The debate had gone on for months. Kyle Viverito and his wife, Michelle, were compiling a list of baby names ahead of the birth of their first child, but failing to reach a consensus. The Massapequa couple knew they were having a girl.
But her name?
"My wife likes more unique names, I like more standard ones," Viverito said Friday. "We were really having trouble reaching an agreement."
Then, one evening Michelle's mother, Linda, said: "What about Mia?"
Viverito said, "We just looked at each other and were like, 'Yeah, that works.'"
It was a choice just ahead of the baby name curve, because Mia Viverito was born Oct. 24, 2023. A poll just released by the Social Security Administration found Mia was the most-popular baby name for girls born in New York state -- in 2024.
The top five names in New York in 2024 were: Liam, Noah, Lucas, Ethan and Joseph for boys; Mia, Emma, Sophia, Olivia and Isabella for girls.
The top 10 baby names in the U.S. last year were: Liam, Noah, Oliver, Theodore, James, Henry, Mateo, Elijah, Lucas and William for boys; Olivia, Emma, Amelia, Charlotte, Mia, Sophia, Isabella, Evelyn, Ava and Sofia for girls.
Long Island hospitals and health organizations contacted by Newsday, among them Stony Brook University Hospital and Northwell Health, said they don't compile favored baby name lists.
But, according to the SSA website, a hundred years ago, Mary, Dorothy, Betty, Helen and Margaret were perennially the most-popular girls' names of the mid-to-late 1920s in America, while the most-popular boys' names were Robert, John, James, William and Charles.
While Olivia and Liam have anchored the top spot in the nation since 2019, 2024 marked the first time Mia crashed the top five.
"Who knew we'd pick a name that would be most-popular?" Viverito said. "We'd tried the baby name apps, friends, Google ... We finally had a list, I want to say, of like names, 12 each. But, none of them really stood a chance. We couldn't agree on anything. It's not an easy decision."
Erica Forthman, of Massapequa Park, and her husband, Kevin, used a baby name app to come up with a list, each picking names they liked until the app highlighted five or six they'd selected in common. Among their choices were: Cameron, Henry, Benjamin and Nico. Liam was born Oct. 2.
"To be honest," Forthman, a geriatric nurse at Mount Sinai-South Nassau Hospital in Oceanside, said, "I'm a little disappointed to hear it ended up being so popular. I thought we'd picked something unique."
So, what's in a name?
"Everything," Viverito said. "My daughter is Mia now -- and she's nobody else. I look at her and I can't see a Sophia, can't see a Jessica, can't see an Olivia. You tell me Mia was the most-popular name the year after she was born, all I can say is great minds all over Long Island and New York think alike."
The Viveritos were ahead of the baby name curve in 2023. Will they be ahead of it again this year?
Michelle is scheduled to deliver a boy Tuesday via cesarean section at Long Island Jewish Medical Center-Northwell Health in New Hyde Park.
"We've got it down to two names," Viverito said. "Actually, we've got it pretty much narrowed down to one. ... but neither of our choices is on the 2024 list."