Detroit — boys' name
148 babies named Detroit in U.S. Social Security records since 1914, with the highest year being 1922. Year-by-year trend, decade aggregates, and state-level rankings drawn from federal birth data.
34% of everyone ever named Detroit was born in this single decade.
12 babies were named Detroit in 1922 — its busiest year on record.
What the Data Says About Detroit
The Social Security Administration has registered 148 babies named Detroit between 1914 and 2022, spanning 109 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a boy's name, Detroit currently falls outside the top 1,000 boys' names for 2022. The name reached its historical peak in 1922, when 12 babies received it in a single year.
Decade-level aggregation shows that Detroit performed strongest in the 1920s, accumulating 51 births during that ten-year window. Across the 9 decades of recorded activity, Detroit shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in Virginia, which accounts for 5 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by . In total, SSA state-level files list Detroit in 1 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.
No etymological entry is currently available for Detroit in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 148 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.
Detroit at a glance
Last recorded 2022Peak year
Current rank
Active since
Detroit popularity over time
Annual U.S. births registered with the Social Security Administration · 2022–1914
- Peak year (1922)
- 12
- Annual births at peak — across 109 years of records
No longer in the modern top-1000 — last recorded 2022.
148 total births across 109 years of SSA records. Peaked in 1922 with 12 births in a single year.
Detroit by decade
Total births in each ten-year window — peak vs trough at a glance
- Peak decade
- 1920s
- 51 births that decade — 34% of Detroit's all-time total
Detroit decade highlights
- Peak decade 51 births
- Runner-up 35 births
- Modern era share 2010s + 2020s
- Decades tracked with recorded births
1920s was Detroit's strongest decade
51 babies received the name during that ten-year window — about 34% of all-time use.
Detroit by state
Where Detroit concentrates geographically — total births since 1914
| Rank | State | Visual share | Births | Share of total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Virginia | | 5 | 3.4% |
5 of 148 births nationwide.
Top 5 states
- Virginia 3.4% of nationwide
Recorded in 1 of 51 SSA jurisdictions
Virginia accounts for 3.4% of all recorded births nationwide — a relatively diffuse profile for this name.
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Data Sources
Data as of 2024. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA).
Primary: Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, Baby Names from Social Security Card Applications — National Data, 1914–2022 (ssa.gov/oact/babynames). National-level data includes all names with 5 or more occurrences in a given year.
State-level: Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, Baby Names — State-Level Files (namesbystate.zip). Includes all names with 5 or more occurrences per state per year; rarer names are excluded for privacy.