What the numbers count
The US Social Security Administration (SSA) publishes yearly counts of names given to babies born in the United States. This site holds 145 years, 1880 to 2024. Three rules shape every figure:
- A name appears only when it was given to at least 5 babies in a year.
- Each spelling is counted separately.
- Counts come from Social Security card applications, so they reflect births in the United States only.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, Popular Baby Names (national data, 1880-2024). Counts are Social Security card applications for births in the United States; names with fewer than 5 births in a year are not listed, and spelling variants are counted separately. Baby Name Wizard is not affiliated with or endorsed by the SSA.
Rank and births
Rank is the position of a name on that year's list for one sex. Births is the number of babies. They answer different questions, and the same rank has meant a different number of babies in different years:
| List position | Births in 1950 | Births in 2000 | Births in 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 80,431 | 25,959 | 14,718 |
| 10 | 25,705 | 15,080 | 8,094 |
| 100 | 3,503 | 3,305 | 2,620 |
| 200 | 1,354 | 1,609 | 1,520 |
Position n is the n-th name on that year’s list, counted from the top.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, Popular Baby Names (national data, 1880-2024). Counts are Social Security card applications for births in the United States; names with fewer than 5 births in a year are not listed, and spelling variants are counted separately. Baby Name Wizard is not affiliated with or endorsed by the SSA.
The top name in 2024 had 14,718 births among girls, while the name in hundredth place had 2,620.
The top of the list
| Rank | Name | Births |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Olivia | 14,718 |
| 2 | Emma | 13,485 |
| 3 | Amelia | 12,740 |
| 4 | Charlotte | 12,552 |
| 5 | Mia | 12,113 |
| 6 | Sophia | 12,088 |
| 7 | Isabella | 10,770 |
| 8 | Evelyn | 9,116 |
| 9 | Ava | 8,662 |
| 10 | Sofia | 8,094 |
Rank is SSA competition rank: names with equal births share the lowest position, so a rank can be skipped.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, Popular Baby Names (national data, 1880-2024). Counts are Social Security card applications for births in the United States; names with fewer than 5 births in a year are not listed, and spelling variants are counted separately. Baby Name Wizard is not affiliated with or endorsed by the SSA.
| Rank | Name | Births |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liam | 22,164 |
| 2 | Noah | 20,337 |
| 3 | Oliver | 15,343 |
| 4 | Theodore | 12,011 |
| 5 | James | 11,793 |
| 6 | Henry | 11,547 |
| 7 | Mateo | 11,302 |
| 8 | Elijah | 11,171 |
| 9 | Lucas | 10,703 |
| 10 | William | 10,596 |
Rank is SSA competition rank: names with equal births share the lowest position, so a rank can be skipped.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, Popular Baby Names (national data, 1880-2024). Counts are Social Security card applications for births in the United States; names with fewer than 5 births in a year are not listed, and spelling variants are counted separately. Baby Name Wizard is not affiliated with or endorsed by the SSA.
Why ranks can be shared
When two names have the same number of births, they share a rank and the next position is skipped. This is called competition ranking:
| Shared rank | Births each | Names |
|---|---|---|
| 118 | 2,303 | Eliza, Margaret |
| 145 | 1,987 | Remi, Sage |
| 148 | 1,982 | Hallie, Wrenley |
| 159 | 1,877 | Freya, Piper |
| 170 | 1,778 | Isabelle, Olive |
The first 5 tied ranks within the top 1,000, in rank order.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, Popular Baby Names (national data, 1880-2024). Counts are Social Security card applications for births in the United States; names with fewer than 5 births in a year are not listed, and spelling variants are counted separately. Baby Name Wizard is not affiliated with or endorsed by the SSA.
Reading one name over time
| Year | Rank | Births |
|---|---|---|
| 1900 | 95 | 256 |
| 1950 | 283 | 556 |
| 1980 | 414 | 393 |
| 2000 | 305 | 978 |
| 2024 | 3 | 15,343 |
"Not listed" means SSA does not publish the name that year (fewer than 5 births) or it had not been used yet.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, Popular Baby Names (national data, 1880-2024). Counts are Social Security card applications for births in the United States; names with fewer than 5 births in a year are not listed, and spelling variants are counted separately. Baby Name Wizard is not affiliated with or endorsed by the SSA.
A year marked "not listed" means SSA does not publish the name that year, because it had fewer than 5 births or had not been used yet.
Limits to remember
- Spellings are separate. A name's total can be split across several spellings.
- Boys and girls are ranked separately. A name given to both sexes has two ranks.
- Our match is partial. 6,618 name-and-sex listings in the latest file match a spelling in our dataset, which is smaller than SSA's full file.
- Top lists are shallow in older years. For years before 2015 we store the top 200 names per sex; from 2015 onward, the top 1,000. A single name's history, by contrast, covers every year the name was listed.
- Rank is not a recommendation. It describes what parents did, and says nothing about how a name will feel to your child.
Where this appears on the site
Name pages show each name's SSA history. The baby names by year pages show the top lists and the biggest movers for each year. For rare names see unique baby names.