What is the most popular baby name in Alabama?

The most popular boy name in Alabama is James with 160,037 births since 1910. The most popular girl name is Mary with 116,898 births. These rankings are based on cumulative SSA birth registration data.

How have baby names changed in Alabama over the decades?

Alabama is TREND-LED today: latest-year leaders already differ from the all-time book on both sexes. Decade #1s moved from James/Mary (1910s) to William/Olivia (2020s).

How many babies are named in Alabama?

Our data covers 2,426,633 name registrations in Alabama for the top 50 boys and top 50 girls names (DENSE volume stamp · #19 of 51 jurisdictions). The SSA records all names with 5 or more occurrences per state per year, from 1910 through 2025.

State name profile

Most Popular Baby Names in Alabama

The boys' and girls' names most often given in Alabama, ranked by total recorded births in Social Security Administration state data, 1910–2025.

Compiled byNameAlmanac, Independent data publisher

James
#1 boy name: Mary
#1 girl name: 2,426,633
Births recorded: 1910–2025
Years covered

Alabama's all-time #1 names are James for boys and Mary for girls, based on 2,426,633 SSA birth registrations since 1910.

According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, Alabama has recorded 2,426,633 births across its top 50 boy and top 50 girl names since 1910. James leads all boys with 160,037 births, while Mary tops the girls with 116,898. This profile covers decade-by-decade leaders and the full top-50 rankings for both sexes.

James #1 boy name
Mary #1 girl name
2,426,633 births recorded

Where Alabama sits by recorded name volume

Alabama: 6,143,935 SSA name registrations (DENSE · rank 19/51). Inventory signal only, orthogonal to the top-50 lists below.

Alabama vs all states by SSA name registrations

Where this state's disclosed SSA name-state registration total sits among every tracked jurisdiction

6,143,935 19th of 51 higher than 32 of 51 states

Jurisdictions, banded by SSA name-registration count

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source Social Security Administration state baby-name files · 2026-08-11

Alabama naming snapshot

According to SSA state files through 2025, Mary is #1 of 116,898 cumulative SSA births in Alabama ≠ Charlotte #1 of 938 2025 girl names at all-time rank #51; James is #1 of 160,037 cumulative SSA births in Alabama ≠ John #1 of 881 2025 boy names at all-time rank #3.

Charlotte
2025 girls #1, all-time #51: Mary
all-time girls #1, 2025 #6: John
2025 boys #1, all-time #3: James
all-time boys #1, 2025 #3

Both sexes in Alabama already split latest-year vs all-time leaders, cumulative totals since 1910 and 2025 use different denominators.

Data updated Aug 2026

Both sexes trend-led

Where Alabama's latest-year leaders split from the all-time book

Alabama stamps DENSE on disclosed SSA name-state volume (6,143,935 · #19/51). Cumulative top-50 leaders are James (160,037 boy births) and Mary (116,898 girl births) across 2,426,633 top-50 registrations since 1910. Both sexes are TREND-LED: the latest 2025 #1 differs from the all-time cumulative #1 on each side. Boy top-50 share 1,475,510 vs 951,123 for girls.

In Alabama, the latest SSA year #1 differs from the all-time cumulative #1 for both boys and girls, a dual trend split against the long book.

Decade shifts, SSA coverage, and comparability

Decade-by-decade data for Alabama extends back to 1910. In the 1910s, the #1 boy name was James and the #1 girl name was Mary. By the 2020s, the top names had shifted to William for boys and Olivia for girls.

SSA state files include any name appearing five or more times in a given state-year; lower-frequency names are suppressed for privacy. Figures are comparable across all 50 states and DC. Alternate spellings (Sophia vs Sofia) are separate names; middle names are not tracked. This page is for informational and research purposes.

Charlotte

224
Amelia

204
Olivia

203
Elizabeth

163
Emma

158
Mary

155
Harper

150
Ava

143
Eleanor

143
Ellie

141

What this shows Charlotte leads 2025 girls in Alabama; Mary remains the all-time cumulative #1 at rank #51 in 2025.

John

343
William

331
James

292
Liam

255
Noah

246
Oliver

217
Hudson

199
Samuel

199
Henry

196
Elijah

184

What this shows John leads 2025 boys in Alabama; James remains the all-time cumulative #1 at rank #3 in 2025.

Mary

116,898
Annie

34,772
Betty

33,144
Linda

30,300
Elizabeth

30,127
Dorothy

28,522
Barbara

27,216
Patricia

26,540
Sarah

24,144
Margaret

23,556

What this shows Mary leads Alabama girls with 116,898 recorded births.

James

160,037
William

104,361
John

99,083
Robert

82,462
Charles

62,023
Michael

59,026
David

53,131
Willie

47,979
Thomas

40,790
Christopher

38,256

What this shows James leads Alabama boys with 160,037 recorded births.

Decade-by-Decade Leaders

The #1 boy and girl name in Alabama for each decade

How we calculated this

For each decade, we sum every year's SSA state-level birth count per name, then take the single name with the highest ten-year total for each sex. A name can lead a decade with a strong single peak year or with steady, moderate demand across all ten years, the total treats both the same way.

Decade	Top Boy	Births	Top Girl	Births
1910s	James	12,966	Mary	14,509
1920s	James	25,011	Mary	24,759
1930s	James	22,672	Mary	22,055
1940s	James	26,822	Mary	21,268
1950s	James	22,418	Mary	14,136
1960s	James	16,153	Lisa	7,459
1970s	Michael	11,375	Jennifer	8,418
1980s	Christopher	9,976	Jessica	7,787
1990s	Christopher	6,635	Ashley	5,077
2000s	William	5,904	Madison	3,831
2010s	William	4,246	Ava	2,872
2020s	William	1,987	Olivia	1,417

Boy Top 50 Boy Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	James	160,037
2	William	104,361
3	John	99,083
4	Robert	82,462
5	Charles	62,023
6	Michael	59,026
7	David	53,131
8	Willie	47,979
9	Thomas	40,790
10	Christopher	38,256
11	Joseph	36,350
12	George	30,374
13	Richard	28,785
14	Kenneth	24,342
15	Larry	22,839
16	Billy	22,765
17	Jerry	22,521
18	Joshua	22,255
19	Henry	21,834
20	Donald	21,261
21	Timothy	20,429
22	Daniel	20,224
23	Edward	19,808
24	Matthew	19,717
25	Samuel	19,663
26	Anthony	19,068
27	Bobby	18,458
28	Joe	18,218
29	Andrew	18,019
30	Jimmy	17,304
31	Johnny	17,126
32	Paul	16,101
33	Ronald	16,040
34	Walter	16,026
35	Jason	15,961
36	Jonathan	15,819
37	Steven	15,333
38	Brandon	14,672
39	Jacob	14,497
40	Justin	14,252
41	Frank	14,198
42	Mark	13,610
43	Terry	13,492
44	Eddie	12,891
45	Gary	12,845
46	Gregory	12,645
47	Benjamin	12,417
48	Jack	12,277
49	Stephen	11,994
50	Kevin	11,932

Girl Top 50 Girl Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	Mary	116,898
2	Annie	34,772
3	Betty	33,144
4	Linda	30,300
5	Elizabeth	30,127
6	Dorothy	28,522
7	Barbara	27,216
8	Patricia	26,540
9	Sarah	24,144
10	Margaret	23,556
11	Martha	21,377
12	Jennifer	20,804
13	Brenda	19,150
14	Carolyn	17,511
15	Shirley	17,414
16	Willie	17,216
17	Emma	16,867
18	Sandra	16,836
19	Ruby	16,695
20	Kimberly	16,037
21	Jessica	15,732
22	Ashley	15,723
23	Angela	15,055
24	Helen	15,006
25	Rebecca	14,807
26	Frances	14,627
27	Cynthia	14,600
28	Anna	14,274
29	Donna	14,257
30	Amanda	14,180
31	Doris	14,109
32	Deborah	13,769
33	Emily	13,679
34	Laura	13,517
35	Virginia	13,411
36	Mildred	13,004
37	Evelyn	12,874
38	Lisa	12,839
39	Sharon	12,569
40	Susan	12,561
41	Pamela	12,348
42	Ruth	12,179
43	Mattie	12,010
44	Nancy	11,915
45	Louise	11,586
46	Alice	11,359
47	Catherine	11,154
48	Janice	11,045
49	Stephanie	10,977
50	Amy	10,831

Read with Alabama

Nearest ABS(SSA name-registration volume) peers for Alabama (DENSE · TREND-LED).

DENSE TREND-LED

Minnesota · DENSE

6,163,259 SSA registrations (near-scale with Alabama; ABS Δ 19,324). Leader lane may differ from Alabama's TREND-LED.

Louisiana · DENSE

6,049,317 SSA registrations (near-scale with Alabama; ABS Δ 94,618). Leader lane may differ from Alabama's TREND-LED.

Kentucky · DENSE

5,816,248 SSA registrations (near-scale with Alabama; ABS Δ 327,687). Leader lane may differ from Alabama's TREND-LED.

Wisconsin · DENSE

6,655,644 SSA registrations (near-scale with Alabama; ABS Δ 511,709). Leader lane may differ from Alabama's TREND-LED.

Iowa (volume-lane contrast)

Near Alabama on SSA registration volume yet stamps SPARSE vs DENSE.

Why names rise and fall

Alabama stamps DENSE · TREND-LED - read the matching SSA methodology before quoting state leaders.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, Baby Names, State-Level Files, 1910–2025 (ssa.gov).

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, Baby Names from Social Security Card Applications, National Data (ssa.gov/oact/babynames).

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

According to the Social Security Administration, as of June 2026 this profile draws directly on the agency's state-level public-use files, which document 6,696,687 state-level records across all 51 reporting jurisdictions spanning 1910-2025.