The 100 Best Baby Names

If the entire universe of baby names suddenly shrank to just 100 choices, the pressure would feel wildly unfair. No room for fleeting trends, no safety net of “they’ll grow into it,” no luxury of picking something that only works for a particular moment. You’d have to choose names with real staying power — names that feel fresh but never try-hard, recognizable but never boring. The sweet spot becomes everything: stylish without screaming a specific decade, distinctive without sounding invented, creative yet effortlessly livable. These are the names that would survive the ultimate edit — the ones that feel just as natural on a birth announcement as they would on a résumé, a novel cover, or the corner office door.

Why "Lucky" Names Are Having a MomentPhoto by Pixabay

We’ve whittled the thousands of possibilities down to the elite 100 best baby names that are most emblematic of our times, while also being timeless and forward-facing. The names here are perfect for a 2017 baby, yet will serve him or her well into the turn of the next century (now there’s an amazing thought).

Photo by William Fortunato

Of course, there are hundreds of other awesome baby names that potentially fit these criteria. But these are our picks for the very best of the best right now and why.