Most Popular Baby Boy Names Since 1970

In this article we'll look at what the most popular baby boy names are since 1970. 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 1970, with a total count for the number of births registered with that given name since 1970.

Rank Name Count
1 Michael 2,256,830
2 Christopher 1,713,524
3 Matthew 1,457,510
4 David 1,403,488
5 James 1,385,552
6 John 1,251,927
7 Daniel 1,227,378
8 Joshua 1,220,671
9 William 1,139,609
10 Joseph 1,139,521
11 Robert 1,106,484
12 Andrew 1,015,077
13 Jason 994,333
14 Ryan 938,399
15 Anthony 927,051
16 Jacob 921,090
17 Nicholas 819,501
18 Brian 773,566
19 Jonathan 773,221
20 Justin 771,489
21 Brandon 759,899
22 Kevin 735,068
23 Thomas 702,746
24 Benjamin 663,012
25 Eric 657,232
26 Alexander 639,766
27 Tyler 592,568
28 Steven 571,940
29 Charles 550,686
30 Timothy 548,239
31 Aaron 539,906
32 Zachary 539,522
33 Richard 533,025
34 Adam 526,421
35 Samuel 518,874
36 Nathan 518,527
37 Mark 462,317
38 Ethan 459,978
39 Kyle 457,786
40 Noah 456,369
41 Jeffrey 455,551
42 Jose 454,620
43 Jeremy 436,061
44 Christian 421,696
45 Austin 409,095
46 Dylan 396,818
47 Jordan 384,909
48 Scott 376,398
49 Patrick 371,031
50 Sean 368,040

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.