Are Baby Names Getting More Unique? What the Data Shows

In 1950, 33.8% of baby boys born in the US were given one of that year's ten most popular names. In 2025, 8% were. For girls the drop runs from 24.1% to 7%. A name in the top 10 today is shared by far fewer classmates than a top-10 name was for your grandparents.

That much is well known. The more surprising part is what has happened since about 2010: the spread of names has slowed, and on some measures it has stopped. We worked through the SSA's national baby name data from 1880 to 2025 to show both halves of the story.

The Top 10 Used to Name a Third of Boys

Here is the share of each sex's births that went to the top 10 and the top 100 names, every ten years.

Year	Boys, top 10	Girls, top 10	Boys, top 100	Girls, top 100
1880	44.2%	24.6%	80.1%	76.5%
1900	34.2%	19.5%	74.7%	68%
1920	31.6%	23.2%	72.1%	65.8%
1940	33.5%	23.1%	75.3%	66.5%
1950	33.8%	24.1%	77.6%	67.9%
1960	29.1%	17%	74.3%	61.7%
1970	26.8%	16.3%	71.6%	56.5%
1980	23.6%	17.1%	69.7%	54.3%
1990	19.5%	16%	65.5%	52%
2000	13.4%	10.2%	55.4%	42%
2010	9%	8.9%	46.9%	34.3%
2020	7.9%	7.9%	39.7%	32.5%
2025	8%	7%	38%	31.5%

A few things stand out.

The first half of the century barely moved. From 1900 to 1950, roughly a third of boys got a top-10 name in almost every decade. Names did not get steadily more varied over time; the boys' figure was a little higher in 1950 than in 1920.

Girls' names have long been more varied. In every year in the first table except 2020, when the two were level, the top 10 covered a smaller share of girls than of boys. In 1950 the gap was nearly ten points.

The big break came after 1950. The fall was gradual through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, then steep: between 1990 and 2010 the boys' top-10 share more than halved, from 19.5% to 9%.

The Number One Name Shrank Most of All

The most popular name of the year used to be a crowd. In 1950 James was the top boys' name, given to 86,228 babies, which was 4.8% of all boys born that year. The top girls' name, Linda, went to 80,433 babies, or 4.7% of girls.

In 2025 the top names were Liam and Olivia. Liam went to 20,818 boys, 1.2% of the total. Olivia went to 13,544 girls, just 0.8% of girls born in the US that year.

So a child named Olivia in 2025 has the most popular girls' name in the country, and still shares it with fewer than one in a hundred girls born that year. That is a very different experience from being one of the Lindas of 1950. For the top names of every decade, see Baby Names by Decade.

Fame at the top doesn't last, either. Linda was #902 in 2025. Michael, the top boys' name of 1975 with 68,418 babies, was #21 in 2025. Jennifer, the top girls' name that year with 58,190 babies, was #586 in 2025. James is the exception: it was still #6 in 2025.

More Names Than Ever? Not Quite

If parents keep reaching for rarer names, you would expect the number of different names in use to keep climbing. For a long time it did. The SSA lists every name given to at least five babies of one sex in a year, and the count of those names grew enormously across the twentieth century.

Year	Different boys' names	Different girls' names
1950	4,196	6,109
1975	6,337	10,618
2000	12,119	17,660
2007	14,394	20,584
2008	14,625	20,482
2015	14,059	19,130
2025	13,930	17,297

Then it stopped. Girls' names peaked at 20,584 in 2007 and boys' names at 14,625 in 2008. By 2025 the count was 17,297 for girls and 13,930 for boys. Part of that is probably just fewer babies, since fewer births means fewer names reach the five-baby cut-off: the SSA counted 2,075,414 boys and 1,922,617 girls in 2007, against 1,708,076 boys and 1,607,267 girls in 2025. Either way, it means the long story of "more and more different names every year" has paused.

Has the Trend Stalled?

For boys, the top-10 share has held almost still since 2017.

Year	Boys, top 10	Girls, top 10
2010	9%	8.9%
2015	8.3%	8.4%
2017	8%	8.4%
2020	7.9%	7.9%
2022	7.7%	7.4%
2025	8%	7%

The boys' figure slipped to 7.7% in 2022 and was back to 8% by 2025. Girls are still spreading out, slowly: 8.4% in 2015, 7% in 2025.

The top 100 tells a similar story. For boys it fell from 46.9% in 2010 to 43.7% in 2015 and 38% in 2025, so boys are still spreading out beyond the top 10. For girls it went from 34.3% in 2010 to 34% in 2015 and 31.5% in 2025.

So the very top of the boys' list has stopped shrinking, while the names just below it keep losing ground. The rush away from the most common names is far slower than it was between 1990 and 2010.

What This Means When You Choose a Name

A top-10 name is less common than it sounds. If you love a name in today's top 10, the chance your child meets several others with it is far lower than it was a generation or two ago. Look at the actual number of babies, not just the rank, on any name page in our name directory.

"Unique" is a moving target. Many parents choose names outside the top 100. In 2025 the top 100 covered 38% of boys and 31.5% of girls, so most children already have a name outside it. A name ranked in the 200s now can feel more distinctive than a top-50 name did in 1980.

Old favorites can be the rare choice. Linda and Jennifer were once the top girls' names. In 2025 Linda went to 294 baby girls and Jennifer to 501 baby girls across the whole US.

Watch the direction, not just the spot. A name that is rising fast may keep rising, so its rank today can understate how common it will be among your child's peers. The fastest-rising names page shows the biggest moves from 2024 to 2025.

How We Got These Numbers

Everything here comes from the US Social Security Administration's national baby name files, covering 1880 to 2025. Shares are each name's births as a percentage of all births of that sex in the SSA files for that year, rounded to one decimal place. Ranks are computed separately for boys and girls, and names with the same count share a rank, so a rank can differ by one place from the SSA's own list. The SSA only publishes names given to five or more babies of one sex in a year, so "different names" means names that reached that threshold, and very rare names are not counted. These are US figures; naming patterns in other countries follow their own paths.

If you want help finding a name that feels right for your family, rare or not, you can try HushName free.

FAQ

Q: Are baby names getting more unique? Over the long run, yes. In 1950, 33.8% of US boys got a top-10 name; in 2025, 8% did. For girls the share fell from 24.1% to 7%. But for boys the figure has barely moved since 2017.

Q: How many babies get the most popular name? In 2025, Liam went to 20,818 boys, 1.2% of boys born in the US, and Olivia went to 13,544 girls, 0.8% of girls. In 1950, James went to 86,228 boys, 4.8% of the total.

Q: Are there more different baby names than ever? No. The number of names given to at least five babies peaked at 20,584 for girls in 2007 and 14,625 for boys in 2008. In 2025 it was 17,297 for girls and 13,930 for boys.

Q: What share of babies get a top 100 name? In 2025, 38% of boys and 31.5% of girls in the US were given a top-100 name. In 1950 it was 77.6% of boys and 67.9% of girls.