What is the most popular baby name in Kentucky?

The most popular boy name in Kentucky is James with 145,857 births since 1910. The most popular girl name is Mary with 103,699 births. These rankings are based on cumulative SSA birth registration data.

How have baby names changed in Kentucky over the decades?

Kentucky 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/Amelia (2020s).

How many babies are named in Kentucky?

Our data covers 2,396,703 name registrations in Kentucky for the top 50 boys and top 50 girls names (DENSE volume stamp · #21 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 Kentucky

The boys' and girls' names most often given in Kentucky, 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: 2,396,703
Births recorded: 1910–2025
Years covered

Kentucky's all-time #1 names are James for boys and Mary for girls, based on 2,396,703 SSA birth registrations since 1910.

According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, Kentucky has recorded 2,396,703 births across its top 50 boy and top 50 girl names since 1910. James leads all boys with 145,857 births, while Mary tops the girls with 103,699. This profile covers decade-by-decade leaders and the full top-50 rankings for both sexes.

James #1 boy name
Mary #1 girl name
2,396,703 births recorded

Where Kentucky sits by recorded name volume

Kentucky: 5,816,248 SSA name registrations (DENSE · rank 21/51). Inventory signal only, orthogonal to the top-50 lists below.

Kentucky vs all states by SSA name registrations

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

5,816,248 21st of 51 higher than 30 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

Kentucky naming snapshot

According to SSA state files through 2025, Mary is #1 of 103,699 cumulative SSA births in Kentucky ≠ Amelia #1 of 862 2025 girl names at all-time rank #51; James is #1 of 145,857 cumulative SSA births in Kentucky ≠ Oliver #1 of 813 2025 boy names at all-time rank #51.

Amelia
2025 girls #1, all-time #51: Mary
all-time girls #1, 2025 #51: Oliver
2025 boys #1, all-time #51: James
all-time boys #1, 2025 #9

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

Kentucky stamps DENSE on disclosed SSA name-state volume (5,816,248 · #21/51). Cumulative top-50 leaders are James (145,857 boy births) and Mary (103,699 girl births) across 2,396,703 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 1,455,037 vs 941,666 for girls.

In Kentucky, 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 Kentucky 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 Amelia 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.

Amelia

212
Charlotte

187
Sophia

166
Evelyn

164
Lainey

160
Emma

159
Willow

156
Ellie

152
Eleanor

149
Harper

147

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

Oliver

278
Liam

253
Hudson

229
Waylon

223
Noah

203
Theodore

191
Henry

191
Elijah

185
James

181
William

173

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

Mary

103,699
Betty

33,825
Linda

30,823
Elizabeth

29,883
Patricia

27,422
Barbara

26,618
Anna

25,044
Dorothy

24,114
Jennifer

22,569
Margaret

22,533

What this shows Mary leads Kentucky girls with 103,699 recorded births.

James

145,857
William

106,224
John

83,746
Robert

80,927
Charles

69,729
Michael

63,255
David

61,377
Joseph

40,309
Thomas

37,030
Christopher

35,110

What this shows James leads Kentucky boys with 145,857 recorded births.

Decade-by-Decade Leaders

The #1 boy and girl name in Kentucky 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	10,874	Mary	14,969
1920s	James	21,089	Mary	23,338
1930s	James	20,306	Mary	18,303
1940s	James	23,297	Mary	16,761
1950s	James	19,919	Mary	13,295
1960s	James	15,660	Lisa	9,725
1970s	James	12,353	Jennifer	9,885
1980s	Joshua	9,788	Jessica	8,868
1990s	Jacob	6,172	Ashley	4,999
2000s	Jacob	5,612	Madison	4,282
2010s	William	3,320	Emma	3,078
2020s	Liam	1,579	Amelia	1,259

Boy Top 50 Boy Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	James	145,857
2	William	106,224
3	John	83,746
4	Robert	80,927
5	Charles	69,729
6	Michael	63,255
7	David	61,377
8	Joseph	40,309
9	Thomas	37,030
10	Christopher	35,110
11	Richard	30,883
12	Donald	30,001
13	Paul	28,353
14	Kenneth	27,657
15	George	27,457
16	Larry	24,923
17	Joshua	22,951
18	Timothy	22,541
19	Matthew	22,410
20	Gary	21,367
21	Daniel	21,043
22	Billy	20,728
23	Mark	20,374
24	Jerry	19,429
25	Ronald	19,082
26	Steven	18,987
27	Edward	18,342
28	Anthony	18,148
29	Jason	17,843
30	Jacob	17,095
31	Bobby	16,883
32	Andrew	16,158
33	Brian	15,744
34	Kevin	15,285
35	Harold	15,247
36	Jeffrey	15,213
37	Stephen	14,958
38	Samuel	14,090
39	Roy	14,001
40	Brandon	13,954
41	Raymond	13,897
42	Carl	13,805
43	Jonathan	13,517
44	Henry	13,143
45	Gregory	13,127
46	Justin	12,948
47	Terry	12,694
48	Roger	12,657
49	Jack	12,367
50	Danny	12,171

Girl Top 50 Girl Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	Mary	103,699
2	Betty	33,825
3	Linda	30,823
4	Elizabeth	29,883
5	Patricia	27,422
6	Barbara	26,618
7	Anna	25,044
8	Dorothy	24,114
9	Jennifer	22,569
10	Margaret	22,533
11	Sarah	21,076
12	Brenda	19,925
13	Donna	18,798
14	Martha	18,320
15	Helen	18,077
16	Virginia	17,823
17	Nancy	17,741
18	Rebecca	17,513
19	Ruth	17,257
20	Lisa	17,055
21	Kimberly	16,940
22	Jessica	16,866
23	Shirley	16,313
24	Amanda	16,298
25	Angela	15,408
26	Sandra	15,331
27	Carolyn	15,261
28	Ashley	15,123
29	Melissa	15,008
30	Emma	14,711
31	Joyce	14,633
32	Karen	14,590
33	Ruby	14,549
34	Deborah	14,547
35	Emily	14,509
36	Sharon	14,358
37	Wanda	14,265
38	Laura	13,676
39	Susan	13,154
40	Pamela	12,830
41	Amy	12,620
42	Judy	12,163
43	Mildred	12,059
44	Stephanie	11,389
45	Frances	11,293
46	Teresa	11,194
47	Carol	10,655
48	Evelyn	10,609
49	Doris	10,607
50	Katherine	10,592

Read with Kentucky

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

DENSE TREND-LED

Louisiana · DENSE

6,049,317 SSA registrations (near-scale with Kentucky; ABS Δ 233,069). Leader lane may differ from Kentucky's TREND-LED.

Alabama · DENSE

6,143,935 SSA registrations (near-scale with Kentucky; ABS Δ 327,687). Leader lane may differ from Kentucky's TREND-LED.

Minnesota · DENSE

6,163,259 SSA registrations (near-scale with Kentucky; ABS Δ 347,011). Leader lane may differ from Kentucky's TREND-LED.

Washington · DENSE

5,405,415 SSA registrations (near-scale with Kentucky; ABS Δ 410,833). Leader lane may differ from Kentucky's TREND-LED.

Iowa (volume-lane contrast)

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

Why names rise and fall

Kentucky 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.