Most Popular Baby Boy Names Since 1950

In this article we'll look at what the most popular baby boy names are since 1950. These names are taken directly from the Social Security card applications for births that occurred in the United States.

The table below shows the top 50 most popular baby boy names since 1950, with a total count for the number of births registered with that given name since 1950.

Rank Name Count
1 Michael 3,927,337
2 James 2,914,040
3 David 2,907,302
4 John 2,763,233
5 Robert 2,587,600
6 William 2,152,240
7 Christopher 2,028,970
8 Joseph 1,722,576
9 Daniel 1,713,115
10 Matthew 1,599,296
11 Thomas 1,484,166
12 Richard 1,442,326
13 Mark 1,286,254
14 Anthony 1,266,841
15 Joshua 1,228,221
16 Steven 1,196,172
17 Andrew 1,173,174
18 Kevin 1,165,486
19 Charles 1,161,228
20 Brian 1,144,061
21 Jason 1,040,671
22 Timothy 1,023,343
23 Ryan 951,701
24 Jeffrey 942,196
25 Jacob 931,577
26 Nicholas 864,492
27 Eric 862,756
28 Paul 849,468
29 Jonathan 846,433
30 Kenneth 807,599
31 Justin 780,498
32 Brandon 765,353
33 Scott 755,062
34 Benjamin 712,468
35 Stephen 702,280
36 Alexander 666,125
37 Gregory 659,707
38 Gary 637,777
39 Ronald 630,932
40 Donald 626,244
41 Samuel 616,888
42 Tyler 596,873
43 Patrick 590,612
44 Edward 583,219
45 Aaron 577,127
46 Adam 553,095
47 Zachary 545,177
48 Nathan 544,191
49 Jose 528,088
50 George 504,284

More Popular Baby Names

You can also use the links below to research more about the most popular baby names.

Top 1000 most popular boy names: 1-250 | 251-500 | 501-750 | 751-1000

Top 1000 most popular girl names: 1-250 | 251-500 | 501-750 | 751-1000

Historical Data for Baby Names

If you're interested to see how the trends and popularity of baby names have changed, you can use the links below to view the historical data by decade.

Most popular first names, 1880-present | since 1950 | since 1960 | since 1970 | since 1980 | since 1990 | since 2000 | since 2010

Most popular boy names, 1880-present | since 1950 | since 1960 | since 1970 | since 1980 | since 1990 | since 2000 | since 2010

Most popular girl names, 1880-present | since 1950 | since 1960 | since 1970 | since 1980 | since 1990 | since 2000 | since 2010

Data Source(s)

All of the data on this page is sourced from the Social Security Administration (SSA) and excludes any names with fewer than 5 occurrences in any geographic area.