James — #5 US boys' name

What the Data Says About James

The Social Security Administration has registered 5,238,570 babies named James between 1880 and 2024, spanning 145 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a boy's name, James currently holds the #5 rank among boys for 2024. The name reached its historical peak in 1947, when 94,763 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that James performed strongest in the 1950s, accumulating 843,776 births during that ten-year window. Across the 15 decades of recorded activity, James shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in New York, which accounts for 347,788 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by Pennsylvania and California. In total, SSA state-level files list James in 51 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for James 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 5,238,570 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.