Mayor Makes It Official: It Was a Big Year for Isabella and Jayden

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

Looking pink-skinned, diminutive and a little bit wrinkly, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg appeared in City Hall's Blue Room on Wednesday morning to deliver one of the year's more adorable bundles of news: the way we name our babies now.

Flanked by infants and toddlers, the mayor announced the most popular names chosen by New York City parents in 2011: Isabella and Jayden, both retaining their respective gender's top spot for a third year in a row.

Cooing, remarkably well-behaved examples of these leading monikers had been brought to the news conference, parents in tow, to mark the occasion. The mayor, in a more upbeat mood than his often cranky self, seemed delighted with his young guests.

“Don't start crying,” Mr. Bloomberg instructed Isabella Pal, an 11-month-old held aloft by her mother, Natalia Latanzio. “You'll make me look bad.”

Out came the onesies and complim entary bibs, which featured a seal of the city and the insignia, “Official N.Y.C. Baby.” The mayor pinned a bib on Jayden Marthone, who appeared unimpressed.

The city gained 623 Isabellas and 851 Jaydens last year, out of 123,029 New York-born babies in all. Procreative activities waned a bit from 2010, with the number of city births slipping 1.4 percent.

Brooklyn topped the births-by-borough list with 41,303 babies, although few of those will reflect hometown pride: Brooklyn, once a somewhat popular name, ranked 141st on this year's list, behind Santiago and London.

Michael â€" “a fine name,” as Mr. Bloomberg put it â€" moved up two spots to No. 5, a decent showing for a name that had ruled for 51 years as the most popular in the city until being deposed in 2007.

It was a tough year for Sarah, which slipped to No. 11 after charting as high as No. 4 in 2007. Alexander and Aiden cracked the Top 10 after an extended absence. And celebrity names like Ashton, Darwin, Kennedy and Usher popped up farther down in the ranks.

At least one baby in attendance on Wednesday showed a politician's taste for the spotlight.

The baby, Gunnar, began crying soon after Mr. Bloomberg began his remarks. He did not stop until his mother carried him from the audience up to the mayor's podium, where Gunnar took his place in front of the cameras and reporters. He was perfectly content from that point on.

Isabella, which ranked No. 2 nationally last year, is a variant of Elizabeth and means “God's promise.” Jayden, the fourth-ranked boy's name nationally last year, is derived from the Hebrew “Jadon” and means “thankful; God will judge,” according to ThinkBabyNames.com.

Jayden Marthone's mother, Kimberly Harris, was asked after the news conference why she chose that name for her son.

Ms. Harris, of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, laughed.

“I thought it was different,” she said.