What is the most popular baby name in Mississippi?

The most popular boy name in Mississippi is James with 115,744 births since 1910. The most popular girl name is Mary with 87,586 births. These rankings are based on cumulative SSA birth registration data.

How have baby names changed in Mississippi over the decades?

Mississippi's most popular names have evolved significantly. In the 1910s, the top names were James and Mary. By the 2020s, they shifted to James and Ava. See the decade-by-decade breakdown above.

How many babies are named in Mississippi?

Our data covers 1,702,732 name registrations in Mississippi for the top 50 boys and top 50 girls names (SPARSE volume stamp · #27 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 Mississippi

The boys' and girls' names most often given in Mississippi, 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: 1,702,732
Births recorded: 1910–2025
Years covered

Mississippi's all-time #1 names are James for boys and Mary for girls, based on 1,702,732 SSA birth registrations since 1910.

According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, Mississippi has recorded 1,702,732 births across its top 50 boy and top 50 girl names since 1910. James leads all boys with 115,744 births, while Mary tops the girls with 87,586. This profile covers decade-by-decade leaders and the full top-50 rankings for both sexes.

James #1 boy name
Mary #1 girl name
1,702,732 births recorded

Where Mississippi sits by recorded name volume

Mississippi: 4,242,975 SSA name registrations (SPARSE · rank 27/51). Inventory signal only, orthogonal to the top-50 lists below.

Mississippi vs all states by SSA name registrations

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

4,242,975 27th of 51 higher than 24 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

Mississippi naming snapshot

According to SSA state files through 2025, Mary is #1 of 87,586 cumulative SSA births in Mississippi ≠ Amelia #1 of 629 2025 girl names at all-time rank #51; James leads both all-time cumulative births and 2025 in Mississippi (115,744 all-time; 160 in 2025).

Amelia
2025 girls #1, all-time #51: Mary
all-time girls #1, 2025 #6: James
2025 boys #1, all-time #1: James
all-time boys #1, 2025 #1

One sex in Mississippi already splits latest-year vs all-time; the other stays classic-led on the cumulative book.

Data updated Aug 2026

One sex trend-led

What the SSA state files show for Mississippi

Mississippi stamps SPARSE on disclosed SSA name-state volume (4,242,975 · #27/51). Cumulative top-50 leaders are James (115,744 boy births) and Mary (87,586 girl births) across 1,702,732 top-50 registrations since 1910. Leader lane is MIXED-LED, only one sex splits latest-year vs all-time. Boy top-50 share 1,038,009 vs 664,723 for girls.

Girls in Mississippi split latest-year vs all-time leaders while boys stay classic-led on the cumulative book.

Decade shifts, SSA coverage, and comparability

Decade-by-decade data for Mississippi 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 James for boys and Ava 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

105
Ava

100
Charlotte

94
Olivia

86
Elizabeth

81
Mary

71
Emma

69
Ivy

67
Nova

65
Lainey

63

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

James

160
William

155
John

151
Noah

120
Elijah

109
Waylon

106
Liam

104
Henry

93
Hudson

90
Thomas

82

What this shows James leads both 2025 and the all-time cumulative count in Mississippi.

Mary

87,586
Annie

26,726
Dorothy

25,824
Linda

22,236
Betty

21,104
Barbara

18,382
Elizabeth

18,129
Patricia

17,344
Willie

15,728
Sarah

15,385

What this shows Mary leads Mississippi girls with 87,586 recorded births.

James

115,744
John

70,709
Robert

67,891
William

64,646
Willie

49,142
Charles

47,455
Michael

35,775
David

33,862
Thomas

27,055
George

25,167

What this shows James leads Mississippi boys with 115,744 recorded births.

Decade-by-Decade Leaders

The #1 boy and girl name in Mississippi 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	9,667	Mary	10,530
1920s	James	16,492	Mary	16,788
1930s	James	16,398	Mary	15,343
1940s	James	20,087	Mary	16,442
1950s	James	17,387	Mary	13,350
1960s	James	12,015	Mary	6,564
1970s	James	8,070	Jennifer	5,421
1980s	Christopher	6,799	Jessica	4,944
1990s	Christopher	4,216	Ashley	3,158
2000s	William	3,247	Madison	2,638
2010s	William	2,201	Ava	1,836
2020s	James	1,001	Ava	811

Boy Top 50 Boy Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	James	115,744
2	John	70,709
3	Robert	67,891
4	William	64,646
5	Willie	49,142
6	Charles	47,455
7	Michael	35,775
8	David	33,862
9	Thomas	27,055
10	George	25,167
11	Christopher	24,191
12	Joseph	22,795
13	Richard	19,876
14	Henry	19,252
15	Larry	18,086
16	Joe	16,782
17	Jerry	16,343
18	Billy	16,222
19	Kenneth	14,798
20	Walter	14,513
21	Edward	14,310
22	Eddie	14,032
23	Bobby	13,759
24	Johnny	13,147
25	Anthony	13,137
26	Joshua	13,062
27	Jimmy	12,101
28	Andrew	11,799
29	Timothy	11,734
30	Samuel	11,686
31	Daniel	11,539
32	Donald	11,299
33	Frank	11,228
34	Paul	11,188
35	Matthew	11,014
36	Albert	9,933
37	Charlie	9,840
38	Jessie	9,612
39	Jason	9,247
40	Justin	9,059
41	Jonathan	8,993
42	Terry	8,978
43	Lee	8,747
44	Curtis	8,674
45	Steven	8,630
46	Roy	8,618
47	Jimmie	8,513
48	Johnnie	8,182
49	Brandon	7,829
50	Mark	7,815

Girl Top 50 Girl Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	Mary	87,586
2	Annie	26,726
3	Dorothy	25,824
4	Linda	22,236
5	Betty	21,104
6	Barbara	18,382
7	Elizabeth	18,129
8	Patricia	17,344
9	Willie	15,728
10	Sarah	15,385
11	Shirley	15,282
12	Martha	14,574
13	Ruby	13,949
14	Margaret	12,862
15	Brenda	12,658
16	Emma	12,638
17	Jennifer	12,510
18	Helen	11,770
19	Carolyn	11,577
20	Sandra	11,212
21	Rosie	11,150
22	Lillie	10,379
23	Angela	10,362
24	Kimberly	10,338
25	Doris	9,875
26	Alice	9,607
27	Mildred	9,510
28	Mattie	9,503
29	Gloria	9,431
30	Anna	9,403
31	Jessica	9,390
32	Frances	9,195
33	Ashley	9,189
34	Laura	9,109
35	Ruth	8,988
36	Virginia	8,925
37	Cynthia	8,721
38	Amanda	8,685
39	Rebecca	8,592
40	Lisa	8,407
41	Deborah	8,247
42	Nancy	8,193
43	Ethel	8,061
44	Louise	8,055
45	Joyce	8,037
46	Evelyn	7,906
47	Pamela	7,642
48	Ella	7,614
49	Minnie	7,379
50	Catherine	7,354

Read with Mississippi

Nearest ABS(SSA name-registration volume) peers for Mississippi (SPARSE · MIXED-LED).

SPARSE MIXED-LED

Arizona · SPARSE

4,092,941 SSA registrations (near-scale with Mississippi; ABS Δ 150,034). Leader lane may differ from Mississippi's MIXED-LED.

Iowa · SPARSE

4,430,195 SSA registrations (near-scale with Mississippi; ABS Δ 187,220). Leader lane may differ from Mississippi's MIXED-LED.

Colorado · SPARSE

4,011,208 SSA registrations (near-scale with Mississippi; ABS Δ 231,767). Leader lane may differ from Mississippi's MIXED-LED.

Oklahoma · DENSE

4,551,265 SSA registrations (near-scale with Mississippi; ABS Δ 308,290). Leader lane may differ from Mississippi's MIXED-LED.

Why names rise and fall

Mississippi stamps SPARSE · MIXED-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.