Popularity of birth names for males in the United States lists the most popular names given baby boys between 1926 and 2025. The most popular names given baby boys are also listed by decades beginning in the 1880s. The data illustrates the rise and fall in the popularity of names given to baby boys.

The Social Security Administration rank orders for popular names from 1926 to 2025. Thus the numerical ranking does not take into account births between 1880 and 1925. The ranking is also influenced by the varying number of children born in each decade. The years in which total births reached a peak in numbers with more than four million births are 1954-1964 and 2000-2009. Names popular in those years would likely rank higher on this list that names popular in years in which fewer births were recorded. In addition, people born before 1937 but alive in that year sometimes did not register for social security cards and are not included in the data.

Three names -- James, John, and William -- are among the top 30 most popular given names in every decade from the 1880s until 2025. The most popular boys names for the 2010s and 2020s were Liam and Noah. They have only recently become popular and did not make the list of fifty most popular names from 1926 to 2025.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) compiled this information about births. In accordance with SSA practice, names are listed with the exact spelling of the birth name. For example, "Steven" and "Stephen" are listed separately.

Rank in popularity of birth names given males born in the United States (a dash means not in top 200 names) name 1926-2025 rank 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s James 1 3 3 3 3 3 2 1 1 4 5 6 13 17 9 4 Michael 2 50 54 45 44 52 35 9 2 1 1 1 1 2 7 16 John 3 1 1 1 1 2 3 3 4 3 6 9 15 18 26 21 Robert 4 9 8 6 4 1 1 2 3 5 7 8 20 36 64 85 David 5 20 29 31 29 22 11 6 5 2 4 5 12 12 18 29 William 6 2 2 2 2 4 4 4 6 7 9 15 18 10 4 6 Richard 7 23 27 22 15 8 5 5 7 8 16 27 41 90 146 - Joseph 8 7 6 7 5 7 10 13 13 12 11 10 10 9 20 28 Thomas 9 10 12 10 10 11 9 8 8 9 20 24 26 37 49 43 Christopher 10 177 - - - - - 147 49 20 2 2 2 6 27 57 Charles 11 5 5 5 7 5 6 7 10 17 23 33 43 58 50 50 Daniel 12 31 41 49 52 45 42 22 19 19 12 7 8 5 12 15 Matthew 13 127 141 165 150 171 - 192 99 36 10 3 3 4 16 35 Anthony 14 93 78 48 38 41 47 45 30 22 22 20 19 11 21 46 Mark 15 145 155 190 - - 183 54 9 6 18 34 48 111 190 - Steven 16 - - - - - - 29 11 11 19 25 35 79 145 - Andrew 17 27 34 40 46 56 75 87 64 38 28 13 7 7 25 60 Donald 18 - 101 52 20 10 7 12 14 25 42 66 134 - - - Joshua 19 - - - - - - - - - 24 4 4 3 23 58 Paul 20 44 22 20 14 14 14 17 17 18 27 40 64 130 200 - Kevin 21 - - - - - - 167 27 14 13 23 25 33 75 186 Kenneth 22 - 125 53 30 19 15 16 16 21 31 46 66 121 195 - Brian 23 - - - - - - 112 34 16 8 16 36 62 174 - Timothy 24 190 - - - - - 63 22 13 21 26 38 82 140 - Ronald 25 - - - 170 93 13 10 15 24 43 67 136 - - - Jason 26 - - - - - - - - 88 3 11 45 50 78 141 George 27 4 4 4 6 6 8 15 25 33 53 68 107 144 - - Edward 28 11 9 9 8 9 12 18 23 29 40 57 86 131 158 - Jeffrey 29 - - - - - - 88 24 10 15 29 54 161 - - Jacob 30 49 73 98 121 168 - - - - 78 35 5 1 3 30 Ryan 31 - - - - - - - - - 25 14 14 15 35 77 Nicholas 32 180 181 153 110 131 152 148 140 144 51 19 6 14 55 103 Gary 33 - - - - - 45 14 12 26 47 78 174 - - - Eric 34 - - - - - - 151 74 28 14 21 29 63 123 - Jonathan 35 - - - - - - 199 128 77 32 18 21 19 42 79 Stephen 36 89 105 96 89 116 105 25 11 11 19 36 49 137 - - Larry 37 - - - - 190 30 11 18 35 58 95 200 - - - Justin 38 - - - - - - - - - 38 12 17 29 90 190 Benjamin 39 32 47 65 74 91 121 135 137 130 44 31 30 25 11 10 Scott 40 - - - - - - 164 36 15 17 38 79 - - - Brandon 41 - - - - - - - - - 52 17 11 21 71 - Samuel 42 17 25 32 40 46 63 65 73 85 64 52 33 24 22 19 Alexander 43 82 93 97 102 137 189 185 - - 107 50 23 13 8 17 Gregory 44 - - - - - - 64 26 23 29 45 75 191 - - Patrick 45 77 86 100 151 143 104 58 40 32 37 37 42 97 157 - Jack 46 66 44 29 23 17 18 35 60 102 146 167 100 40 40 14 Frank 47 6 7 8 9 12 16 21 35 43 65 88 147 - - - Raymond 48 57 26 21 16 15 17 23 38 45 61 76 118 189 - - Dennis 49 122 162 188 - 174 71 20 21 39 59 98 178 - - - Aaron 50 149 186 182 - - - - - 127 35 32 31 52 48 70 Source:

Top 50 male birth names: Top year in rank and numbers of babies given that name (1880-2025) name 1926-2025 rank Top year in ranking Percentage of male babies given name in top year Most male babies born with this name (year) Most popular years (In top 30 of male birth names) James 1 1944 5.539% 94,767 (1947) 1880-2025 Michael 2 1969 4.656% 92,781 (1957) 1937-2025 John 3 1880 8.200% 88,324 (1947) 1880-2025 Robert 4 1931 5.657% 91,655 (1947) 1880-2001 David 5 1955 4.129% 86,306 (1955) 1880-1894, 1916-2021 William 6 1880 8.051% 67,002 (1947) 1880-2025 Richard 7 1946 3.567% 58,870 (1946) 1880-1987 Joseph 8 1914 2.756% 32,749 (1956) 1880-2024 Thomas 9 1951 2.525% 48,467 (1952) 1880-1986 Christopher 10 1984 3.198% 60,021 (1984) 1960-2014 Charles 11 1880 4.517% 40,781 (1947) 1880-1980 Daniel 12 1985 2.004% 38,559 (1985) 1880-1883, 1942-2025 Matthew 13 1983 2.694% 50,209 (1983) 1967-2020 Anthony 14 1987 1.186% 25,088 (1990) 1956-2016 Mark 15 1960 2.712% 58,727 (1960) 1948-1990 Steven 16 1955 1.811% 38,413 (1956) 1946-1992 Andrew 17 1987 1.856% 36,206 (1987) 1880-1885, 1972-2015 Donald 18 1934 2.863% 30,408 (1934) 1881, 1970-2012 Joshua 19 1985 2.193% 44,100 (1989) 1974-2014 Paul 20 1964 1.326% 27,012 (1946) 1892-1976 Kevin 21 1965 1.487% 30,131 (1963) 1954-1997 Kenneth 22 1951 1.352% 28,064 (1957) 1915-1973 Brian 23 1973 2.212% 36,305 (1972) 1957-1991 Timothy 24 1967 1.607% 30,783 (1959) 1951-1990 Ronald 25 1943 2.010% 34,899 (1947) 1931-1970 Jason 26 1974 3.359% 55,631 (1977) 1969-1988 George 27 1880 4.329% 27,476 (1921) 1880-1957 Edward 28 1882 2.030% 21,126 (1924) 1880-1966 Jeffrey 29 1966 1.662% 33,537 (1962) 1953-1985 Jacob 30 1998 1.777% 36,031 (1998) 1998-2021 Ryan 31 1985 1.554% 29,905 (1985) 1973-2013 Nicholas 32 1995 1.450% 29,160 (1995) 1978-2008 Gary 33 1951 1.996% 38,754 (1952) 1937-1966 Eric 34 1972 1.316% 23,571 (1970) 1965-1994 Jonathan 35 1985 1.253% 24,349 (1988) 1980-2010 Stephen 36 1951 1.176% 23,055 (1952) 1943-1971 Larry 37 1947 1.881% 34,946 (1947) 1936-1961 Justin 38 1981 1.751% 35,055 (1981) 1970-1999 Benjamin 39 1981 0.771% 15,733 (1989) 1888-1889, 1984-1989, 1996-2025 Scott 40 1971 1.700% 30,901 (1971) 1958-1979 Brandon 41 1985 1.523% 29,628 (1992) 1981-2006 Samuel 42 1880 0.506% 14,813 (2001) 1880-1899, 1996-2025 Alexander 43 1993 0.994% 20,530 (1993) 1990-2025 Gregory 44 1962 1.045% 21,976 (1962) 1950-1973 Patrick 45 1968 0.736% 14,692 (1964) 1964, 1967-1968 Jack 46 1921 1.102% 12,802 (1927) 1900, 1903-1940, 1944, 2019-2025 Frank 47 1880 2.738% 17,018 (1918) 1880-1950 Raymond 48 1919 1.121% 12,873 (1924) 1891-1949 Dennis 49 1946 1.300% 24,552 (1952) 1941-1959 Aaron 50 1981 0.789% 15,308 (1976) 1981-1984, 1992-1995 Source: Note: Year of most popularity is listed by percentage of total male births. In a few cases, there may be more births with that name in one year but a higher percentage of births with that same name in another year.

Footnotes