Baby Girl Names for 2027: 12 Rising Names to Watch

Romy, Liora and Odette are three girl names worth putting on a 2027 shortlist. All rose in the latest complete U.S. rankings, but they offer quite different choices: a compact four-letter name, a vowel-rich option and a name with a firmer ending.

This is a watchlist for a baby due in 2027, not a ranking of babies born that year. The figures below cover 2025 births, compared with 2024. The comments are our editorial suggestions for choosing between the names, not a prediction of where they will rank next.

12 girl names to watch for 2027

A smaller rank number means a more popular name. These are selected rising names, not the twelve fastest climbers or the twelve most popular names overall.

Selected U.S. girl names in Social Security data

Name	2024 rank	2025 rank
Romy	928	698
Liora	1,634	900
Alara	1,064	652
Odette	1,216	883
Evelina	1,027	778
Elara	1,153	942
Solana	691	495
Seraphina	779	600
Lenora	716	539
Paloma	969	793
Lottie	676	528
Briar	522	400

Source: Social Security’s change in name popularity table, 2024–2025, checked October 19, 2026. These national figures do not tell you how often a name will appear in a particular school or language community.

Start with the shape of the name

Romy and Lottie: short, but not interchangeable

Romy is the more compact choice on paper. Lottie has a doubled consonant and an extra ending to account for when someone writes it down. Rather than choosing whichever looks simpler in a list, ask another person to write each name after hearing it once.

Try both with the surname before adding a middle name. A name that looks right alone can feel quite different when the full name is said at a normal speaking pace. If you prefer a short middle name too, our one-syllable names list gives you a separate set to compare; short spelling and one syllable are not the same thing.

Liora, Alara and Elara: choose the exact spelling

Alara and Elara differ by just one letter. Keep them as separate choices rather than switching between them while you make the shortlist. Write each on its own card with the surname; otherwise the two can blur together into a name neither parent has actually agreed on.

Liora is another option if you like several vowels in a short name. For a family using more than one language, ask relatives to say it naturally instead of relying on a single English pronunciation guide. The version you enjoy hearing at home matters more than a phonetic spelling on a website.

Odette and Briar: a different ending

If the names on your list all end in “a,” these two change the sound of the shortlist. Put them beside Alara or Paloma and say the pairs aloud. That comparison may tell you more about your taste than adding another twenty names with the same ending.

With Briar, listen to how the ending meets the surname. With Odette, try the full name rather than only a possible nickname. Neither needs to win the comparison; this is a way to work out which sounds you keep choosing.

Longer names worth trying with a surname

Evelina and Seraphina give you more letters to work with than Romy or Briar. Write the full name, any nickname you would actually use, and the initials. If you like only the nickname, pause before choosing the longer form simply because it looks more formal.

Lenora sits between the shortest and longest options here. Try it with a one-syllable middle name and then with a longer one. Our middle name generator can help compare combinations, but saying the complete name aloud is still the useful part of the exercise.

Solana and Paloma share a six-letter length and an “a” ending, yet look distinct on the page. Put them on the same final shortlist if both appeal to you; there is no need to manufacture a different theme for every choice. If siblings’ names matter to the decision, the sibling name tool offers another way to compare a set without requiring matching initials.

What makes this a 2027 watchlist?

The starting point is recorded movement, rather than a claim that a particular television character or celebrity will change everyone’s choices. Every name in the table moved upward in the same U.S. comparison. Our selection then keeps a mix of lengths, spellings and endings so that the list helps with an actual naming decision.

That does not make the next step predictable. A jump in rank is not a percentage increase in births, and one year of movement cannot establish a long-term trend. We have not labelled these names “the next top ten.”

If your priority is a less common name rather than a rising one, start with our uncommon girl names and recorded birth counts. If you want to compare against established popular choices, use the top 100 girl names guide, which also identifies the year of its data. A watchlist and a popularity table do different jobs.

Reduce twelve names to three

Choose three you would still like if they became more popular. Write each with the surname, check the initials and agree on the spelling before comparing middle names. Keep the cards for a few days rather than settling the question while scrolling through a long list.

Then ask one practical question about each: is there anything about saying, spelling or using this name that would bother us repeatedly? A family can happily accept an occasional correction. The point is to make that choice knowingly, not to find a name that nobody could ever misread.

There is no prize for choosing the fastest-rising name. If your favourite is already popular, or never appears on a trend list at all, that is a perfectly workable outcome.

Sources and scope

Rank comparisons come from the U.S. Social Security Administration. Read its background information on the baby-name data for how the records are compiled. Spellings are kept separate in the table. This article does not assign name meanings or claim worldwide popularity from U.S. records.