145 years of US births
How popular is a name — and when?
Every name has a curve: a rise, a peak, sometimes a comeback. Look one up.
Top girls’ names of 2024
Top boys’ names of 2024
Climbing fastest
- Ailany#1000+ → #101 in five years
- Wrenley#1000+ → #149 in five years
- Wrenlee#1000+ → #354 in five years
- Raya#1000+ → #363 in five years
- Colter#969 → #218 in five years
- Aziel#952 → #253 in five years
- Eithan#850 → #227 in five years
- Eliam#1000+ → #381 in five years
Pick a year
The hundred most given names of any year since 1880 — try the year you were born.
Lists worked out from the data
Fastest rising names
The biggest climbs in rank between 2019 and 2024.
Fastest falling names
The steepest drops in rank between 2019 and 2024.
Comeback names
Old favourites that sank for decades and are climbing again.
Names used for both sexes
Where the smaller side is at least 15% of everyone given the name.
Never out of the top 100
In the top 100 every single year since 1880.
One-decade names
Names so tied to one decade that it holds half of everyone who has them.
About the data
Where do the numbers come from?
From the US Social Security Administration, which publishes how many babies were given each name in every year of birth from 1880 to 2024. The files used here were tabulated on 2 March 2025. They are a work of the US government and in the public domain.
Why are there no name meanings here?
Because the data has none. It records how many babies were given a name — nothing about its language, origin or meaning. Rather than copy or guess etymologies, this site sticks to what can be counted.
How is the rank worked out?
Exactly as the SSA does it: within each sex and year, names are ordered by number of births, ties alphabetically, and the position in that list is the rank. We show ranks down to 1,000, as the SSA does.
Why do the early years look small?
The counts cover people who have a Social Security number. Many people born before 1937 never applied for one, so births from those years are under-counted. Shares and ranks are less affected than raw counts.
Can I search in my own alphabet?
Yes. Type Иван, Μαρία, José or Zoë and the search brings the name into the letters A–Z, which is all the US records use, and tolerates a small typo. It matches letters, not meanings: Иван finds Ivan, not John.
Why can’t I find a rare name?
Two reasons. The SSA withholds any name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year, to protect privacy. And this site has a page for every name with at least 1,000 recorded births — 11,712 of the 104,819 in the source. Below that, a name’s curve is mostly gaps.