Most common first names in the United States (updated for 2023)

It's our business to know which names are the most popular. So we track newly-born baby names every year and rank them to find out what the most common names are over the last 100 years in the United States.

The birth data comes from Social Security card applications and we actually have data going all the way back to 1880.

All of that data is available but in an effort to not overwhelm you with information we try to focus on recent years.

We're not just showing the same data as the SSA, though! You can click any of the names in the list to find more information about the history and meaning of the name.

(Beat that, SSA!)

Here are the most popular boys and girls names for the last 100 years, from 1924 to 2023.

Male Female
Rank Name Count Name Count
1 James 4,625,363 Mary 3,054,624
2 Robert 4,357,620 Patricia 1,551,808
3 John 4,354,502 Jennifer 1,469,987
4 Michael 4,345,849 Linda 1,448,284
5 David 3,564,272 Elizabeth 1,403,790
6 William 3,484,904 Barbara 1,385,994
7 Richard 2,423,956 Susan 1,103,157
8 Joseph 2,300,049 Jessica 1,048,264
9 Thomas 2,134,536 Sarah 987,732
10 Christopher 2,049,683 Karen 986,709
11 Charles 2,037,956 Lisa 966,159
12 Daniel 1,905,388 Nancy 960,589
13 Matthew 1,620,154 Betty 890,465
14 Anthony 1,409,172 Sandra 874,027
15 Mark 1,349,030 Margaret 867,664
16 Donald 1,308,961 Ashley 853,546
17 Steven 1,284,623 Kimberly 842,721
18 Andrew 1,257,112 Emily 839,846
19 Paul 1,252,337 Donna 822,123
20 Joshua 1,231,302 Michelle 814,243
21 Kenneth 1,204,693 Carol 805,597
22 Kevin 1,178,801 Amanda 773,876
23 Brian 1,170,401 Melissa 755,953
24 George 1,085,858 Deborah 740,449
25 Timothy 1,074,172 Stephanie 739,354
26 Ronald 1,071,731 Dorothy 737,114
27 Jason 1,043,551 Rebecca 729,249
28 Edward 1,041,890 Sharon 722,198
29 Jeffrey 977,623 Laura 711,837
30 Ryan 952,490 Cynthia 705,803
31 Jacob 947,952 Amy 683,154
32 Gary 900,434 Kathleen 680,072
33 Nicholas 899,086 Angela 660,294
34 Eric 882,217 Shirley 653,962
35 Jonathan 857,270 Brenda 607,600
36 Stephen 837,588 Emma 600,812
37 Larry 801,849 Anna 596,649
38 Justin 783,529 Pamela 594,520
39 Scott 770,424 Nicole 591,769
40 Brandon 765,789 Samantha 585,488
41 Benjamin 758,472 Katherine 565,185
42 Samuel 721,821 Christine 557,278
43 Gregory 708,305 Helen 552,703
44 Alexander 691,200 Debra 550,522
45 Patrick 666,181 Rachel 545,644
46 Frank 660,209 Carolyn 537,933
47 Raymond 646,002 Janet 536,725
48 Jack 633,602 Maria 530,981
49 Dennis 610,563 Catherine 527,338
50 Jerry 600,515 Heather 525,371
51 Tyler 597,858 Diane 517,320
52 Aaron 592,045 Olivia 514,993
53 Jose 568,068 Julie 507,070
54 Adam 560,808 Joyce 496,038
55 Nathan 558,970 Victoria 492,988
56 Henry 552,968 Ruth 492,514
57 Zachary 545,913 Virginia 478,066
58 Douglas 545,422 Lauren 472,988
59 Peter 535,380 Kelly 472,858
60 Kyle 482,820 Christina 471,271
61 Noah 464,528 Joan 466,931
62 Ethan 462,968 Evelyn 453,238
63 Jeremy 442,542 Judith 449,653
64 Walter 441,463 Andrea 439,496
65 Christian 438,912 Hannah 439,385
66 Keith 430,292 Cheryl 439,302
67 Roger 425,514 Megan 438,965
68 Terry 422,428 Jacqueline 420,029
69 Sean 421,575 Martha 408,819
70 Austin 421,556 Madison 404,939
71 Gerald 418,792 Teresa 403,495
72 Carl 411,799 Gloria 402,354
73 Harold 408,283 Janice 400,631
74 Dylan 397,782 Sara 399,548
75 Arthur 392,380 Ann 398,197
76 Lawrence 391,246 Abigail 396,115
77 Jordan 390,269 Kathryn 395,600
78 Jesse 386,986 Sophia 388,604
79 Bryan 385,005 Frances 384,820
80 Billy 375,358 Jean 384,181
81 Bruce 374,490 Judy 380,804
82 Gabriel 373,275 Alice 380,182
83 Joe 370,795 Isabella 378,931
84 Logan 367,878 Julia 376,489
85 Alan 353,230 Grace 374,617
86 Juan 351,173 Denise 372,603
87 Albert 348,721 Amber 372,233
88 Willie 348,272 Beverly 370,855
89 Elijah 341,144 Danielle 369,994
90 Wayne 333,019 Marilyn 368,240
91 Randy 328,758 Charlotte 366,983
92 Vincent 323,905 Theresa 364,636
93 Mason 320,453 Natalie 363,042
94 Roy 320,261 Diana 361,781
95 Ralph 314,494 Brittany 359,703
96 Bobby 313,196 Doris 359,337
97 Russell 312,092 Kayla 343,794
98 Bradley 309,375 Alexis 342,628
99 Philip 309,217 Lori 341,488
100 Eugene 308,677 Marie 337,979

You can use the links below to see more of the most common names by gender.

Why is the latest data for 2023?

You might be wondering why we're showing name data for 2023 when we're living in 2024.

This is because the Social Security Administration who collect the data have to first verify it and safeguard privacy. Data from the previous year is released around May each year.

It's not entirely accurate, but the data is usually published on the Friday before Mother's Day.

Based on that assumption, we can expect the data for 2024 to be released on or around May 9, 2025.

Baby name data vs census data

The Census Bureau hasn't released any first name data since 1990 (but they do still release last name data). And even if they did it would only be released every 10 years so it's not a very reliable source of name trends and popularity.

The Social Security Administration records the data from Social Security card applications as people register their babies for a social security card.

Yearly data is much better to spot trends and see what the common and popular names are right now. It's also a great way to see what names are falling out of favor.

It's still slightly delayed so that they can make sure the data is accurate and that they're not releasing any personal information - but it's much less than 10 years.

Data source

It should be pretty obvious given how much we've mentioned them, but the data comes from the Social Security Administration (SSA). They've been collecting data on baby names since 1880.

Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in any geographic area are not included in the data to protect privacy.

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!

<a href="http://namecensus.com/first-names/">Most common first names in the United States (updated for 2023)</a>

"Most common first names in the United States (updated for 2023)". NameCensus.com. Accessed on December 23, 2024. http://namecensus.com/first-names/.

"Most common first names in the United States (updated for 2023)". NameCensus.com, http://namecensus.com/first-names/. Accessed 23 December, 2024

Most common first names in the United States (updated for 2023). NameCensus.com. Retrieved from http://namecensus.com/first-names/.

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