelias has flattened).
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