What is the most popular baby name in Iowa?

The most popular boy name in Iowa is Robert with 71,225 births since 1910. The most popular girl name is Mary with 61,965 births. These rankings are based on cumulative SSA birth registration data.

How have baby names changed in Iowa over the decades?

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

How many babies are named in Iowa?

Our data covers 1,825,858 name registrations in Iowa for the top 50 boys and top 50 girls names (SPARSE volume stamp · #26 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 Iowa

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

Compiled byNameAlmanac, Independent data publisher

Robert
#1 boy name: Mary
#1 girl name: 1,825,858
Births recorded: 1910–2025
Years covered

Iowa's all-time #1 names are Robert for boys and Mary for girls, based on 1,825,858 SSA birth registrations since 1910.

According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, Iowa has recorded 1,825,858 births across its top 50 boy and top 50 girl names since 1910. Robert leads all boys with 71,225 births, while Mary tops the girls with 61,965. This profile covers decade-by-decade leaders and the full top-50 rankings for both sexes.

Robert #1 boy name
Mary #1 girl name
1,825,858 births recorded

Where Iowa sits by recorded name volume

Iowa: 4,430,195 SSA name registrations (SPARSE · rank 26/51). Inventory signal only, orthogonal to the top-50 lists below.

Iowa vs all states by SSA name registrations

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

4,430,195 26th of 51 higher than 25 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

Iowa naming snapshot

According to SSA state files through 2025, Mary is #1 of 61,965 cumulative SSA births in Iowa ≠ Charlotte #1 of 680 2025 girl names at all-time rank #51; Robert is #1 of 71,225 cumulative SSA births in Iowa ≠ Oliver #1 of 661 2025 boy names at all-time rank #51.

Charlotte
2025 girls #1, all-time #51: Mary
all-time girls #1, 2025 #51: Oliver
2025 boys #1, all-time #51: Robert
all-time boys #1, 2025 #51

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

Iowa stamps SPARSE on disclosed SSA name-state volume (4,430,195 · #26/51). Cumulative top-50 leaders are Robert (71,225 boy births) and Mary (61,965 girl births) across 1,825,858 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 1,111,798 vs 714,060 for girls.

In Iowa, 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 Iowa extends back to 1910. In the 1910s, the #1 boy name was Robert and the #1 girl name was Mary. By the 2020s, the top names had shifted to Oliver for boys and Charlotte 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

158
Evelyn

117
Emma

116
Amelia

112
Eleanor

109
Olivia

107
Sophia

104
Lainey

101
Harper

98
Violet

97

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

Oliver

198
Liam

185
Theodore

176
Henry

176
Cooper

133
Hudson

124
Noah

118
James

118
Bennett

113
Owen

106

What this shows Oliver leads 2025 boys in Iowa; Robert remains the all-time cumulative #1 at rank #51 in 2025.

Mary

61,965
Linda

24,985
Patricia

22,579
Barbara

22,300
Jennifer

20,171
Dorothy

19,888
Betty

19,866
Susan

19,449
Margaret

18,111
Elizabeth

18,090

What this shows Mary leads Iowa girls with 61,965 recorded births.

Robert

71,225
John

62,996
James

61,201
Michael

54,423
David

52,832
William

44,345
Richard

43,973
Donald

34,501
Thomas

30,231
Charles

27,397

What this shows Robert leads Iowa boys with 71,225 recorded births.

Decade-by-Decade Leaders

The #1 boy and girl name in Iowa 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	Robert	6,045	Mary	7,097
1920s	Robert	15,356	Mary	11,404
1930s	Robert	11,941	Mary	10,797
1940s	James	11,870	Mary	12,216
1950s	David	14,679	Mary	11,251
1960s	Michael	11,613	Lisa	7,465
1970s	Jason	8,578	Jennifer	9,684
1980s	Matthew	6,922	Jessica	5,836
1990s	Jacob	5,238	Emily	3,370
2000s	Jacob	3,079	Emma	2,967
2010s	Liam	1,835	Emma	1,924
2020s	Oliver	1,197	Charlotte	942

Boy Top 50 Boy Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	Robert	71,225
2	John	62,996
3	James	61,201
4	Michael	54,423
5	David	52,832
6	William	44,345
7	Richard	43,973
8	Donald	34,501
9	Thomas	30,231
10	Charles	27,397
11	Steven	25,660
12	Mark	24,862
13	Daniel	24,138
14	Joseph	23,215
15	Matthew	22,089
16	Ronald	21,161
17	Kenneth	21,138
18	Paul	21,118
19	Gary	20,489
20	Larry	20,415
21	Dennis	18,920
22	Brian	18,712
23	Jeffrey	18,278
24	Christopher	18,166
25	Scott	17,334
26	Timothy	16,986
27	Andrew	16,190
28	Kevin	16,021
29	Jason	14,681
30	Joshua	14,563
31	Ryan	14,447
32	Jacob	13,988
33	Douglas	13,834
34	George	13,455
35	Jack	13,370
36	Harold	12,714
37	Roger	12,634
38	Jerry	12,518
39	Nicholas	12,166
40	Edward	11,591
41	Benjamin	11,464
42	Raymond	11,149
43	Eric	11,094
44	Dale	10,754
45	Anthony	10,167
46	Terry	10,085
47	Tyler	9,863
48	Patrick	9,848
49	Gerald	9,785
50	Nathan	9,612

Girl Top 50 Girl Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	Mary	61,965
2	Linda	24,985
3	Patricia	22,579
4	Barbara	22,300
5	Jennifer	20,171
6	Dorothy	19,888
7	Betty	19,866
8	Susan	19,449
9	Margaret	18,111
10	Elizabeth	18,090
11	Karen	17,093
12	Nancy	16,531
13	Helen	16,166
14	Ruth	15,899
15	Donna	15,321
16	Carol	15,316
17	Julie	14,342
18	Sandra	14,084
19	Lisa	13,727
20	Shirley	13,585
21	Sarah	13,047
22	Amy	12,763
23	Sharon	12,743
24	Jessica	11,990
25	Janet	11,754
26	Debra	11,709
27	Michelle	11,549
28	Marilyn	11,108
29	Emily	11,019
30	Rebecca	10,879
31	Kathleen	10,799
32	Kimberly	10,639
33	Angela	10,429
34	Laura	10,349
35	Jean	10,211
36	Amanda	10,077
37	Diane	9,928
38	Evelyn	9,883
39	Lois	9,871
40	Pamela	9,838
41	Virginia	9,781
42	Melissa	9,775
43	Joyce	9,753
44	Kathryn	9,432
45	Cynthia	9,425
46	Beverly	9,366
47	Ashley	9,236
48	Janice	9,192
49	Anna	9,078
50	Judy	8,969

Read with Iowa

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

SPARSE TREND-LED

Oklahoma · DENSE

4,551,265 SSA registrations (near-scale with Iowa; ABS Δ 121,070). Leader lane may differ from Iowa's TREND-LED.

Mississippi · SPARSE

4,242,975 SSA registrations (near-scale with Iowa; ABS Δ 187,220). Leader lane may differ from Iowa's TREND-LED.

Arizona · SPARSE

4,092,941 SSA registrations (near-scale with Iowa; ABS Δ 337,254). Leader lane may differ from Iowa's TREND-LED.

Colorado · SPARSE

4,011,208 SSA registrations (near-scale with Iowa; ABS Δ 418,987). Leader lane may differ from Iowa's TREND-LED.

Why names rise and fall

Iowa 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.