Heather
Heather is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 168 births. Its best rank was 3rd, in 1975.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 1680.01% of girls
- Peak year
- 197524,302 births
- Best rank
- #3in 1975
- Since 1914
- 527,210people given the name
The story in the numbers
525,733 girls have been named Heather in the United States since 1914, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1975, with 24,302 births — 1.7% of all girls recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 168 births in 2024, against 24,302 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1980, and the 1970s alone account for 39%. It has spent 82 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 32 of them in the top 100 and 15 in the top 10.
It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 1,477 boys have also been given it, 0.28% of the total.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Heather | |
|---|---|---|
| 1910s | 13 | |
| 1920s | 27 | |
| 1930s | 434 | |
| 1940s | 1,841 | |
| 1950s | 5,551 | |
| 1960s | 32,703 | |
| 1970s | 203,906 | |
| 1980s | 191,854 | |
| 1990s | 71,625 | |
| 2000s | 13,996 | |
| 2010s | 2,940 | |
| 2020s | 843 |
In 1975, its biggest year
Heather was the 3rd most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1975 were Jennifer, Amy, Heather, Melissa and Angela. See all of 1975.
Names that rose and fell with Heather
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Shalondapeak 1980
- Toshapeak 1980
- Sharondapeak 1980
- Shontapeak 1977
- Niccolepeak 1972
- Taushapeak 1975
- Quintinapeak 1976
- Toshiapeak 1976
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.