How is the rank decided?

We add up every recorded birth for a name from 1880 to 2024, then sort all names from most to least. Ties share a rank. Number 1 is the single most given name in the whole record.

Is this the same as the SSA yearly rank?

Not quite. The SSA publishes a rank for each single year. Ours is an all-time rank across the full 145 years combined, which is more stable and better for comparing rarity.

Baby Name Rank Lookup

Find any name's all-time U.S. rank among more than 100,000 names.

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Where your name sits

Rank is the simplest way to say how common a name is: number 1 is the most given name of all time, and the numbers climb as names get rarer. We rank every one of the 104,819 first names in the SSA record by total births from 1880 to 2024.

The top of the list

The all-time top ten are James, John, Robert, Michael, William, Mary, David, Joseph, Richard, Charles. To be ranked in the top 1,000 at all puts a name ahead of more than 99 percent of everything else on the list, so even a "mid-rank" name is more common than most.

Rank plus rarity

Your card pairs the rank with the "1 in X" rarity figure, because the two together tell the full story. A name can rank high overall yet feel uncommon in your generation if it peaked long ago, which is exactly what the decade graph reveals.

Frequently asked questions

How is the rank decided?: We add up every recorded birth for a name from 1880 to 2024, then sort all names from most to least. Ties share a rank. Number 1 is the single most given name in the whole record.
Is this the same as the SSA yearly rank?: Not quite. The SSA publishes a rank for each single year. Ours is an all-time rank across the full 145 years combined, which is more stable and better for comparing rarity.