Trends & data stories
The most-given names in American history
100 names · 50 girls · 50 boys · records through 2025
Every year of birth records since 1880, added up. This is the all-time scoreboard — not who is popular now, and not who is alive now, but who was ever given at all.
This guide has 100 names: 50 girl names and 50 boy names. Names ordered by total recorded births across every year in the records, 1880 to the latest release. Built from US Social Security birth records through 2025. Tap + beside any name to keep it on your shortlist as you read.
Before the names
The order is dominated by the long reigns. A name that held #1 for decades accumulates a total no modern chart-topper can approach, because today's popularity is spread across a far wider pool of names.
It is the clearest single view of how much American naming has changed: the leaders here won by being nearly universal, and nothing is nearly universal anymore.
Girl names
50 names
- Mary4.1M born since 1880
- Elizabeth1.7M born since 1880
- Patricia1.6M born since 1880
- Jennifer1.5M born since 1880
- Linda1.5M born since 1880
- Barbara1.4M born since 1880
- Margaret1.3M born since 1880
- Susan1.1M born since 1880
- Dorothy1.1M born since 1880
- Sarah1.1M born since 1880
- Jessica1.1M born since 1880
- Helen1.0M born since 1880
- Nancy1.0M born since 1880
- Betty1.0M born since 1880
- Karen988k born since 1880
- Lisa967k born since 1880
- Anna915k born since 1880
- Emily896k born since 1880
- Sandra876k born since 1880
- Ashley860k born since 1880
- Kimberly846k born since 1880
- Ruth836k born since 1880
- Donna832k born since 1880
- Carol817k born since 1880
- Michelle817k born since 1880
- Laura802k born since 1880
- Amanda791k born since 1880
- Emma776k born since 1880
- Melissa760k born since 1880
- Rebecca756k born since 1880
- Stephanie745k born since 1880
- Deborah743k born since 1880
- Sharon723k born since 1880
- Kathleen714k born since 1880
- Cynthia711k born since 1880
- Amy702k born since 1880
- Shirley686k born since 1880
- Angela673k born since 1880
- Catherine668k born since 1880
- Virginia653k born since 1880
- Katherine651k born since 1880
- Evelyn640k born since 1880
- Brenda608k born since 1880
- Frances596k born since 1880
- Pamela595k born since 1880
- Nicole595k born since 1880
- Samantha593k born since 1880
- Alice588k born since 1880
- Christine586k born since 1880
- Rachel574k born since 1880
Boy names
50 names
- James5.3M born since 1880
- John5.2M born since 1880
- Robert4.8M born since 1880
- Michael4.4M born since 1880
- William4.2M born since 1880
- David3.7M born since 1880
- Joseph2.7M born since 1880
- Richard2.6M born since 1880
- Charles2.4M born since 1880
- Thomas2.4M born since 1880
- Christopher2.1M born since 1880
- Daniel2.0M born since 1880
- Matthew1.7M born since 1880
- Anthony1.5M born since 1880
- George1.5M born since 1880
- Donald1.4M born since 1880
- Paul1.4M born since 1880
- Mark1.4M born since 1880
- Andrew1.3M born since 1880
- Edward1.3M born since 1880
- Steven1.3M born since 1880
- Kenneth1.3M born since 1880
- Joshua1.2M born since 1880
- Kevin1.2M born since 1880
- Brian1.2M born since 1880
- Timothy1.1M born since 1880
- Ronald1.1M born since 1880
- Jason1.1M born since 1880
- Jacob988k born since 1880
- Jeffrey980k born since 1880
- Ryan964k born since 1880
- Nicholas926k born since 1880
- Frank916k born since 1880
- Gary902k born since 1880
- Eric889k born since 1880
- Jonathan871k born since 1880
- Stephen865k born since 1880
- Benjamin827k born since 1880
- Samuel820k born since 1880
- Larry808k born since 1880
- Justin790k born since 1880
- Raymond780k born since 1880
- Scott775k born since 1880
- Brandon771k born since 1880
- Henry769k born since 1880
- Jack757k born since 1880
- Alexander736k born since 1880
- Gregory712k born since 1880
- Patrick687k born since 1880
- Walter631k born since 1880
Every rank and count here is published by the US Social Security Administration and refreshed each year when the new figures land. The method is stated at the top of this page.
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