Memphis
Memphis is given to both girls and boys: 143 girls and 437 boys were given it in 2025 (#1,494 among girls’ names and #640 among boys’, #1,045 among all names counting both); 12,735 Americans have been recorded with it since 1915 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 12,500 Americans named Memphis and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 8 years old and half are between 5 and 15.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Memphis by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Memphis?
#640 among boys’ names, 2025
Memphis rose from #649 in 2015 to #640 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.21 to 0.26 per 1,000.
986 babies in 2021, the peak
Memphis peaked in 2021, when 986 babies were given it (768 boys, #404 among boys’ names). The 580 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 59% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 143 | #1,494 | 437 | #640 |
| 2024 | 133 | #1,585 | 487 | #588 |
| 2023 | 207 | #1,166 | 614 | #488 |
| 2022 | 251 | #1,024 | 705 | #442 |
| 2021 | 218 | #1,131 | 768 | #404 |
| 2020 | 168 | #1,315 | 653 | #455 |
| 2019 | 169 | #1,347 | 711 | #432 |
| 2018 | 145 | #1,510 | 647 | #458 |
| 2017 | 97 | #2,031 | 483 | #563 |
| 2016 | 93 | #2,109 | 429 | #624 |
Every recorded year (44)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 105 | #1,930 | 401 | #649 |
| 2014 | 104 | #1,934 | 371 | #683 |
| 2013 | 82 | #2,274 | 390 | #633 |
| 2012 | 58 | #2,963 | 303 | #755 |
| 2011 | 78 | #2,386 | 316 | #721 |
| 2010 | 63 | #2,798 | 407 | #611 |
| 2009 | 86 | #2,282 | 429 | #602 |
| 2008 | 78 | #2,455 | 351 | #685 |
| 2007 | 52 | #3,276 | 271 | #798 |
| 2006 | 47 | #3,451 | 201 | #934 |
| 2005 | 33 | #4,234 | 152 | #1,088 |
| 2004 | 31 | #4,453 | 150 | #1,067 |
| 2003 | 36 | #3,850 | 135 | #1,129 |
| 2002 | 19 | #6,048 | 152 | #1,016 |
| 2001 | 31 | #4,074 | 113 | #1,198 |
| 2000 | 6 | #14,383 | 12 | #5,783 |
| 1997 | under 5 | 5 | #10,259 | |
| 1996 | 6 | #12,881 | under 5 | |
| 1994 | 6 | #12,833 | under 5 | |
| 1946 | under 5 | 6 | #3,403 | |
| 1941 | under 5 | 6 | #3,379 | |
| 1940 | under 5 | 5 | #3,778 | |
| 1937 | under 5 | 7 | #3,084 | |
| 1930 | under 5 | 5 | #4,357 | |
| 1929 | under 5 | 7 | #3,442 | |
| 1928 | under 5 | 5 | #4,530 | |
| 1925 | under 5 | 6 | #4,036 | |
| 1923 | under 5 | 10 | #2,881 | |
| 1922 | under 5 | 7 | #3,750 | |
| 1921 | under 5 | 7 | #3,762 | |
| 1920 | under 5 | 5 | #4,732 | |
| 1918 | under 5 | 8 | #3,281 | |
| 1916 | under 5 | 8 | #3,094 | |
| 1915 | 5 | #4,746 | under 5 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Memphis a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 12,735 Americans recorded as Memphis, 20% are girls and 80% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Memphis: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Memphis, and how old are they?
12,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 12,735 Americans ever recorded as Memphis. The median Memphis alive today is 8 years old; half are between 5 and 15.
The 2020 Census counted 6,955 people named Memphis (1,311 women and girls, 5,644 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 8,012 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 5 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 3 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 12 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,570 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 8,950 |
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 Memphis born?
The states with the most babies named Memphis are Texas, Ohio and Kentucky, with 23% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Kentucky is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 44 | #888 | 0.9× |
| Ohio | 35 | #394 | 1.3× |
| Kentucky | 34 | #219 | 2.4× |
| North Carolina | 33 | #412 | 1.4× |
| Georgia | 29 | #459 | 1.3× |
| Michigan | 26 | #452 | 1.0× |
| Alabama | 22 | #441 | 1.7× |
| Florida | 21 | #994 | 0.7× |
| Missouri | 21 | #322 | 1.8× |
| Virginia | 19 | #426 | 0.8× |
Where Memphis is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Memphis is most over-represented in Kentucky: since 1915 it was given 2.4 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 boys’ 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 Memphis 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 12,847 babies since 1880, Memphis is the most given (99% of them). In 2025 it was given to 580 of their 580 babies (100%), again the most given.
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 Memphis
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 Memphis and names like it
- Compare Memphis and MemphysBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sMemphis peaked in 2021.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Memphis since 1910.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Memphis.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Memphis alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with MMost given first.