There’s a new baby naming trend in town, just in time for 2025.
“The biggest trend I see for 2025 is what I call ‘My Best Friend’s Dad’ names,” baby naming consultant Colleen Slagen told Today, citing names like Scottie, Tommie and Dylan. Basically, 2025 is the year of the gender-neutral girls’ name, Slagen says, including a number of names that have historically been considered just for boys. So naturally, that has us wondering: What does that mean for Jewish baby girl names?
We surveyed our staff and our audience, and if the most popular girls’ name in 2025 will be your Jewish best friend’s dad’s name, then the top 10 names, in no particular order, would be:
1. Stanley
2. Harry/Harold
3. Alan
4. Steve
5. Arnold/Arnie
6. Michael
7. Bruce
8. Roy
9. David
10. Marvin
Other honorable mentions include Herb, Roger, Barry, Neil and Bernie. This list is not a scientific one, and our survey methodology would be called lacking by most, but it is clear that a lot of these names were incredibly popular for Jewish boys of a certain generation.
So what do you think? Do you see them as girls’ names? Steve/Stevie is already a pretty great one thanks to Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks, and I could be sold on Arnie as well. There’s a popular Israeli song about a girl named Michael from Israeli singer Etti Ankri, who wrote and composed it for the celebrated Israeli kids’ song competition the Festigal, so I also love that:
And I also love the idea of naming your girls after your Jewish best friend’s dad, or maybe just your grandpa, a trend that I believe Jewish food maven and Food Network star Molly Yeh helped make attractive when she named her girls Bernie and Ira.
As someone who was given the name Lior, which used to be a boys’ name and is now firmly a unisex one, especially in Israel, I do appreciate the idea that gender neutral and boys’ name are the trend for girls this year, especially because it may mean a turning of a somewhat sexist tide when it comes to girls’ names.
“Typically people have stayed away from gender-neutral names for boys,” Slagen told Today, “and as soon as a name starts being used for girls, it becomes less used for boys.” But now, she adds, “People are leaning more into gender-neutral names for boys.”
While we haven’t quite seen the trend of boys being given gender-neutral or traditionally female names rise in popularity yet, I do hope that it will. In Israel, so many of the boys I know were given gender-natural names like Amit, Osher, Ariel and Aviv.
And there was one name on Slagen’s list, Noah, that actually has been a popular girls’ name in Israel for decades. Achinoam Nini, who goes by the moniker Noa, is one of the country’s most internationally renowned stars. Noa Kirel, the country’s biggest contemporary pop star, recently represented Israel in the Eurovision. Actress Noa Tishby is an icon in pro-Israel circles. Noa Cohen recently starred in the Netflix movie “Mary.” Noa Koler is one of the country’s biggest TV and movie stars, acting in things like “Checkout,” “Fire Dance” and “Rehearsals.” While many of these Noas spell their name without the “h” at the end, because the Hebrew version of the name ends with the letter “hey,” spelling it with the “h” is actually more correct. In the bible, Noah wasn’t just the name of the guy with the ark, but one of the daughters of Zelophehad, too.
If you’re into the gender-neutral trend, the good news is that Hebrew and Jewish tradition has a ton of them. You can find over 20 of them in this list of one-syllable Jewish names.
