What is the most popular baby name in Arkansas?

The most popular boy name in Arkansas is James with 86,139 births since 1910. The most popular girl name is Mary with 58,912 births. These rankings are based on cumulative SSA birth registration data.

How have baby names changed in Arkansas over the decades?

Arkansas 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 Liam/Olivia (2020s).

How many babies are named in Arkansas?

Our data covers 1,376,584 name registrations in Arkansas for the top 50 boys and top 50 girls names (SPARSE volume stamp · #31 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 Arkansas

The boys' and girls' names most often given in Arkansas, 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: 1,376,584
Births recorded: 1910–2025
Years covered

Arkansas's all-time #1 names are James for boys and Mary for girls, based on 1,376,584 SSA birth registrations since 1910.

According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, Arkansas has recorded 1,376,584 births across its top 50 boy and top 50 girl names since 1910. James leads all boys with 86,139 births, while Mary tops the girls with 58,912. This profile covers decade-by-decade leaders and the full top-50 rankings for both sexes.

James #1 boy name
Mary #1 girl name
1,376,584 births recorded

Where Arkansas sits by recorded name volume

Arkansas: 3,623,589 SSA name registrations (SPARSE · rank 31/51). Inventory signal only, orthogonal to the top-50 lists below.

Arkansas vs all states by SSA name registrations

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

3,623,589 31st of 51 higher than 20 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

Arkansas naming snapshot

According to SSA state files through 2025, Mary is #1 of 58,912 cumulative SSA births in Arkansas ≠ Charlotte #1 of 660 2025 girl names at all-time rank #51; James is #1 of 86,139 cumulative SSA births in Arkansas ≠ Liam #1 of 635 2025 boy names at all-time rank #51.

Charlotte
2025 girls #1, all-time #51: Mary
all-time girls #1, 2025 #34: Liam
2025 boys #1, all-time #51: James
all-time boys #1, 2025 #6

Both sexes in Arkansas 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 Arkansas's latest-year leaders split from the all-time book

Arkansas stamps SPARSE on disclosed SSA name-state volume (3,623,589 · #31/51). Cumulative top-50 leaders are James (86,139 boy births) and Mary (58,912 girl births) across 1,376,584 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 833,961 vs 542,623 for girls.

In Arkansas, 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 Arkansas 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 Liam 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

148
Amelia

122
Olivia

119
Isabella

103
Eleanor

95
Evelyn

87
Harper

83
Emma

83
Willow

79
Sophia

78

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

Liam

167
Hudson

147
Oliver

143
Elijah

138
Noah

134
James

131
Henry

128
William

125
Waylon

122
Theodore

106

What this shows Liam leads 2025 boys in Arkansas; James remains the all-time cumulative #1 at rank #51 in 2025.

Mary

58,912
Betty

23,419
Linda

20,345
Dorothy

17,194
Barbara

16,166
Patricia

14,529
Elizabeth

13,976
Shirley

12,918
Helen

12,434
Carolyn

12,352

What this shows Mary leads Arkansas girls with 58,912 recorded births.

James

86,139
John

51,891
William

49,811
Robert

44,979
Charles

38,922
Michael

32,600
David

31,263
Billy

20,725
Thomas

19,716
Christopher

18,840

What this shows James leads Arkansas boys with 86,139 recorded births.

Decade-by-Decade Leaders

The #1 boy and girl name in Arkansas 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	7,209	Mary	7,304
1920s	James	13,807	Mary	12,777
1930s	James	13,236	Mary	11,839
1940s	James	15,273	Mary	11,344
1950s	James	11,356	Linda	7,349
1960s	James	8,107	Lisa	4,474
1970s	Michael	6,561	Jennifer	4,851
1980s	Christopher	5,369	Jessica	4,302
1990s	Christopher	3,377	Ashley	2,926
2000s	Jacob	2,695	Madison	2,526
2010s	William	1,832	Emma	1,852
2020s	Liam	958	Olivia	858

Boy Top 50 Boy Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	James	86,139
2	John	51,891
3	William	49,811
4	Robert	44,979
5	Charles	38,922
6	Michael	32,600
7	David	31,263
8	Billy	20,725
9	Thomas	19,716
10	Christopher	18,840
11	Jerry	17,318
12	Larry	17,143
13	Richard	17,069
14	George	15,766
15	Kenneth	15,353
16	Bobby	15,298
17	Joseph	15,251
18	Willie	14,130
19	Donald	13,823
20	Jimmy	13,444
21	Joshua	12,777
22	Joe	12,687
23	Paul	12,484
24	Matthew	11,831
25	Gary	11,669
26	Daniel	10,561
27	Henry	10,124
28	Edward	9,945
29	Jason	9,897
30	Steven	9,811
31	Roy	9,707
32	Andrew	9,669
33	Johnny	9,618
34	Jacob	9,283
35	Mark	9,200
36	Samuel	9,170
37	Timothy	9,106
38	Carl	9,010
39	Anthony	9,005
40	Harold	8,800
41	Justin	8,722
42	Ronald	8,582
43	Brandon	8,478
44	Kevin	8,355
45	Jack	8,237
46	Terry	7,911
47	Jonathan	7,804
48	Raymond	7,756
49	Brian	7,154
50	Danny	7,127

Girl Top 50 Girl Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	Mary	58,912
2	Betty	23,419
3	Linda	20,345
4	Dorothy	17,194
5	Barbara	16,166
6	Patricia	14,529
7	Elizabeth	13,976
8	Shirley	12,918
9	Helen	12,434
10	Carolyn	12,352
11	Ruby	12,300
12	Sarah	11,733
13	Jennifer	11,479
14	Brenda	11,408
15	Martha	11,180
16	Margaret	10,881
17	Emma	9,724
18	Virginia	9,527
19	Ruth	9,303
20	Anna	9,269
21	Donna	9,258
22	Wanda	9,223
23	Sandra	9,217
24	Ashley	9,141
25	Jessica	8,906
26	Rebecca	8,879
27	Sharon	8,842
28	Mildred	8,840
29	Amanda	8,837
30	Joyce	8,751
31	Kimberly	8,649
32	Angela	8,088
33	Lisa	7,975
34	Karen	7,758
35	Nancy	7,690
36	Frances	7,569
37	Emily	7,563
38	Doris	7,514
39	Evelyn	7,306
40	Laura	7,196
41	Deborah	7,142
42	Alice	7,068
43	Hazel	6,704
44	Melissa	6,693
45	Annie	6,671
46	Willie	6,647
47	Judy	6,509
48	Stephanie	6,405
49	Pamela	6,267
50	Peggy	6,266

Read with Arkansas

Nearest ABS(SSA name-registration volume) peers for Arkansas (SPARSE · TREND-LED).

SPARSE TREND-LED

Connecticut · SPARSE

3,668,373 SSA registrations (near-scale with Arkansas; ABS Δ 44,784). Leader lane may differ from Arkansas's TREND-LED.

Kansas · SPARSE

3,531,180 SSA registrations (near-scale with Arkansas; ABS Δ 92,409). Leader lane may differ from Arkansas's TREND-LED.

Colorado · SPARSE

4,011,208 SSA registrations (near-scale with Arkansas; ABS Δ 387,619). Leader lane may differ from Arkansas's TREND-LED.

Arizona · SPARSE

4,092,941 SSA registrations (near-scale with Arkansas; ABS Δ 469,352). Leader lane may differ from Arkansas's TREND-LED.

Oklahoma (volume-lane contrast)

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

Why names rise and fall

Arkansas stamps SPARSE · 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.