Ocean
Ocean is given to both girls and boys: 345 girls and 375 boys were given it in 2025 (#787 among girls’ names and #720 among boys’, #885 among all names counting both); 8,233 Americans have been recorded with it since 1971 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026). Boys have outnumbered girls among babies named Ocean every year since 2020.
An estimated 8,160 Americans named Ocean and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 6 years old and half are between 3 and 16.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ocean by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ocean mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Ocean is “a female given name from English, of modern usage.” Its etymology gives the sense “sea” (ocean).
From ocean (“sea”), inspired by the fashionable French female name Océane.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ocean?
#720 among boys’ names, 2025
Ocean rose from #1,821 in 2015 to #720 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.04 to 0.22 per 1,000.
855 babies in 2022, the peak
Ocean peaked in 2022, when 855 babies were given it (473 boys, #596 among boys’ names). The 720 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 84% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 345 | #787 | 375 | #720 |
| 2024 | 328 | #832 | 485 | #592 |
| 2023 | 335 | #823 | 466 | #609 |
| 2022 | 382 | #755 | 473 | #596 |
| 2021 | 313 | #871 | 368 | #712 |
| 2020 | 213 | #1,130 | 292 | #795 |
| 2019 | 193 | #1,212 | 184 | #1,087 |
| 2018 | 119 | #1,737 | 166 | #1,158 |
| 2017 | 77 | #2,379 | 111 | #1,505 |
| 2016 | 85 | #2,260 | 105 | #1,574 |
Every recorded year (41)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 65 | #2,731 | 82 | #1,821 |
| 2014 | 79 | #2,344 | 84 | #1,791 |
| 2013 | 62 | #2,799 | 87 | #1,705 |
| 2012 | 58 | #2,968 | 63 | #2,148 |
| 2011 | 43 | #3,645 | 70 | #1,981 |
| 2010 | 57 | #3,000 | 80 | #1,825 |
| 2009 | 60 | #2,922 | 89 | #1,739 |
| 2008 | 75 | #2,529 | 113 | #1,461 |
| 2007 | 91 | #2,192 | 99 | #1,590 |
| 2006 | 67 | #2,692 | 83 | #1,708 |
| 2005 | 93 | #2,027 | 67 | #1,902 |
| 2004 | 73 | #2,360 | 45 | #2,469 |
| 2003 | 66 | #2,483 | 69 | #1,756 |
| 2002 | 56 | #2,734 | 54 | #2,035 |
| 2001 | 50 | #2,909 | 32 | #2,904 |
| 2000 | 46 | #3,052 | 28 | #3,125 |
| 1999 | 43 | #3,088 | 27 | #3,071 |
| 1998 | 57 | #2,447 | 32 | #2,631 |
| 1997 | 71 | #2,015 | 35 | #2,381 |
| 1996 | 39 | #3,069 | 32 | #2,467 |
| 1995 | 33 | #3,401 | 25 | #2,895 |
| 1994 | 39 | #3,020 | 38 | #2,159 |
| 1993 | 23 | #4,486 | 24 | #2,916 |
| 1992 | 19 | #5,199 | 10 | #5,533 |
| 1991 | 10 | #8,409 | 6 | #7,960 |
| 1990 | 16 | #5,751 | 6 | #7,825 |
| 1989 | 11 | #7,303 | under 5 | |
| 1988 | 8 | #8,974 | under 5 | |
| 1975 | 9 | #6,297 | under 5 | |
| 1974 | 8 | #6,677 | 6 | #5,065 |
| 1971 | 5 | #9,213 | 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 Ocean a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 8,233 Americans recorded as Ocean, 46% are girls and 54% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Ocean: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ocean, and how old are they?
8,160 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 8,233 Americans ever recorded as Ocean. The median Ocean alive today is 6 years old; half are between 3 and 16.
The 2020 Census counted 3,534 people named Ocean (1,715 women and girls, 1,819 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,948 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10% 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 | 26 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 330 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,970 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 5,840 |
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 Ocean born?
The states with the most babies named Ocean are California, Florida and Texas, with 34% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 90 | #605 | 1.3× |
| Florida | 71 | #473 | 1.6× |
| Texas | 61 | #822 | 0.6× |
| New York | 59 | #497 | 1.0× |
| Georgia | 30 | #835 | 0.9× |
| North Carolina | 28 | #530 | 0.7× |
| Ohio | 28 | #782 | 0.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 24 | #833 | 0.5× |
| New Jersey | 23 | #514 | 0.5× |
| Michigan | 23 | #558 | 0.4× |
Where Ocean is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Ocean is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1971 it was given 5.1 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 Ocean with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Ocean
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 Ocean and names like it
- Compare Ocean and JirehBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sOcean peaked in 2022.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ocean since 1910.
- English namesWiktionary’s origin for Ocean: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Ocean.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Ocean alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with OMost given first.