What is the most popular baby name in Minnesota?

The most popular boy name in Minnesota is John with 85,698 births since 1910. The most popular girl name is Mary with 71,013 births. These rankings are based on cumulative SSA birth registration data.

How have baby names changed in Minnesota over the decades?

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

How many babies are named in Minnesota?

Our data covers 2,480,799 name registrations in Minnesota for the top 50 boys and top 50 girls names (DENSE volume stamp · #18 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 Minnesota

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

Compiled byNameAlmanac, Independent data publisher

John
#1 boy name: Mary
#1 girl name: 2,480,799
Births recorded: 1910–2025
Years covered

Minnesota's all-time #1 names are John for boys and Mary for girls, based on 2,480,799 SSA birth registrations since 1910.

According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, Minnesota has recorded 2,480,799 births across its top 50 boy and top 50 girl names since 1910. John leads all boys with 85,698 births, while Mary tops the girls with 71,013. This profile covers decade-by-decade leaders and the full top-50 rankings for both sexes.

John #1 boy name
Mary #1 girl name
2,480,799 births recorded

Where Minnesota sits by recorded name volume

Minnesota: 6,163,259 SSA name registrations (DENSE · rank 18/51). Inventory signal only, orthogonal to the top-50 lists below.

Minnesota vs all states by SSA name registrations

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

6,163,259 18th of 51 higher than 33 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

Minnesota naming snapshot

According to SSA state files through 2025, Mary is #1 of 71,013 cumulative SSA births in Minnesota ≠ Charlotte #1 of 1,001 2025 girl names at all-time rank #51; John is #1 of 85,698 cumulative SSA births in Minnesota ≠ Theodore #1 of 931 2025 boy names at all-time rank #51.

Charlotte
2025 girls #1, all-time #51: Mary
all-time girls #1, 2025 #51: Theodore
2025 boys #1, all-time #51: John
all-time boys #1, 2025 #38

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

Minnesota stamps DENSE on disclosed SSA name-state volume (6,163,259 · #18/51). Cumulative top-50 leaders are John (85,698 boy births) and Mary (71,013 girl births) across 2,480,799 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 1,546,807 vs 933,992 for girls.

In Minnesota, 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 Minnesota extends back to 1910. In the 1910s, the #1 boy name was John and the #1 girl name was Helen. By the 2020s, the top names had shifted to Henry 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

238
Evelyn

230
Violet

196
Olivia

194
Eleanor

194
Sophia

194
Nora

194
Emma

190
Lucy

189
Hazel

176

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

Theodore

339
Henry

313
Oliver

298
Liam

277
Noah

236
James

227
William

226
Jack

218
Leo

207
Bennett

205

What this shows Theodore leads 2025 boys in Minnesota; John remains the all-time cumulative #1 at rank #51 in 2025.

Mary

71,013
Patricia

30,804
Jennifer

30,061
Susan

29,505
Barbara

29,243
Elizabeth

29,027
Linda

25,291
Margaret

24,090
Carol

23,030
Nancy

23,005

What this shows Mary leads Minnesota girls with 71,013 recorded births.

John

85,698
Michael

82,712
Robert

82,194
James

79,792
David

74,904
Richard

56,363
Thomas

54,717
William

53,276
Daniel

44,735
Joseph

40,947

What this shows John leads Minnesota boys with 85,698 recorded births.

Decade-by-Decade Leaders

The #1 boy and girl name in Minnesota 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	John	6,276	Helen	5,775
1920s	Robert	14,205	Mary	8,786
1930s	Robert	12,203	Mary	9,711
1940s	James	15,251	Mary	14,493
1950s	David	18,384	Mary	17,432
1960s	Michael	16,518	Lisa	10,177
1970s	Michael	12,299	Jennifer	13,071
1980s	Michael	12,078	Jennifer	8,674
1990s	Jacob	7,596	Emily	5,848
2000s	Jacob	5,281	Emma	4,386
2010s	Henry	3,409	Olivia	3,479
2020s	Henry	2,003	Charlotte	1,558

Boy Top 50 Boy Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	John	85,698
2	Michael	82,712
3	Robert	82,194
4	James	79,792
5	David	74,904
6	Richard	56,363
7	Thomas	54,717
8	William	53,276
9	Daniel	44,735
10	Joseph	40,947
11	Donald	37,766
12	Mark	37,662
13	Steven	35,264
14	Matthew	34,923
15	Paul	32,024
16	Charles	31,684
17	Andrew	30,206
18	Christopher	28,059
19	Scott	27,671
20	Timothy	27,127
21	Jeffrey	26,952
22	Brian	26,805
23	Kenneth	23,639
24	Ryan	23,278
25	Gary	23,238
26	Jacob	22,460
27	Ronald	22,374
28	Kevin	22,195
29	Joshua	22,183
30	Nicholas	21,621
31	Jason	21,206
32	Benjamin	21,104
33	Anthony	19,620
34	Dennis	17,978
35	George	17,721
36	Patrick	17,642
37	Eric	17,163
38	Douglas	16,828
39	Gregory	16,826
40	Roger	16,269
41	Peter	16,257
42	Gerald	15,992
43	Jack	15,781
44	Edward	15,597
45	Nathan	15,523
46	Adam	14,906
47	Samuel	14,870
48	Tyler	14,474
49	Bruce	14,456
50	Alexander	14,125

Girl Top 50 Girl Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	Mary	71,013
2	Patricia	30,804
3	Jennifer	30,061
4	Susan	29,505
5	Barbara	29,243
6	Elizabeth	29,027
7	Linda	25,291
8	Margaret	24,090
9	Carol	23,030
10	Nancy	23,005
11	Karen	22,573
12	Kathleen	21,350
13	Sarah	20,778
14	Lisa	19,725
15	Julie	19,564
16	Dorothy	19,416
17	Jessica	18,891
18	Sandra	18,436
19	Emily	18,340
20	Amy	17,965
21	Michelle	17,392
22	Sharon	16,543
23	Helen	16,246
24	Diane	16,215
25	Ruth	15,655
26	Laura	15,505
27	Betty	15,441
28	Donna	15,257
29	Rebecca	15,049
30	Amanda	14,749
31	Nicole	14,544
32	Melissa	14,363
33	Shirley	14,286
34	Jean	14,241
35	Debra	14,026
36	Ashley	13,984
37	Anna	13,602
38	Katherine	13,524
39	Evelyn	13,262
40	Angela	13,225
41	Kathryn	13,098
42	Joan	12,895
43	Kimberly	12,825
44	Janet	12,721
45	Rachel	12,613
46	Judith	12,447
47	Ann	12,132
48	Emma	12,094
49	Kelly	11,985
50	Grace	11,966

Read with Minnesota

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

DENSE TREND-LED

Alabama · DENSE

6,143,935 SSA registrations (near-scale with Minnesota; ABS Δ 19,324). Leader lane may differ from Minnesota's TREND-LED.

Louisiana · DENSE

6,049,317 SSA registrations (near-scale with Minnesota; ABS Δ 113,942). Leader lane may differ from Minnesota's TREND-LED.

Kentucky · DENSE

5,816,248 SSA registrations (near-scale with Minnesota; ABS Δ 347,011). Leader lane may differ from Minnesota's TREND-LED.

Wisconsin · DENSE

6,655,644 SSA registrations (near-scale with Minnesota; ABS Δ 492,385). Leader lane may differ from Minnesota's TREND-LED.

Iowa (volume-lane contrast)

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

Why names rise and fall

Minnesota 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.