Unique
Unique is given to both girls and boys: 73 girls and 46 boys were given it in 2025 (#2,456 among girls’ names and #2,791 among boys’, #3,159 among all names counting both); 8,569 Americans have been recorded with it since 1972 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 8,440 Americans named Unique and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 23 years old and half are between 15 and 30.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Unique by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Unique?
#2,456 among girls’ names, 2025
Unique fell from #1,564 in 2015 to #2,456 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 79.0 to 45.4 per million.
310 babies in 2009, the peak
Unique peaked in 2009, when 310 babies were given it (292 girls, #922 among girls’ names). The 119 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 38% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 73 | #2,456 | 46 | #2,791 |
| 2024 | 88 | #2,176 | 51 | #2,634 |
| 2023 | 104 | #1,920 | 33 | #3,556 |
| 2022 | 101 | #1,960 | 24 | #4,424 |
| 2021 | 126 | #1,665 | 14 | #6,310 |
| 2020 | 121 | #1,697 | 11 | #7,458 |
| 2019 | 114 | #1,799 | 14 | #6,379 |
| 2018 | 113 | #1,812 | 10 | #8,106 |
| 2017 | 127 | #1,696 | 11 | #7,498 |
| 2016 | 119 | #1,755 | 10 | #8,099 |
Every recorded year (53)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 141 | #1,564 | 11 | #7,455 |
| 2014 | 151 | #1,484 | 16 | #5,704 |
| 2013 | 147 | #1,508 | 17 | #5,379 |
| 2012 | 213 | #1,156 | 10 | #8,092 |
| 2011 | 221 | #1,119 | 15 | #5,918 |
| 2010 | 230 | #1,091 | 17 | #5,457 |
| 2009 | 292 | #922 | 18 | #5,305 |
| 2008 | 233 | #1,112 | 21 | #4,695 |
| 2007 | 226 | #1,140 | 24 | #4,235 |
| 2006 | 239 | #1,067 | 30 | #3,519 |
| 2005 | 268 | #930 | 21 | #4,314 |
| 2004 | 234 | #1,013 | 32 | #3,150 |
| 2003 | 221 | #1,036 | 32 | #3,036 |
| 2002 | 243 | #921 | 38 | #2,598 |
| 2001 | 272 | #842 | 37 | #2,610 |
| 2000 | 248 | #889 | 37 | #2,569 |
| 1999 | 259 | #835 | 35 | #2,553 |
| 1998 | 245 | #865 | 32 | #2,644 |
| 1997 | 253 | #819 | 35 | #2,391 |
| 1996 | 264 | #790 | 31 | #2,528 |
| 1995 | 215 | #882 | 23 | #3,093 |
| 1994 | 172 | #1,058 | 24 | #3,021 |
| 1993 | 185 | #1,002 | 18 | #3,649 |
| 1992 | 179 | #1,039 | 30 | #2,457 |
| 1991 | 144 | #1,200 | 16 | #3,798 |
| 1990 | 123 | #1,320 | 8 | #6,369 |
| 1989 | 137 | #1,192 | 27 | #2,460 |
| 1988 | 103 | #1,382 | 14 | #3,692 |
| 1987 | 93 | #1,422 | 12 | #3,939 |
| 1986 | 80 | #1,537 | 5 | #7,760 |
| 1985 | 75 | #1,601 | under 5 | |
| 1984 | 60 | #1,811 | 8 | #4,943 |
| 1983 | 56 | #1,882 | 8 | #4,875 |
| 1982 | 38 | #2,531 | 9 | #4,568 |
| 1981 | 52 | #2,026 | under 5 | |
| 1980 | 51 | #2,067 | 7 | #5,497 |
| 1979 | 60 | #1,813 | under 5 | |
| 1978 | 29 | #2,855 | 7 | #5,029 |
| 1977 | 37 | #2,422 | under 5 | |
| 1976 | 15 | #4,352 | 5 | #6,465 |
| 1975 | 14 | #4,588 | under 5 | |
| 1974 | 5 | #10,183 | under 5 | |
| 1972 | 6 | #8,236 | 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 Unique a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 8,569 Americans recorded as Unique, 89% are girls and 11% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Unique: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Unique, and how old are they?
8,440 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 8,569 Americans ever recorded as Unique. The median Unique alive today is 23 years old; half are between 15 and 30.
The 2020 Census counted 5,953 people named Unique (5,268 women and girls, 685 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,714 born in the U.S. The Census count is 23% 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 | 224 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,150 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 4,280 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,780 |
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 Unique born?
The states with the most babies named Unique are Georgia, Florida and Illinois, with 66% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia | 10 | #979 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 7 | #1,871 | 1.0× |
| Illinois | 6 | #1,391 | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 6 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Indiana | 6 | #1,023 | 0.3× |
Where Unique is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Unique is most over-represented in New York: since 1972 it was given 1.6 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 girls’ 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 Unique 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 9,057 babies since 1880, Unique is the most given (95% of them). In 2025 it was given to 119 of their 119 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 Unique
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 Unique and names like it
- Compare Unique and UniquaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sUnique peaked in 2009.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Unique since 1910.
- The top names of 2009The year the most babies were named Unique.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Unique alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with UMost given first.