X is the 24th letter of the alphabet, the "hiding spot" on treasure maps, and one of the newest trends in baby names. Other exotic letters like Q and Z are also currently stylish, but X seems to be the letter whose popularity has risen the most dramatically in recent years.

For instance, from 1880 through the end of the 20th century, only one X-name managed to place among the top 1,000 U.S. baby names: Xavier. (It popped up once randomly in 1890, then came back to stay in 1948.) A second X-name wasn't able to crack the list for a full 120 years.

Finally, in 1999, Xander showed up to keep Xavier company. Immediately after that, other X-names appeared: Xzavier in 2000, Ximena in 2001, and Xiomara in 2004.

Even more impressive than how quickly they entered the charts was how swiftly these names began climbing the popularity ladder. As of 2005, Xander was already ranked #279 for boys and Ximena #354 for girls. In the meanwhile, Xavier was catapulted into the 100 and has been hovering there since 2001.

And it's not just names that start with X being affected by the trend. Names that simply include the letter X are also on the up-and-up. I skimmed the top 1,000 baby names for each of the following years to see how many names per year contained an X, and this is what I found:


1880 - 13 names
1890 - 16 names
1900 - 14 names
1910 - 16 names
1920 - 13 names
1930 - 12 names
1940 - 15 names
1950 - 18 names
1960 - 17 names
1970 - 18 names
1980 - 15 names
1990 - 25 names
2000 - 35 names


The number of names with an X remained relatively stable until 1990, when many new names made their debut. These debuting names included both variants of established names (such as Alexia and Alexandre) and names that were just completely new to the list (like Maximilian and Braxton).

Then in 2000, there was another jump in the number of names containing an X. This second batch of debuting names also included both variants (such as Alexys and Alexzander) and total newbies (like Phoenix, Paxton, Jaxon and Maximus).

Though 2005 is only halfway between 2000 and 2010, it's worthwhile to note that the 2005 list features the largest number of X-containing names yet: a total of 37. The most interesting addition to the 2005 list is Maddox (which, not so ironically, happens to be the name of actor Angelina Jolie's adopted son).

...So what's the X-factor here? What's fueling all this excitement over the X? My theory is that expectant parents see the inclusion of exotic letters as a simple, easy way to make a baby name stand out. The X may be particularly attractive to these parents because, of all the unusual letters, X is the rarest and therefore the most distinct.