Desire
Desire is given to both girls and boys: 82 girls and 13 boys were given it in 2025 (#2,244 among girls’ names and #6,542 among boys’, #3,661 among all names counting both); 5,468 Americans have been recorded with it since 1915 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 5,340 Americans named Desire and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 25 years old and half are between 14 and 35.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Desire by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Desire?
#2,244 among girls’ names, 2025
Desire rose from #2,564 in 2015 to #2,244 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 39.2 to 51.0 per million.
164 babies in 2008, the peak
Desire peaked in 2008, when 164 girls were given it, #1,439 among girls’ names. The 95 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 58% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 82 | #2,244 | 51.0 |
| 2024 | 87 | #2,183 | 53.7 |
| 2023 | 92 | #2,096 | 57.3 |
| 2022 | 94 | #2,054 | 57.3 |
| 2021 | 94 | #2,048 | 57.3 |
| 2020 | 90 | #2,054 | 55.7 |
| 2019 | 84 | #2,206 | 50.0 |
| 2018 | 95 | #2,050 | 55.8 |
| 2017 | 104 | #1,933 | 60.2 |
| 2016 | 105 | #1,913 | 59.3 |
Every recorded year (70)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 70 | #2,564 | 39.2 |
| 2014 | 73 | #2,479 | 40.9 |
| 2013 | 86 | #2,176 | 49.0 |
| 2012 | 91 | #2,105 | 51.7 |
| 2011 | 105 | #1,900 | 59.7 |
| 2010 | 101 | #1,980 | 56.8 |
| 2009 | 145 | #1,558 | 78.9 |
| 2008 | 164 | #1,439 | 86.7 |
| 2007 | 126 | #1,729 | 65.5 |
| 2006 | 133 | #1,608 | 70.0 |
| 2005 | 129 | #1,582 | 69.8 |
| 2004 | 113 | #1,716 | 61.5 |
| 2003 | 119 | #1,617 | 65.1 |
| 2002 | 133 | #1,433 | 74.0 |
| 2001 | 137 | #1,386 | 76.1 |
| 2000 | 133 | #1,396 | 73.2 |
| 1999 | 147 | #1,259 | 82.9 |
| 1998 | 125 | #1,372 | 70.7 |
| 1997 | 124 | #1,377 | 71.2 |
| 1996 | 117 | #1,415 | 66.7 |
| 1995 | 145 | #1,181 | 82.5 |
| 1994 | 129 | #1,314 | 72.2 |
| 1993 | 136 | #1,257 | 75.2 |
| 1992 | 149 | #1,174 | 80.8 |
| 1991 | 147 | #1,180 | 78.4 |
| 1990 | 115 | #1,370 | 60.6 |
| 1989 | 89 | #1,571 | 48.3 |
| 1988 | 99 | #1,410 | 55.6 |
| 1987 | 108 | #1,294 | 62.1 |
| 1986 | 88 | #1,450 | 51.3 |
| 1985 | 90 | #1,410 | 52.3 |
| 1984 | 74 | #1,541 | 43.9 |
| 1983 | 86 | #1,380 | 51.5 |
| 1982 | 59 | #1,829 | 34.8 |
| 1981 | 54 | #1,963 | 32.4 |
| 1980 | 47 | #2,162 | 28.3 |
| 1979 | 45 | #2,193 | 28.0 |
| 1978 | 50 | #1,944 | 32.6 |
| 1977 | 28 | #2,850 | 18.3 |
| 1976 | 28 | #2,743 | 19.1 |
| 1975 | 26 | #2,825 | 17.8 |
| 1974 | 17 | #3,733 | 11.6 |
| 1973 | 16 | #3,823 | 11.0 |
| 1972 | 25 | #2,763 | 16.4 |
| 1971 | 17 | #3,687 | 10.2 |
| 1970 | 21 | #3,138 | 12.0 |
| 1969 | 15 | #3,660 | 8.9 |
| 1968 | 11 | #4,271 | 6.7 |
| 1967 | 8 | #5,094 | 4.8 |
| 1966 | 11 | #4,014 | 6.5 |
| 1965 | 10 | #4,268 | 5.7 |
| 1964 | 15 | #3,409 | 7.9 |
| 1963 | 15 | #3,369 | 7.8 |
| 1962 | 10 | #4,335 | 5.1 |
| 1961 | 12 | #3,829 | 5.9 |
| 1960 | 7 | #5,303 | 3.5 |
| 1959 | 13 | #3,476 | 6.4 |
| 1958 | 12 | #3,591 | 6.0 |
| 1957 | 5 | #6,293 | 2.4 |
| 1955 | 6 | #5,349 | 3.1 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Desire a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 5,468 Americans recorded as Desire, 98% are girls and 2% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Desire: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Desire, and how old are they?
5,340 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 5,468 Americans ever recorded as Desire. The median Desire alive today is 25 years old; half are between 14 and 35.
The 2020 Census counted 5,162 people named Desire (4,806 women and girls, 356 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,784 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 80 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 352 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,640 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,010 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,250 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Desire born?
The states with the most babies named Desire are Florida, Texas and Ohio, with 45% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 8 | #1,584 | 0.9× |
| Texas | 7 | #2,703 | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 7 | #1,175 | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 6 | #1,285 | 1.1× |
| North Carolina | 6 | #1,315 | 0.6× |
| New York | 5 | #2,175 | 1.3× |
| Georgia | 5 | #1,593 | 0.5× |
| Missouri | 5 | #969 | 0.2× |
Where Desire is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Desire is most over-represented in New York: since 1915 it was given 1.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Desire with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 110,449 babies since 1880, Desire is the third most given (5.0% of them). In 2025 it was given to 95 of their 320 babies (30%), the second most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Desire
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Desire and names like it
- Compare Desire and DesireeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sDesire peaked in 2008.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Desire since 1910.
- The top names of 2008The year the most babies were named Desire.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Desire alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with DMost given first.