March Madness Baby Names 2023: Boys Opening Round

If it’s March, that means it’s tournament time.

No, not basketball.

I mean … maybe basketball. If that’s your thing.

But around here, March Madness means baby names.

We take the sixteen most-viewed names on the site last year, and vote our way, bracket-style, until we have just one girls’ name and one boys’ names left standing.

One of the quirks of Appellation Mountain? Because a name like Huxley gets as much attention as James, both can make the most popular list. (And this year, that’s just what happened.)

Still, the names that win the whole contest? They tend to be a little more mainstream – and often, just slightly ahead of the curve when it comes to popularity.

Past March Madness Baby Names winners are as follows:

Nathaniel and Louisa in 2011
Arthur and Genevieve in 2012
Archer and Isla in 2013
Everett and Cora in 2014
Finn and Cora in 2015*
Theodore and Sylvie in 2016
Leo and Wren in 2017
Rowan and Eliza in 2018
Arlo and Margot in 2019
Caspian and Tess in 2020
Raphael and Magnolia in 2021
August and Marigold in 2022

*After Cora’s back-to-back wins, readers voted to remove any winning name from future years’ competitions.

And that brings us to this year’s competition.