Isabella, Jayden top NYC baby name list for third time in 2011

Mayor Michael Bloomberg gets cute with baby Jayden Marthone, with his parents Stanley Marthone and Kimberly Harris.

New Yorkers need to get more creative when it comes to naming their progeny.

For the third year in a row, Jayden and Isabella are the city’s most popular baby names, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday.

Of all recorded birth certificates in 2011, New York City saw more than 600 Isabellas and more than 800 Jaydens.

The mayor was accompanied by two Brooklyn babies: Borough Park’s Isabella Pal and her mother Natalia Lattanzio, and Jayden Marthone of Crown Heights, with his parents Stanley Marthone and Kimberly Harris. The mayor presented each baby with a onesie declaring them “Made In New York” and an “Official New York Baby” bib in either red or blue.

Jayden’s parents said they had no idea their newborn son’s name was so common and they were in fact trying to be unique when they chose that name for the boy.

Other names they considered include Jonathan and Christian, but Harris said she was “looking for something different.”

“We thought it was different,” she said. “We were shocked.”

Other popular baby names for girls include Sophia (#2) and Sofia (#10). The mayor noted that Michael — “a fine name” — moved up a couple notches to the fifth most popular name, from seventh in 2010.

The life expectancy of babies born in New York City exceeds the national average by 2.5 years, the mayor noted.

“[This] hasn’t happened by accident,” Bloomberg said. “This is a result of all the steps we’ve taken in New York to ensure that our babies have the best possible start in life, and get off to a safe and healthy childhood.”

Here are the most popular names for NYC babies in 2011: