Welcome back for March Madness Baby Names 2026 Girls Quarter Finals!
Every year, we spend the month of March in a friendly competition. We take the sixteen wild, wonderful, most-viewed names at Appellation Mountain from the prior year, and set them up, bracket-style. The competition reveals just one girls’ champ and a single victor on the boys’ side, too.
For more details on past winners, and this year’s competition, check out the Opening Round.
Now let’s jump right in to the results from last week’s match-ups.
MARCH MADNESS BABY NAMES 2026: RESULTS FROM OPENING ROUND
Astrid swept past Tallulah with 60% of the vote. Both names are rising in use, but Astrid is the more popular of the two, both in the US stats and, apparently, with AM readers.
Mabel garnered nearly 81% of the total against Scottie. I think vintage tends to outperform modern names here, but whoa – this was a big win!
Just a handful of votes carried Rumi to victory over Vesper. These two are both rare, offbeat choices. But Rumi’s ties to smash hit K Pop Demon Hunters might explain how the name pulled off a victory.
Lovely Lillian trounced literary rarity Valancy with over 75% of the total. Traditional and established Lillian is one of those names nearly everyone likes, making Valancy a true longshot.
Nearly 61% of the vote went to Celeste over Lila. This feels like a particularly challenging match-up.
Darcy walloped James with almost 85% of the count. No surprises here – nearly any name facing James-for-a-girl in the opening round tends to win in a landslide, but Darcy is having a moment.
Romilly scored a solid win with more than 76% of the vote against true blue Azura. Two obscure names faced off in this match, but Romilly is a long-time favorite with the AM community.
Sylvia came out on top with a neat 60%/40% split over Harriet. A battle of two vintage girls’ names, Sylvia is rising in the current US Top 1000, while Harriet lingers just outside. This outcome wasn’t too surprising.
MARCH MADNESS BABY NAMES 2026: GIRLS QUARTERFINALS
That leaves us with just eight remaining contenders, and four match-ups, in the quarterfinals.
And may I just say? Some of these are gonna hurt!
ASTRID versus SYLVIA
MABEL versus ROMILLY
RUMI versus DARCY
LILLIAN versus CELESTE
Polls remain open until Wednesday, March 18th.
Check back on Saturday, March 21st to see if your favorites advance – and, of course, to vote in the next round!
