Why Noah and Liam Win: The Brand Strategy Behind Modern Baby Names
You don’t need a baby in your family to notice it - Noah and Liam show up everywhere: classrooms, sports teams, Instagram captions, daycare rosters. And that’s the interesting part.
Naming a child is one of the most emotional choices a person makes, yet the names that win year after year behave like they’ve passed a hidden checklist: easy, safe, global, modern, familiar, strong… without being sharp.
In the latest U.S. data, Liam ranked #1 and Noah ranked #2 for boys in 2024.
Even more telling: those two positions have stayed unusually stable - Liam has led for multiple years, and Noah has held the #2 spot for six consecutive years.
So what are people really choosing when they choose Noah or Liam?
The unexpected angle: are parents doing “brand strategy”? (in a practical way of course)
Modern life is global, digital, mobile and fast. A name now has to work in places names didn’t have to work before:
Noah and Liam succeed because they behave like great product names: short, clean, easy to say, hard to mess up, and culturally “portable.”
That portability shows up outside the U.S. too. In England and Wales, Noah has been near the top (and was #2 in 2023)—even while the #1 spot reflects local cultural shifts.
In Scotland, Noah ranked as the most popular boys’ name in 2024.
Same name, different country and still winning.
Noah comes from the biblical tradition; the name is commonly linked to Hebrew roots associated with rest/comfort.
Liam is an Irish short form of William, and its rise in the modern English-speaking world has been well documented.
Even if parents don’t consciously choose meanings, the feel of the names matches their reputations:
Together they represent a very 2020s flavor of masculinity: confident, not loud.