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.
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.
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.
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.
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 October 5, 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 5 October, 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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