LOADING NAMES

About data

The data used to create this website was gathered from the social security records of births from 1936 to 2016. The data is sorted into Female and Male (Sex assigned at birth) categories, and includes all names with a length of 2 to 15 characters.

The data displays the number of newborns with a given name by year if the name was given 5 or more times in that year. This restriction on the data is intended to protect the anonymity of individuals who appear in the dataset.

You can review the original documentation and download the source data at the social security website.

Follow the name graphs to see how long 1936's names stuck around and how recently the 2016 top 10 jumped into the lead.

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Illustration of baby name popularity charts

Every year, new baby names compete for the #1 spot. Use this site to follow the rise and fall of American baby names and trace your name's popularity over the past 80 years.

Names are categorized by Sex assigned at birth, per social security dataset

1936
Mary
Shirley
Barbara
Betty
Patricia
Dorothy
Joan
Nancy
Margaret
Carol
JUDY 1977
BIRTHS: 23,456 RANK: 8th
Emma
Olivia
Ava
Sophia
Isabella
Mia
Charlotte
Abigail
Emily
Harper
1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
2016
1936
1936
Judy
10th
Joan
7th
Barbara
3rd
Betty
4th
Dorothy
6th
Carol
9th
Patricia
5th
Mary
1st
Shirley
2nd
Nancy
8th
Baby search illustration

Please type names without (-) dashes or spaces

Enter your first name:

Search gender-neutrally

Nicholas

Christopher

Here's your name stats

Rank
2,000,897

Births (1936-2016)

20th

Highest rank (1994)

20

Years in top 10

20 1200
1977
BIRTHS: 18906
1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010