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By Jeff Reid · October 22, 2026

Everybody thinks their baby's name is special until they enroll in kindergarten. Social Security card applications with birth years from 1880 to 2025 tell the story of name popularity in America. Trace the rise and fall of Jennifer and the ascendance of Olivia. Watch Shaquille burst on the scene in 1993 and follow the long slow decline of Michael.

Key findings

• James spent 113 consecutive years in the boys' top 10 (1880–1992); Mary was the #1 girls' name for 67 straight years (1880–1946).
• In 1880, 8.7% of boys were named John and 7.8% of girls Mary. In 2025 the leaders had 1.2% (Liam) and 0.8% (Olivia).
• The ten most popular boys' names covered 44% of boys born in 1880 and 8% of those born in 2025; for girls, 25% fell to 7%.
• Debra went from #59 to the top 10 in two years (1950–1952); Brittany fell from the top 10 to outside the top 100 in six (1995–2001).
• The sharpest one-year fads: Kizzy (1977, after Roots), Taft (1908), Shaquille (1993) and Alexa (2015) each lost more than 95% of their share within ten years of peaking.
• Betty peaked at #2 in 1930 and has not appeared in the top 1,000 since 1996; Shirley (#2 in 1935) last appeared in 2008.

Some of my favorite data visualizations I’ve seen in my time on the internet have been tracing the popularity of names. Names are personal. But the data shows how culture moves in herds. I couldn’t help myself from building this out, replacing some of the sites lost to the Internet Archives.

The name data is publicly available via the Social Security Administration’s annual tabulation of first names on Social Security card applications, by year of birth and sex. It includes every name given to at least five babies of one sex in a year, nationally from 1880 and by state from 1910. Ranks are within sex and year, with ties sharing the higher rank. Shares are of the births SSA records for that sex and year (or that state, sex and year), which slightly understate the true totals because names under five occurrences are withheld.

Three things to keep in mind. Social Security did not exist until 1936, so people born before then appear only if they lived long enough to apply for a number as an adult; the 1880s and 1890s are thin and skewed toward those who survived into the 1940s, and the counts are not close to complete until the late 1930s. Spelling variants are separate names (Katherine, Catherine and Kathryn are three lines). And a name’s page shows it for the sex it was most often given to, with a switch where both appear.

Five entries from 1989 that were truncated to eight letters in SSA’s file (Christop, Alexande, Jacqueli, Nathanie, Cassandr) are dropped. Territories (Puerto Rico and the other territories, from 1998) are not shown.

Source: Social Security Administration, Beyond the Top 1000 Names.