18 Most Popular Baby Names for Ivy League Graduates
AaronAmat/iStock, Prostock-Studio/iStockWhat's in a name? Can a certain moniker predetermine how successful a child might be as an adult? Not necessarily, but it is interesting to look at the new Spokeo study on the top baby names of eventual Ivy League college graduates. Spokeo, a people search engine, analyzed more than 66 million LinkedIn profiles to find the top names for graduates from the eight Ivy League schools: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown, and the University of Pennsylvania. Among all these schools, only 18 names reigned supreme.
It probably won't be a surprise to learn that a majority of the top names were male, even though women are reportedly outpacing men in graduation rates, per NBC News.
Spokeo CEO Harrison Tang acknowledged this in the study's press release, sharing, "Ivy League institutions also have historically been known for their strong alumni networks, which can play a significant role in the application process. It is possible that these networks, which may have been predominantly male in the past, continue to exert influence on the success and prominence of male graduates. Female alumni may face different networking challenges, potentially affecting their visibility in top positions and the prevalence of their names among graduates."
So take this list with a grain of salt — just because a baby may or may not have one of these names doesn't necessarily mean the little one will or won't graduate from a top school. Plus, as name trends change, so too will lists like this. We can name our babies whatever means the most to us — college is 18 years away anyway.
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MICHAEL
Michael held the top spot across all Ivy League graduates, and that's not very surprising considering its reign as a top baby name in general. According to data from the Social Security Administration, from 1961 until 1998, Michael was the No. 1 name for baby boys every single year.
JOHN
Another classic name, John, came in first for Harvard graduates and second overall with the eight schools combined. The Social Security Administration reported that John was the top name for baby boys between 1900 and 1923. After it was knocked from the No. 1 spot, it still appeared in at least in the top 10 for the next five decades.
DAVID
Apparently a lot of Davids go to Princeton, Yale, and Brown, because that name topped the lists for all three schools. Overall, David was also third amongst the collective of Ivy Leagues. According to the baby name finder on Mom.com, David comes from the Hebrew word for "beloved," which gives it a sweet backstory.
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JENNIFER
The first female name to hit the study was Jennifer. This name ranked fourth overall, and it was the only woman's name to be on Cornell's top 10 list at all. Per the Social Security Administration, Jennifer was the No. 1 name for baby girls from 1970 until 1984. A lot of those babies went on to Ivy League schools, it seems.
ROBERT
Robert appeared sort of in the middle on all eight university lists. This is a more old-school boy name, and it's been phased out recently. According to BabyCenter's report of 2023's most popular baby names, Robert didn't even crack the top 100.
JAMES
James was the sixth most popular graduate name overall, but it's worth noting that this isn't a strictly male name – at least these days. As the years wear on, Ivy League schools may see both female and male students named James graduate over the years. Blake Lively has a daughter named James, after all.
JESSICA
The second most popular female name for Ivy League graduates was Jessica, which ranked seventh overall. This moniker was most used from the late '70s to the early 2000s but has faded significantly in popularity ever since. Per the Social Security Administration, Jessica ranked 508th for baby girl names in 2022.
BRIAN
The baby name finder on Mom.com notes that Brian is Gaelic for "strong one," so it's a nice, strong name for an Ivy League graduate. Although this name didn't place on any of the schools' individual top 10 lists, it did come in 10th overall when all the universities were combined.
DANIEL
Daniel appeared on every school's individual lists — except for Dartmouth's. The biblical name is actually still pretty popular today, ranking 24th on BabyCenter's 2023 list. That means the Ivy Leagues will likely continue to have graduates named Daniel for many years.
ALEX
This is another name that really could be used for either boys or girls because it can be short for monikers such as Alexander, Alexis, or Alexandra. However, it's not as popular as some of the other Ivy League names. Alex only appeared on the list for one school — Harvard.
ANDREW
The Office character Andy Bernard would be pleased to know his name ranks high at Cornell, which is the school he attended in the show. Andrew appeared fourth among Cornell's top graduate names. It also appeared on the lists for the seven other Ivy League universities.
PETER
This boy name was only popular at Princeton, Yale, Brown, and Dartmouth. Still, that's half of the eight Ivy League schools, so any Peters out there should be proud. There aren't as many of them these days, with Peter failing to land a spot in BabyCenter's top 100 names of 2023.
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WILLIAM
Prince William shares his moniker with graduates from Princeton and Dartmouth. For his part, the Prince of Wales attended college at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. It's where he met his eventual wife Kate Middleton, who was studying art history.
ELIZABETH
We've reached the final female name to be recognized by this Ivy League study. Although Elizabeth didn't appear on the overall top 10 list, the name was the 10th most popular Columbia graduate name. It's a classic moniker that still appears on baby name lists year after year. In 2023, BabyCenter reported that it was the 41st most popular girl name.
MATTHEW
Matthew was only recognized by Brown and Cornell, where the name placed ninth and 10th most popular, respectively. The moniker has remained a strong choice through the decades. The Social Security Administration's data has it placing in at least the top 100 boy names every year since 1956.
