Brooklyn and Naythyn Among First Babies of 2014

Baby close up
The first babies of 2014 have a diverse slate of names. (Image credit: OLJ Studios, Shutterstock)

The Y's have it in 2014, if the first baby names of the year are anything to go on.

Brooklyn, Layla, Rylee and Naythyn were among the first babies born in the United States on New Year's Eve, according to baby-naming website Name Candy, which tracks the first babies in each state. Naythyn, born at 12:09 a.m., hails from Oregon, while Rylee (a boy) was born at 6:34 a.m. in West Virginia. Layla is the year's first North Dakotan with a 2:51 a.m. birth time. The New Year welcomed two new Brooklyns, one at 12:03 a.m. in Colorado and another in Maryland at 12:07 a.m.

Other Y-heavy names include Adilyn, born in Nebraska, and Maya, the first new Kentucky resident of the year.

The names represent the diversity of kids' monikers, with only Brooklyn showing up more than once, and none of the names appearing in the national top 10 for 2013. Baby names have become increasingly diverse. In the early 1900s, about 5 percent of babies were given the No. 1 name of their birth year; today, the top name is shared by only about 1 percent of new bundles of joy. [Sophia's Secret: The 10 Most Popular Baby Names]

Melodious and vowel-heavy names are currently popular for girls. In 2012, Sophia, Emma and Isabella were the top three feminine names in the United States, according to Social Security Administration data. Boy names are slightly less likely to shift with trends, though surnames as first names are popular. Jacob, Mason and Ethan were the top three boy names in 2012.

Some of the first names of 2014 reflect the country's ethnic and racial diversity. Sa Aht, the first baby born in Kansas, is the son of Burmese parents raised in Thailand who now have American citizenship, according to Name Candy.

Picking the first baby of the year is sometimes too close to call. In Colorado, for example, baby Brooklyn entered the world at Avista Adventist Hospital in Louisville, Colo., at the same moment that another little girl, Bo Elizabeth, was born in Colorado Springs.

Arizona, Ohio and Utah all had babies born right at midnight. Their names were Vivianna (Arizona), Korbin Michael (Ohio) and Anthony John and May Shelly (a tie in Utah).

New York appears to have taken the title for first babies of the year, given time zone differences. A girl named Tenzin Choetso and a girl named Shannon-Lee joined the world at 12:00:01 a.m. and 12:00:04 a.m., respectively.

Perhaps the oddest New Year's birth comes from Washington, D.C., however. At 12:03 a.m., a little boy named Brandon was born. His sister, Lorraine, preceded him by five minutes — meaning these two twins have different birth years.

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Stephanie Pappas
Live Science Contributor

Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. Stephanie received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.