What is the most popular baby name in North Dakota?

Even on a thin SSA book, North Dakota's cumulative #1 boy is Robert (16,349 births) and #1 girl is Mary (13,096 births) since 1910.

How have baby names changed in North Dakota over the decades?

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

How many babies are named in North Dakota?

Our data covers 449,319 name registrations in North Dakota for the top 50 boys and top 50 girls names (QUIET volume stamp · #42 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 North Dakota

The boys' and girls' names most often given in North Dakota, 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: 449,319
Births recorded: 1910–2025
Years covered

North Dakota's all-time #1 names are Robert for boys and Mary for girls, based on 449,319 SSA birth registrations since 1910.

According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, North Dakota has recorded 449,319 births across its top 50 boy and top 50 girl names since 1910. Robert leads all boys with 16,349 births, while Mary tops the girls with 13,096. This profile covers decade-by-decade leaders and the full top-50 rankings for both sexes.

Robert #1 boy name
Mary #1 girl name
449,319 births recorded

Where North Dakota sits by recorded name volume

North Dakota: 1,139,287 SSA name registrations (QUIET · rank 42/51). Inventory signal only, orthogonal to the top-50 lists below.

North Dakota vs all states by SSA name registrations

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

1,139,287 42nd of 51 higher than 9 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

North Dakota naming snapshot

According to SSA state files through 2025, Mary is #1 of 13,096 cumulative SSA births in North Dakota ≠ Charlotte #1 of 255 2025 girl names at all-time rank #51; Robert is #1 of 16,349 cumulative SSA births in North Dakota ≠ Liam #1 of 264 2025 boy names at all-time rank #51.

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

Both sexes in North Dakota 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

What a thin registry book shows for North Dakota

North Dakota sits in the lightest third of SSA name-state registration totals (1,139,287 · QUIET · #42/51). Cumulative top-50 leaders are Robert (16,349 boy births) and Mary (13,096 girl births) across 449,319 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 271,825 vs 177,494 for girls.

In North Dakota, 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.

Coverage notes on a thin state file

Decade-by-decade data for North Dakota extends back to 1910. In the 1910s, the #1 boy name was John and the #1 girl name was Mary. By the 2020s, the top names had shifted to Oliver for boys and Evelyn 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

42
Lainey

39
Olivia

34
Ellie

33
Evelyn

32
Amelia

30
Hazel

29
Ivy

29
Ella

29
Emma

28

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

Liam

56
Theodore

49
Henry

49
Noah

48
Oliver

47
Cooper

40
Hudson

37
Bennett

34
James

33
Colter

32

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

Mary

13,096
Linda

5,237
Margaret

5,199
Patricia

5,143
Dorothy

5,099
Carol

4,960
Elizabeth

4,900
Helen

4,687
Barbara

4,669
Karen

4,659

What this shows Mary leads North Dakota girls with 13,096 recorded births.

Robert

16,349
James

15,469
John

15,125
Michael

12,366
David

12,118
Richard

9,859
William

9,566
Donald

9,040
Thomas

7,065
Kenneth

6,207

What this shows Robert leads North Dakota boys with 16,349 recorded births.

Decade-by-Decade Leaders

The #1 boy and girl name in North Dakota 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	2,094	Mary	1,657
1920s	Robert	3,024	Mary	2,244
1930s	Robert	2,984	Mary	2,014
1940s	James	2,926	Mary	2,554
1950s	David	3,212	Mary	2,592
1960s	Michael	2,414	Lisa	1,503
1970s	Jason	2,286	Jennifer	2,047
1980s	Michael	1,952	Jessica	1,815
1990s	Jacob	1,115	Ashley	822
2000s	Jacob	720	Madison	637
2010s	Liam	565	Emma	642
2020s	Oliver	332	Evelyn	242

Boy Top 50 Boy Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	Robert	16,349
2	James	15,469
3	John	15,125
4	Michael	12,366
5	David	12,118
6	Richard	9,859
7	William	9,566
8	Donald	9,040
9	Thomas	7,065
10	Kenneth	6,207
11	Daniel	6,010
12	Joseph	5,943
13	Paul	5,802
14	Mark	5,726
15	Charles	5,639
16	Steven	5,424
17	Gary	5,056
18	Ronald	5,012
19	Matthew	4,799
20	Christopher	4,630
21	Scott	4,377
22	Larry	4,324
23	Timothy	4,305
24	Dennis	4,285
25	George	4,261
26	Brian	4,069
27	Raymond	4,043
28	Ryan	3,995
29	Andrew	3,955
30	Jason	3,940
31	Jeffrey	3,928
32	Joshua	3,850
33	Kevin	3,715
34	Gerald	3,576
35	Jacob	3,519
36	Harold	3,414
37	Douglas	3,404
38	Roger	3,390
39	Edward	3,293
40	Dale	3,253
41	Duane	3,177
42	Wayne	3,106
43	Tyler	2,826
44	Justin	2,784
45	Jack	2,736
46	Patrick	2,675
47	Bruce	2,654
48	Eric	2,646
49	Benjamin	2,634
50	Arthur	2,486

Girl Top 50 Girl Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	Mary	13,096
2	Linda	5,237
3	Margaret	5,199
4	Patricia	5,143
5	Dorothy	5,099
6	Carol	4,960
7	Elizabeth	4,900
8	Helen	4,687
9	Barbara	4,669
10	Karen	4,659
11	Betty	4,608
12	Jennifer	4,488
13	Susan	4,372
14	Ruth	4,084
15	Donna	4,078
16	Shirley	3,853
17	Sharon	3,577
18	Sandra	3,558
19	Evelyn	3,342
20	Jessica	3,313
21	Nancy	3,313
22	Alice	3,261
23	Kathleen	3,167
24	Lisa	3,130
25	Sarah	3,021
26	Anna	2,992
27	Michelle	2,917
28	Julie	2,891
29	Irene	2,881
30	Doris	2,872
31	Lois	2,842
32	Joyce	2,815
33	Diane	2,736
34	Amanda	2,710
35	Beverly	2,708
36	Janice	2,685
37	Amy	2,612
38	Jean	2,585
39	Rebecca	2,574
40	Emma	2,536
41	Laura	2,445
42	Melissa	2,425
43	Esther	2,362
44	Ashley	2,360
45	Emily	2,358
46	Rose	2,305
47	Marilyn	2,300
48	Nicole	2,261
49	Pamela	2,257
50	Debra	2,251

Read with North Dakota

Nearest ABS peers for a thin-registry state (North Dakota · QUIET · TREND-LED).

QUIET TREND-LED

South Dakota · QUIET

1,130,783 SSA registrations (near-scale with North Dakota; ABS Δ 8,504). Leader lane may differ from North Dakota's TREND-LED.

Nevada · QUIET

1,113,187 SSA registrations (near-scale with North Dakota; ABS Δ 26,100). Leader lane may differ from North Dakota's TREND-LED.

Rhode Island · QUIET

1,222,600 SSA registrations (near-scale with North Dakota; ABS Δ 83,313). Leader lane may differ from North Dakota's TREND-LED.

New Hampshire · QUIET

1,052,148 SSA registrations (near-scale with North Dakota; ABS Δ 87,139). Leader lane may differ from North Dakota's TREND-LED.

New Mexico (volume-lane contrast)

Near North Dakota on SSA registration volume yet stamps SPARSE vs QUIET.

Why names rise and fall

North Dakota stamps QUIET · 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 - thin-registry states: how small SSA state files are compared without inventing suppressed names.

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.