Name Years

How many babies in the US were given a first name, every year since 1880, from the Social Security Administration's count of every name given to five or more babies.

Names

Every year, as a table

Data: the US Social Security Administration's national baby names file (public domain), births 1880–2025, taken from the Internet Archive's copy of it. The state maps use the SSA's names by state file (births from 1910, also via the Internet Archive), which withholds a name given to fewer than five babies of a sex in a state in a year. Each state is set against the US rate of the same years, so a name that peaked before a state grew is not called rare there. France is Insee's fichier des prénoms (édition 2025, Licence Ouverte 2.0), births in France from 1900 by first given name, each count rounded by Insee to the nearest five, so a spelling given to one or two babies in a year is not there; Insee warns the file is incomplete before 1946. Its accented and hyphenated spellings are matched to the US name with the same letters (Léo and Leo are both Leo), and French “per 1,000” is per 1,000 babies of the same sex in Insee's file. England and Wales is the Office for National Statistics' baby names (1996 to 2025, Open Government Licence v3.0), births registered there by exact first name, any name given to fewer than three babies of a sex in a year left out; its spellings are matched to the US name the same way, and “per 1,000” is per 1,000 babies of the same sex in the ONS count. It counts Social Security card applications by sex at birth, so it is US-born only, thin before 1937 (when cards began), and silent on any name given to fewer than five babies of a sex in a year: a line that drops to zero may mean four. “Per 1,000” is per 1,000 babies of the same sex born that year, so a boom year does not look like a fashion. “Half of all born by” is of everyone ever given the name. “Alive” is an estimate: each year's babies times the share of that year's births still alive, from the SSA's cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report), so it leaves out anyone who moved to or from the US and knows nothing about one name's people living longer than another's. A name that is a real share of both sexes gets a line for each. Built by Claude for matmat202.