The Most Popular Names Over Time

Posted July 6th, 2014

posted by: NameFreak! View all posts by this author

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By Kelli Brady, NameFreak!

Ever wonder which name has been given the most overall? Of course I have! To satisfy my curiosity on the matter, I totaled the raw numbers of all names ever recorded by the SSA since the data has been collected (1880). I must say the results are very interesting!

Since more than 38,000 names have been given to boys and 64,000 names have been given to girls over the years, it is not possible for me to include all of them here. What I did include are the top 25 names as well as any of the #1 names not included in the top 25 and those that have been in the Top 100 every year since 1880.

Symbols:
* Has been #1
+ Has been in Top 100 every year since 1880

GIRLS

1	Mary*	4112231
2	Elizabeth+	1591239
3	Patricia	1570091
4	Jennifer*	1461125
5	Linda*	1450258
6	Barbara	1432454
7	Margaret	1237972
8	Susan	1120028
9	Dorothy	1105244
10	Sarah	1055682
11	Jessica*	1038686
12	Helen	1015038
13	Nancy	1000497
14	Betty	998601
15	Karen	983128
16	Lisa*	963508
17	Sandra	872028
18	Anna	867903
19	Ashley*	831067
20	Donna	830074
21	Kimberly	825168
22	Ruth	818934
23	Carol	815573
24	Michelle	802684
25	Emily*	795955
46	Emma*	572797
134	Sophia*	268598
145	Isabella*	257611

Mary at #1 is no surprise, but the amount of Marys in comparison to the rest of the names might be. Elizabeth is #2, even though she has never ranked #1. She is, however, the only girl name that has been in the Top 100 every year since 1880. But what about Patricia!? She never ranked higher than #3 in the SSA rankings and hasn’t been consistently near the top the entire 134 years, but still comes in at #3. Jennifer at #4 is pretty astounding considering the name wasn’t even used until 1916. Ashley also wasn’t consistently given until the 1940s. The numbers of recent #1s Sophia and Isabella show that while they may seem to be everywhere now, they are definitely the new kids on the block.

BOYS

1	James*+	5090707
2	John*+	5073505
3	Robert*+	4789390
4	Michael*+	4293031
5	William+	4038015
6	David*+	3564806
7	Joseph+	2557478
8	Richard	2552110
9	Charles+	2356638
10	Thomas+	2275664
11	Christopher	1984039
12	Daniel+	1854313
13	Matthew	1539934
14	George	1451300
15	Donald	1408009
16	Anthony	1391262
17	Paul	1378834
18	Mark	1341435
19	Edward	1278445
20	Steven	1270194
21	Kenneth	1264520
22	Andrew+	1244448
23	Joshua	1163596
24	Brian	1155323
25	Kevin	1147119
35	Jacob*	858101
43	Samuel+	706532
105	Noah*	298307

I was shocked to see James ahead of John! They have both been at the top pretty consistently, but I guess John has fallen slightly harder than James. Quite frankly, this entire list is a bit astonishing. The boys have a lot of names that have been in the Top 100 every year since 1880, but you see Richard well ahead several of those names (Richard was firmly in the Top 100 until it fell out after 2007). Brian is relatively high considering it wasn’t even given in the United States until 1900, and Samuel is another constant name that just never spiked. The most recent #1, Noah, is a relative newby.

All of this is also more proof that parents are choosing more of a variety of names nowadays; #1 names are not as widely used currently as they were in the past. And if you compare the girl numbers with the boy numbers, it also shows that parents are much more willing to go with a less common name for their daughter than for their son.

What do you think? Anything particular surprise you?

Originally posted at NameFreak! on May 14, 2014 and revised for Nameberry.