What is the most popular baby name in Pennsylvania?

On a heavy SSA book, Pennsylvania's cumulative #1 boy is John (422,027 births) and #1 girl is Mary (292,817 births) since 1910.

How have baby names changed in Pennsylvania over the decades?

Pennsylvania 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 Noah/Charlotte (2020s).

How many babies are named in Pennsylvania?

Our data covers 8,339,829 name registrations in Pennsylvania for the top 50 boys and top 50 girls names (MEGA volume stamp · #4 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 Pennsylvania

The boys' and girls' names most often given in Pennsylvania, 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: 8,339,829
Births recorded: 1910–2025
Years covered

Pennsylvania's all-time #1 names are John for boys and Mary for girls, based on 8,339,829 SSA birth registrations since 1910.

According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, Pennsylvania has recorded 8,339,829 births across its top 50 boy and top 50 girl names since 1910. John leads all boys with 422,027 births, while Mary tops the girls with 292,817. This profile covers decade-by-decade leaders and the full top-50 rankings for both sexes.

John #1 boy name
Mary #1 girl name
8,339,829 births recorded

Where Pennsylvania sits by recorded name volume

Pennsylvania: 17,935,365 SSA name registrations (MEGA · rank 4/51). Inventory signal only, orthogonal to the top-50 lists below.

Pennsylvania vs all states by SSA name registrations

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

17,935,365 4th of 51 higher than 47 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

Pennsylvania naming snapshot

According to SSA state files through 2025, Mary is #1 of 292,817 cumulative SSA births in Pennsylvania ≠ Charlotte #1 of 1,624 2025 girl names at all-time rank #51; John is #1 of 422,027 cumulative SSA births in Pennsylvania ≠ Noah #1 of 1,438 2025 boy names at all-time rank #51.

Charlotte
2025 girls #1, all-time #51: Mary
all-time girls #1, 2025 #51: Noah
2025 boys #1, all-time #51: John
all-time boys #1, 2025 #20

Both sexes in Pennsylvania 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 heavy registry book shows for Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania sits in the heaviest third of SSA name-state registration totals (17,935,365 · MEGA · #4/51). Cumulative top-50 leaders are John (422,027 boy births) and Mary (292,817 girl births) across 8,339,829 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 5,256,173 vs 3,083,656 for girls.

In Pennsylvania, 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 heavy state file

Decade-by-decade data for Pennsylvania 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 Noah 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

560
Sophia

507
Olivia

487
Amelia

468
Emma

427
Isabella

328
Mia

319
Evelyn

318
Ava

314
Nora

311

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

Noah

744
Liam

566
Theodore

549
Oliver

545
Henry

464
James

432
Benjamin

405
Cooper

402
Lucas

391
Michael

385

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

Mary

292,817
Margaret

115,956
Patricia

113,649
Elizabeth

108,979
Helen

102,510
Barbara

102,121
Dorothy

93,705
Linda

89,088
Anna

85,876
Susan

82,276

What this shows Mary leads Pennsylvania girls with 292,817 recorded births.

John

422,027
Robert

353,383
James

305,924
William

303,784
Michael

272,409
Joseph

257,988
David

223,324
Richard

186,045
Thomas

184,004
Charles

161,296

What this shows John leads Pennsylvania boys with 422,027 recorded births.

Decade-by-Decade Leaders

The #1 boy and girl name in Pennsylvania 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	48,917	Mary	60,227
1920s	John	68,076	Mary	66,801
1930s	Robert	52,366	Mary	42,688
1940s	John	65,240	Mary	42,679
1950s	John	66,102	Mary	40,066
1960s	Michael	52,411	Lisa	32,498
1970s	Michael	42,744	Jennifer	34,199
1980s	Michael	37,229	Jessica	20,972
1990s	Michael	23,678	Emily	12,629
2000s	Michael	11,738	Emily	9,280
2010s	Mason	7,336	Emma	7,924
2020s	Noah	4,247	Charlotte	3,361

Boy Top 50 Boy Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	John	422,027
2	Robert	353,383
3	James	305,924
4	William	303,784
5	Michael	272,409
6	Joseph	257,988
7	David	223,324
8	Richard	186,045
9	Thomas	184,004
10	Charles	161,296
11	Edward	121,795
12	George	119,344
13	Daniel	112,111
14	Paul	105,172
15	Donald	102,176
16	Matthew	94,257
17	Anthony	93,642
18	Christopher	92,099
19	Mark	84,578
20	Ronald	83,189
21	Andrew	80,056
22	Frank	75,565
23	Kenneth	75,231
24	Brian	72,320
25	Jeffrey	66,929
26	Stephen	66,737
27	Timothy	62,329
28	Kevin	61,762
29	Raymond	58,239
30	Steven	57,782
31	Nicholas	53,964
32	Ryan	53,033
33	Harry	50,912
34	Joshua	50,796
35	Jason	50,466
36	Gary	49,479
37	Eric	48,128
38	Samuel	47,986
39	Scott	47,937
40	Walter	47,499
41	Francis	43,431
42	Dennis	42,413
43	Gregory	41,399
44	Benjamin	41,174
45	Albert	40,709
46	Jacob	40,402
47	Patrick	39,980
48	Jack	37,909
49	Peter	37,194
50	Carl	35,865

Girl Top 50 Girl Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	Mary	292,817
2	Margaret	115,956
3	Patricia	113,649
4	Elizabeth	108,979
5	Helen	102,510
6	Barbara	102,121
7	Dorothy	93,705
8	Linda	89,088
9	Anna	85,876
10	Susan	82,276
11	Nancy	75,363
12	Jennifer	72,947
13	Ruth	69,817
14	Betty	66,290
15	Karen	65,917
16	Carol	64,888
17	Kathleen	62,495
18	Donna	62,223
19	Lisa	59,556
20	Catherine	56,931
21	Sandra	51,402
22	Sarah	51,225
23	Deborah	50,340
24	Joan	47,981
25	Marie	46,880
26	Jean	46,512
27	Jessica	45,522
28	Shirley	44,907
29	Christine	43,873
30	Kimberly	42,961
31	Janet	42,597
32	Emily	42,409
33	Rose	42,060
34	Diane	41,951
35	Michelle	40,105
36	Amy	40,016
37	Ann	39,624
38	Sharon	39,081
39	Melissa	38,972
40	Rebecca	38,531
41	Frances	38,531
42	Amanda	37,460
43	Virginia	37,444
44	Judith	36,693
45	Nicole	36,465
46	Laura	35,773
47	Cynthia	35,748
48	Theresa	35,263
49	Kathryn	35,211
50	Emma	34,715

Read with Pennsylvania

Nearest ABS peers for a heavy-registry state (Pennsylvania · MEGA · TREND-LED).

MEGA TREND-LED

Illinois · MEGA

16,484,702 SSA registrations (near-scale with Pennsylvania; ABS Δ 1,450,663). Leader lane may differ from Pennsylvania's TREND-LED.

Ohio · HEAVY

15,480,878 SSA registrations (near-scale with Pennsylvania; ABS Δ 2,454,487). Leader lane may differ from Pennsylvania's TREND-LED.

Michigan · HEAVY

12,648,459 SSA registrations (1.4× smaller than Pennsylvania; ABS Δ 5,286,906). Leader lane may differ from Pennsylvania's TREND-LED.

Florida · HEAVY

11,447,493 SSA registrations (1.6× smaller than Pennsylvania; ABS Δ 6,487,872). Leader lane may differ from Pennsylvania's TREND-LED.

Why names rise and fall

Pennsylvania stamps MEGA · 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 - heavy-registry states: how cumulative leaders and latest-year splits are computed.

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.