What is the most popular baby name in South Carolina?

The most popular boy name in South Carolina is James with 129,430 births since 1910. The most popular girl name is Mary with 84,152 births. These rankings are based on cumulative SSA birth registration data.

How have baby names changed in South Carolina over the decades?

South Carolina 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 Noah/Charlotte (2020s).

How many babies are named in South Carolina?

Our data covers 1,921,325 name registrations in South Carolina for the top 50 boys and top 50 girls names (DENSE volume stamp · #24 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 South Carolina

The boys' and girls' names most often given in South Carolina, 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: 1,921,325
Births recorded: 1910–2025
Years covered

South Carolina's all-time #1 names are James for boys and Mary for girls, based on 1,921,325 SSA birth registrations since 1910.

According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, South Carolina has recorded 1,921,325 births across its top 50 boy and top 50 girl names since 1910. James leads all boys with 129,430 births, while Mary tops the girls with 84,152. This profile covers decade-by-decade leaders and the full top-50 rankings for both sexes.

James #1 boy name
Mary #1 girl name
1,921,325 births recorded

Where South Carolina sits by recorded name volume

South Carolina: 4,858,777 SSA name registrations (DENSE · rank 24/51). Inventory signal only, orthogonal to the top-50 lists below.

South Carolina vs all states by SSA name registrations

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

4,858,777 24th of 51 higher than 27 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

South Carolina naming snapshot

According to SSA state files through 2025, Mary is #1 of 84,152 cumulative SSA births in South Carolina ≠ Charlotte #1 of 915 2025 girl names at all-time rank #51; James is #1 of 129,430 cumulative SSA births in South Carolina ≠ Noah #1 of 875 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: James
all-time boys #1, 2025 #4

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

South Carolina stamps DENSE on disclosed SSA name-state volume (4,858,777 · #24/51). Cumulative top-50 leaders are James (129,430 boy births) and Mary (84,152 girl births) across 1,921,325 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 1,171,015 vs 750,310 for girls.

In South Carolina, 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 South Carolina 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 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

249
Amelia

241
Olivia

187
Emma

179
Sophia

160
Evelyn

156
Ava

148
Eleanor

143
Isabella

139
Mia

134

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

Noah

276
Liam

271
William

269
James

250
Elijah

215
John

205
Oliver

201
Henry

199
Theodore

178
Lucas

156

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

Mary

84,152
Elizabeth

29,803
Betty

24,961
Margaret

22,601
Sarah

22,446
Annie

21,765
Dorothy

21,757
Barbara

21,294
Linda

20,930
Patricia

19,997

What this shows Mary leads South Carolina girls with 84,152 recorded births.

James

129,430
William

84,441
John

81,083
Robert

65,969
Michael

46,182
David

45,856
Charles

45,516
Thomas

37,491
Willie

33,426
Joseph

32,590

What this shows James leads South Carolina boys with 129,430 recorded births.

Decade-by-Decade Leaders

The #1 boy and girl name in South Carolina 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	12,167	Mary	10,086
1920s	James	18,798	Mary	16,217
1930s	James	16,497	Mary	14,783
1940s	James	20,769	Mary	16,195
1950s	James	18,460	Mary	11,979
1960s	James	13,373	Mary	5,801
1970s	James	9,403	Jennifer	5,939
1980s	Christopher	8,315	Jessica	6,572
1990s	Christopher	5,771	Ashley	4,289
2000s	William	4,747	Madison	3,384
2010s	William	3,603	Emma	2,481
2020s	Noah	1,665	Charlotte	1,339

Boy Top 50 Boy Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	James	129,430
2	William	84,441
3	John	81,083
4	Robert	65,969
5	Michael	46,182
6	David	45,856
7	Charles	45,516
8	Thomas	37,491
9	Willie	33,426
10	Joseph	32,590
11	Christopher	31,048
12	Richard	26,583
13	George	26,556
14	Henry	21,039
15	Daniel	18,230
16	Joshua	18,214
17	Kenneth	17,879
18	Samuel	17,769
19	Matthew	17,345
20	Edward	16,997
21	Timothy	16,063
22	Anthony	15,983
23	Larry	15,298
24	Andrew	14,944
25	Benjamin	13,830
26	Donald	13,709
27	Paul	13,593
28	Jonathan	12,808
29	Bobby	12,286
30	Ronald	12,192
31	Jacob	12,111
32	Brandon	12,055
33	Jerry	12,027
34	Joe	11,888
35	Walter	11,831
36	Johnny	11,741
37	Kevin	11,648
38	Frank	11,477
39	Jason	11,408
40	Steven	10,997
41	Justin	10,758
42	Harold	10,629
43	Leroy	10,559
44	Mark	10,396
45	Brian	10,164
46	Stephen	9,676
47	Jack	9,605
48	Billy	9,603
49	Jimmy	9,122
50	Arthur	8,970

Girl Top 50 Girl Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	Mary	84,152
2	Elizabeth	29,803
3	Betty	24,961
4	Margaret	22,601
5	Sarah	22,446
6	Annie	21,765
7	Dorothy	21,757
8	Barbara	21,294
9	Linda	20,930
10	Patricia	19,997
11	Jennifer	15,478
12	Frances	15,233
13	Martha	14,827
14	Helen	13,861
15	Shirley	13,836
16	Ashley	13,533
17	Brenda	13,395
18	Carolyn	13,265
19	Emma	13,185
20	Rebecca	13,045
21	Ruth	13,041
22	Jessica	12,900
23	Sandra	12,679
24	Angela	12,423
25	Nancy	12,187
26	Kimberly	12,100
27	Anna	11,933
28	Emily	11,742
29	Virginia	11,615
30	Cynthia	11,469
31	Susan	11,467
32	Louise	11,109
33	Evelyn	10,910
34	Amanda	10,798
35	Ruby	10,588
36	Catherine	10,398
37	Deborah	10,195
38	Lisa	10,022
39	Rosa	9,954
40	Laura	9,826
41	Donna	9,664
42	Doris	9,593
43	Lillie	9,543
44	Mildred	9,479
45	Alice	9,354
46	Melissa	9,313
47	Julia	9,312
48	Willie	9,175
49	Carrie	9,113
50	Sharon	9,044

Read with South Carolina

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

DENSE TREND-LED

Maryland · DENSE

5,046,092 SSA registrations (near-scale with South Carolina; ABS Δ 187,315). Leader lane may differ from South Carolina's TREND-LED.

Oklahoma · DENSE

4,551,265 SSA registrations (near-scale with South Carolina; ABS Δ 307,512). Leader lane may differ from South Carolina's TREND-LED.

Iowa · SPARSE

4,430,195 SSA registrations (near-scale with South Carolina; ABS Δ 428,582). Leader lane may differ from South Carolina's TREND-LED.

Washington · DENSE

5,405,415 SSA registrations (near-scale with South Carolina; ABS Δ 546,638). Leader lane may differ from South Carolina's TREND-LED.

Why names rise and fall

South Carolina 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.