Messiah
Messiah was given to 1,666 boys in 2025, #207 among boys’ names; 28,100 Americans have been recorded with it since 1973 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 27,900 Americans named Messiah and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 8 years old and half are between 4 and 11.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Messiah by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Messiah?
#207 among boys’ names, 2025
Messiah rose from #243 in 2015 to #207 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.79 to 1.0 per 1,000.
2,265 babies in 2021, the peak
Messiah peaked in 2021, when 2,265 babies were given it (2,231 boys, #172 among boys’ names). The 1,675 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 74% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,666 | #207 | 1.0 |
| 2024 | 1,744 | #203 | 1.0 |
| 2023 | 1,916 | #189 | 1.1 |
| 2022 | 2,024 | #186 | 1.2 |
| 2021 | 2,231 | #172 | 1.3 |
| 2020 | 2,036 | #190 | 1.2 |
| 2019 | 2,037 | #193 | 1.1 |
| 2018 | 2,003 | #203 | 1.1 |
| 2017 | 1,987 | #198 | 1.1 |
| 2016 | 1,794 | #217 | 0.95 |
Every recorded year (50)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,516 | #243 | 0.79 |
| 2014 | 1,188 | #299 | 0.62 |
| 2013 | 974 | #334 | 0.51 |
| 2012 | 769 | #388 | 0.41 |
| 2011 | 369 | #635 | 0.19 |
| 2010 | 371 | #649 | 0.19 |
| 2009 | 369 | #665 | 0.19 |
| 2008 | 337 | #700 | 0.17 |
| 2007 | 322 | #718 | 0.16 |
| 2006 | 256 | #800 | 0.12 |
| 2005 | 198 | #905 | 0.10 |
| 2004 | 136 | #1,155 | 0.07 |
| 2003 | 118 | #1,230 | 0.06 |
| 2002 | 105 | #1,290 | 0.05 |
| 2001 | 99 | #1,319 | 0.05 |
| 2000 | 109 | #1,230 | 0.06 |
| 1999 | 94 | #1,297 | 0.05 |
| 1998 | 44 | #2,114 | 0.02 |
| 1997 | 30 | #2,656 | 0.02 |
| 1996 | 24 | #3,073 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 30 | #2,532 | 0.02 |
| 1994 | 14 | #4,449 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 21 | #3,206 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 22 | #3,070 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 12 | #4,660 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 6 | #7,763 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 11 | #4,354 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 6 | #6,662 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 5 | #7,440 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 9 | #4,556 | under 0.01 |
| 1984 | 6 | #6,071 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 5 | #6,926 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 10 | #4,033 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 5 | #6,718 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 5 | #6,444 | under 0.01 |
| 1977 | 6 | #5,599 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 6 | #5,374 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 6 | #5,227 | under 0.01 |
| 1974 | 8 | #4,061 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 5 | #5,608 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Messiah a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 28,100 Americans recorded as Messiah, 4% are girls and 96% boys. In 2025 it went to 9 girls and 1,666 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Messiah: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Messiah, and how old are they?
27,900 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 28,100 Americans ever recorded as Messiah. The median Messiah alive today is 8 years old; half are between 4 and 11.
The 2020 Census counted 11,767 people named Messiah (758 women and girls, 11,009 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 16,749 born in the U.S. The Census count is 30% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 46 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 174 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 4,320 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 23,300 |
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 Messiah born?
The states with the most babies named Messiah are Texas, Florida and Georgia, with 28% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 185 | #212 | 0.9× |
| Florida | 146 | #150 | 1.3× |
| Georgia | 123 | #91 | 2.3× |
| California | 113 | #321 | 0.5× |
| North Carolina | 87 | #151 | 1.6× |
| New York | 77 | #251 | 1.2× |
| Michigan | 76 | #130 | 1.1× |
| Ohio | 63 | #207 | 0.9× |
| Illinois | 59 | #201 | 1.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 59 | #214 | 0.9× |
Where Messiah is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Messiah is most over-represented in Georgia: since 1973 it was given 2.3 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 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 Messiah 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 6 names spelled alike, given to 29,115 babies since 1880, Messiah is the most given (97% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,675 of their 1,722 babies (97%), 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 Messiah
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 Messiah and names like it
- Compare Messiah and MesiahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sMessiah peaked in 2021.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Messiah since 1910.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Messiah.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Messiah alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with MMost given first.