Our reading of data from the U.S. Social Security Administration. Spot an error? Tell us at hello@adatastory.com.

Baby names · U.S. Social Security Administration Social Security card applications · births 1880–2025 · names given to 5+ babies a year

In 1947, 99,692 American girls were named Linda. In 2025, 294 were. Every name has its moment. Here are 146 years of them.

Top 10 namesBabies given each name, per yearUnited States
2025
No. 1 Olivia
Bars are scaled to each year's most popular name.
Which spellings are combined, and how we decided

The Social Security records count every spelling as a separate name. To add spellings up, we had to decide, pair by pair, whether two names are really one name. We did it in three steps.

  1. Find look-alikes. Code paired up names given to the same sex that sound alike, such as Catherine and Kathryn or Jackson and Jaxon. That made 33,085 pairs where the more common name was given to at least 5,000 babies and the rarer one to at least 500.
  2. Ask Jev. Jev, a model from TypeSafe that answers fixed-choice questions with a probability for each answer, sorted every pair into one of five kinds: the same name spelled differently (Sophia, Sofia); the same name with another ending (Sophia, Sophie); another language's version (Mary, Maria); a nickname (Katherine, Kate); or different names (Ava, Eva). Only the first two kinds are combined, and only when Jev gave them at least 95% together. Jev's answer can depend on which name comes first, so we asked every pair both ways round and kept the lower answer.
  3. Build families and check them. Each family is named after its most common spelling, and every other spelling was compared with that name directly, so nothing joins through a chain of look-alikes. We read the largest families and overruled Jev on 11 pairs it got wrong, such as Kayla and Kyla or Brandon and Brenden. The long tail of small families is Jev's call alone.

It's still a judgment call. If you disagree with a family, write to hello@adatastory.com. These are the families that reach a year's top 10:

Download all 1,409 families (CSV, with Jev's probability for each spelling).

Block 1 · Number one

Mary was the top girls' name for 76 of 82 years

From 1880 to 1961, only Linda, from 1947 to 1952, took the top spot from Mary. Boys' names changed even less often: just eight names have ever been number one. John held it for the first 44 years of the records, and Michael for 44 years too, from 1954 to 1998, with a single year for David in 1960.

Today it's Liam, number one since 2017, and Olivia, since 2019. Count spellings together, though, and the girls' list changes: Sophia, Sofia, Sophie and two rarer spellings add up to 24,940 girls in 2025, nearly twice as many as Olivia. Tick "Rank with spellings combined" above to see it.

Every No. 1 name1880–2025, one car per reignHover or tap a car

Block 2 · Variety

In 1950, one boy in three got a top-10 name. Today it's one in twelve

Parents have spread out. The records show 1,889 different names in 1880 and 28,638 in 2025. The ten most popular boys' names went from 33.8% of boys in 1950 to 8.0% in 2025. For girls, the top ten fell from 24.1% to 7.0%.

10 boys, 10 name blocks2025Blue: one of that year's top-10 names · Wood: a real name from further down the list

Different names recorded28,638in 2025, up from 1,889 in 1880
Boys with a top-10 name8.0%in 2025, down from 33.8% in 1950
Girls with a top-10 name7.0%in 2025, down from 24.1% in 1950
Babies given a top-10 name% of babies of each sexA bead every 10 years
Block 3 · Seasons

Linda, Lisa, Jennifer, Jessica: each had its moment

Popular names rise and fall in waves. Linda peaked in 1947 with 99,692 babies, Debra in 1955, Lisa in 1965, Jennifer in 1972, and Jessica and Ashley in 1987. In 2025, each was given to fewer than 2,000 girls. Debra went to just 31.

Girls given each namePer 1,000 girls bornSame scale in every chart
Block 4 · Names in the spotlight

Khaleesi arrived with Game of Thrones

Khaleesi, a title from Game of Thrones, first appears in the records in 2011, the year the series premiered, and reached 565 girls in 2018. Arya, another of its characters, went from 113 girls in 2005 to 3,051 in 2019. Elsa doubled the year after Frozen came out, from 566 in 2013 to 1,140 in 2014, then faded to 216.

Nevaeh, heaven spelled backwards, doesn't appear before 1997 and reached 6,818 girls in 2007.

Names can fall as fast as they rise. Hillary was given to 2,520 girls in 1992, then to 1,064 in 1993 and 409 in 1994. The dates line up with events, but a chart like this shows timing, not cause.

Girls given each namePer year, since 1990Scales differ

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