In fact, surnames are one of the biggest baby-naming trends right now. The top 100 baby boy and baby girl names in the nation include surnames such as Parker, Payton, Colton, Mackenzie, Carson, Cooper, Austin, Connor, Hunter, Carter, Dylan, Jackson, Logan and Ashley. Most of these surnames fall into one of the following categories:
Occupational surnames
These are surnames that indicate the occupation of the original bearer. These include names like Bailey (someone who was a bailiff), Mason (someone who worked with stone or brick), Skylar (someone who's a scholar) and Taylor (someone who tailored clothing).
Locational surnames
These surnames often indicated where the original bearer was from. Examples of location surnames are Garfield (triangular field), Hadley (heather clearing), Leighton (leek settlement) and Ramsay (wild garlic island).
Name-based surnames
These are surnames that were inspired by first names. They would have described the original bearer in some way. For instance, there's Addison (Adam's son), Lawson (Laurence's son) and Wilson (William's son).
Other surnames that aren't in the top 100 (but that are moving up quickly on the popularity charts) include Beckett, Bennett, Braxton, Cohen, Cullen, Elliott, Emerson, Greyson, Harper, Hudson, Paxton, Piper, Presley, Quinn, Walker and Weston.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about this booming surname-as-first-name trend is how quickly it's caught on for baby girls. Surnames were once used primarily for boys, but nowadays you're just as likely to run into a young girl with a surname as a first name.
 | 10,000 Most Popular Baby Boy Names Want more than the top 100 or top 1,000 baby boy names? Here's a complete list of the 10,000 most popular baby boy names in the nation! Click to learn more. |
