Woosh! That’s the sound of a three-pointer. (And the crowd goes wild.)
But it’s also the sound of time rushing past as we arrive at the final match in this year’s March Madness Baby Names tournament.
Every year, we take the sixteen most popular names at Appellation Mountain for the prior calendar year, and they square off, tournament-style, until we have just one final winner.
That first round of sixteen is always a mix of curiosities and favorites.
For this year, the contenders were:
- JAMES
- TALLULAH
- LILA
- NOA
- WILLOW
- RUE
- BETTY
- NAVY
- WEDNESDAY
- VESPER
- ELOWEN
- MAISIE
- DULCIE
- OAKLEY
- ENOLA
- BERNADETTE
Thousands of votes narrowed this list to just four names competing in the SemiFinals. Let’s take a look at those results now.
MARCH MADNESS BABY NAMES 2024: SEMIFINALS RESULTS
MAISIE DEFEATS BERNADETTE
Sparky, retro Maisie swept past the equally sparky and retro Bernadette with nearly 58% of the vote. The difference? Probably that Maisie has followed names like Sadie and Millie up the popularity charts and is a well-established favorite. Bernadette, meanwhile, is still outside of the current US Top 1000 – even though it’s gaining in use. Maybe next year! For now, Maisie advances to the Final!
LILA TAKES DOWN TALLULAH
Long-time favorite Lila garnered over 62% of the total to best Tallulah. With several competing spellings, gauging Lila’s popularity has always been tough. But there’s no question it’s on many parents’ lists these days. As for Tallulah, it’s a rare T name perched just outside of the current US Top 1000 – meaning it’s even closer to discovery than Bernadette. Maybe they’ll be the Final match in 2025, but this time around? Lila is headed to the big showdown.
MAISIE VERSUS LILA
And with that, your vote decides which name wins the whole March Madness Baby Names for 2024. Vote here:
The name that your votes choose will join past winners:
- Louisa – 2011
- Genevieve – 2012
- Isla – 2013
- Cora – 2014
- Cora – 2015*
- Sylvie – 2016
- Wren – 2017
- Eliza – 2018
- Margot – 2019
- Tess – 2020
- Magnolia – 2021
- Marigold – 2022
- Gemma – 2023
Voting stays open until Friday, March 29th. Check back on Saturday, March 30th to see which name wins it all!
