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Australia's baby-name landscape has transformed, with once-dominant names such as Karen and Gary disappearing from the top 100 as vintage favourites roar back - and Muhammad climbs from 100th in 2013 to 38th in 2025.
asserted
Muhammad → publish → 2025
The playground roll call is also taking an old-fashioned turn, with George, Arthur, Hazel and Florence enjoying remarkable revivals, while names synonymous with more recent generations, such as Kylie and Michael, fade away.
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names → take → Kylie
Oliver remains king of the boys' names, taking the number one spot for the 12th consecutive year in 2025, ahead of Noah and Theodore.
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Oliver → remain → Noah
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Charlotte has reclaimed the girls' crown from Isla, which topped the rankings in 2024, with Amelia holding onto second place and Isla slipping to third.
But some of the most dramatic changes become apparent when the rankings are viewed over decades rather than years.
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rankings → scroll → decades
Names once considered old-fashioned are being dusted off for a new generation, in part due to their perception as being 'middle class', with Daisy climbing from 90th in 2016 to 23rd in 2025, while Elsie has surged from 79th to 28th over the same period.
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Elsie → consider → period
The revival isn't confined to girls.
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revival → confine → girls
Henry has climbed from 19th in 2015 to fourth in 2025, while George has risen from 42nd to 21st over the same period.
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George → climb → period
After sitting outside the top 100 as recently as 2017, it entered at 84th in 2018 and has since surged to 19th.
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it → sit → 19th
Australia's baby-name landscape has transformed, with once-dominant names such as Karen and Gary disappearing from the top 100 as vintage favourites roar back.
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favourites → transform → top
(Pictured: Schoolchildren knitting in a Sydney classroom in 1964)
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Schoolchildren → picture → 1964
Perhaps the starkest evidence of changing tastes, however, can be found in the names that have fallen out of fashion.
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that → change → fashion
Many of the names that dominated the 1960s and 1970s, including Karen, Michelle, Michael and Peter, have disappeared from the top 100.
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that → dominate → 100
Joshua topped all four of the 1995 state lists examined, for South Australia, NSW, Western Australia and Queensland, but has fallen to 87th nationally in 2025.
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Joshua → top → 2025
Other boys' names synonymous with the 1990s have suffered similar fates.
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names → suffer → fates
Matthew, Nicholas and Michael have disappeared from the current top 100 altogether, while Daniel has dropped to 79th and Benjamin to 50th.
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Daniel → disappear → 50th
It occupied the top spot in all four of the 1995 state lists examined but does not appear in the 2025 national top 100.
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It → occupy → 100
Sarah, Rebecca, Stephanie and Amy have also vanished from the top 100, while Emma has fallen to 78th.
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Emma → vanish → 78th
Muhammad has travelled in the opposite direction, climbing from 100th nationally in 2013 to 38th in 2025.
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Muhammad → travel → 2025
Meaning 'praiseworthy' in Arabic, the name has deep significance in Islam and is used widely across the Muslim world, with numerous variations including Mohammed, Mohammad and Mohamed.
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name → mean → Mohammed
But what makes one name suddenly desirable and another hopelessly dated can be about far more than fashion.
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another → make → fashion
Monash University sociologist Jo Lindsay interviewed dozens of predominantly middle-class Australian parents for a study examining naming, social class and gender.
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Lindsay → interview → naming
She argued a child's first name could function as a form of 'symbolic capital', helping locate the child socially, and found parents often considered how the name they chose might follow their son or daughter into adulthood.
uncertain
they → argue → adulthood
For some, that meant imagining the name on a business card, in a boardroom or attached to a prestigious profession.
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that → mean → profession
'There is more freedom for parents to choose first names for their children on the basis of individual taste as institutional, religious and extended family pressures decline,' she said.
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she → be → taste
'Australian boys are more likely than girls to be given traditional names.
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boys → give → names
Boys are also more likely to be given a name shared by members of the British royal family, though these are popular for girls as well.
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these → give → girls
In terms of girls' names, Charlotte has reclaimed the crown from Isla, which topped the rankings in 2024, with Amelia holding onto second place and Isla slipping to third.
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Isla → reclaim → third
(Pictured: a stock image of Australian children at a school assembly)
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image → picture → assembly
Ms Lindsay said once a name catches on among high-income, highly educated parents, it starts working its way down the socio-economic ladder.
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it → say → ladder
'In terms of social class, mothers' education has been found to have a strong influence on naming choices in the USA.
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education → find → USA
This is particularly the case with naming girls,' she said.
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she → name → girls
'Parents are interested in aspirational names that sound 'successful', which reinforces a fashion cycle where upper-class parents choose relatively obscure names to distinguish their children and these are then taken on by lower-class families in the following decade.'
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these → sound → decade
One mother interviewed for the Australian study explained why she had deliberately opted for a conventional choice.
Monash University sociologist Jo Lindsay (pictured) interviewed dozens of predominantly middle-class Australian parents for a study examining naming, social class and gender.
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Lindsay → interview → naming
She argued a child's first name could function as a form of 'symbolic capital', helping locate the child socially
'
uncertain
name → argue → child
We wanted a traditional name and we also looked at something that's going to fit them when they're a child but is also going to fit them when they're 90.'
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they → want → them
Another worried that her son's name could shape people's first impressions of him.
'
uncertain
name → worry → him
People often have an idea of who a person is when they read their name on a business card.'
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they → have → card
A lawyer who took part in the research described wanting names that would fit comfortably within the professional circles in which she worked, recalling that her partner thought one choice was 'a great judge's name'.
She wanted her children to have names carrying 'a bit of authority' and which would not seem out of place attached to a doctor, judge or other professional.
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which → take → doctor
Yet parents also faced a dilemma: how to find something distinctive without saddling a child with a name that would stood out for the wrong reasons.
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that → face → reasons
One participant wanted 'a fairly traditional name that was a little bit unique but without being really out there', while another deliberately avoided top-10 names after growing up with an extremely common name herself.
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another → want → name
…and 29 more, not listed.
The Aporia
