What is the most popular baby name in California?

On a heavy SSA book, California's cumulative #1 boy is Michael (436,105 births) and #1 girl is Jennifer (175,689 births) since 1910.

How have baby names changed in California over the decades?

California 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/Olivia (2020s).

How many babies are named in California?

Our data covers 11,174,794 name registrations in California for the top 50 boys and top 50 girls names (MEGA volume stamp · #1 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 California

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

Compiled byNameAlmanac, Independent data publisher

Michael
#1 boy name: Jennifer
#1 girl name: 11,174,794
Births recorded: 1910–2025
Years covered

California's all-time #1 names are Michael for boys and Jennifer for girls, based on 11,174,794 SSA birth registrations since 1910.

According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, California has recorded 11,174,794 births across its top 50 boy and top 50 girl names since 1910. Michael leads all boys with 436,105 births, while Jennifer tops the girls with 175,689. This profile covers decade-by-decade leaders and the full top-50 rankings for both sexes.

Michael #1 boy name
Jennifer #1 girl name
11,174,794 births recorded

Where California sits by recorded name volume

California: 33,446,519 SSA name registrations (MEGA · rank 1/51). Inventory signal only, orthogonal to the top-50 lists below.

California vs all states by SSA name registrations

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

33,446,519 1st of 51 the highest 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

California naming snapshot

According to SSA state files through 2025, Jennifer is #1 of 175,689 cumulative SSA births in California ≠ Olivia #1 of 3,533 2025 girl names at all-time rank #36; Michael is #1 of 436,105 cumulative SSA births in California ≠ Liam #1 of 2,817 2025 boy names at all-time rank #51.

Olivia
2025 girls #1, all-time #36: Jennifer
all-time girls #1, 2025 #51: Liam
2025 boys #1, all-time #51: Michael
all-time boys #1, 2025 #26

Both sexes in California 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 California

California sits in the heaviest third of SSA name-state registration totals (33,446,519 · MEGA · #1/51). Cumulative top-50 leaders are Michael (436,105 boy births) and Jennifer (175,689 girl births) across 11,174,794 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 7,131,373 vs 4,043,421 for girls.

In California, 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 California 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 Olivia 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.

Olivia

1,796
Mia

1,788
Sophia

1,685
Camila

1,682
Emma

1,641
Isabella

1,506
Amelia

1,370
Sofia

1,339
Eliana

1,323
Valentina

1,146

What this shows Olivia leads 2025 girls in California; Jennifer remains the all-time cumulative #1 at rank #36 in 2025.

Liam

2,624
Noah

2,607
Mateo

2,239
Santiago

1,991
Sebastian

1,954
Julian

1,680
Oliver

1,456
Elias

1,342
Luca

1,257
Elijah

1,257

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

Jennifer

175,689
Mary

153,378
Elizabeth

136,485
Jessica

136,185
Patricia

116,996
Linda

114,963
Michelle

114,585
Maria

105,796
Stephanie

101,692
Emily

98,899

What this shows Jennifer leads California girls with 175,689 recorded births.

Michael

436,105
David

378,808
Robert

353,351
John

316,948
James

288,257
Daniel

262,947
Richard

225,668
Christopher

225,231
William

221,142
Anthony

187,364

What this shows Michael leads California boys with 436,105 recorded births.

Decade-by-Decade Leaders

The #1 boy and girl name in California 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	7,827	Mary	8,270
1920s	Robert	22,945	Mary	17,699
1930s	Robert	24,997	Mary	16,344
1940s	Robert	48,327	Linda	38,381
1950s	Michael	74,206	Linda	40,849
1960s	Michael	78,986	Lisa	43,745
1970s	Michael	65,094	Jennifer	54,730
1980s	Michael	73,641	Jessica	51,827
1990s	Michael	54,745	Jessica	47,827
2000s	Daniel	39,619	Emily	30,415
2010s	Noah	25,487	Sophia	29,653
2020s	Noah	15,744	Olivia	12,664

Boy Top 50 Boy Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	Michael	436,105
2	David	378,808
3	Robert	353,351
4	John	316,948
5	James	288,257
6	Daniel	262,947
7	Richard	225,668
8	Christopher	225,231
9	William	221,142
10	Anthony	187,364
11	Matthew	181,793
12	Joseph	181,731
13	Jose	167,241
14	Andrew	153,875
15	Steven	153,515
16	Kevin	138,556
17	Joshua	138,215
18	Thomas	136,405
19	Mark	132,468
20	Brian	125,913
21	Jonathan	122,519
22	Ryan	118,696
23	Jason	117,825
24	Charles	115,306
25	Eric	114,747
26	Jacob	110,946
27	Paul	104,294
28	Alexander	102,604
29	Nicholas	97,184
30	Juan	95,932
31	Kenneth	92,166
32	Brandon	91,020
33	Jeffrey	90,539
34	Timothy	86,655
35	Donald	85,526
36	Ronald	84,664
37	Justin	82,911
38	Edward	82,329
39	Aaron	82,198
40	Luis	80,721
41	George	80,648
42	Benjamin	80,392
43	Angel	78,453
44	Jesus	77,820
45	Carlos	77,725
46	Gary	77,452
47	Scott	75,417
48	Nathan	75,337
49	Christian	74,033
50	Samuel	69,781

Girl Top 50 Girl Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	Jennifer	175,689
2	Mary	153,378
3	Elizabeth	136,485
4	Jessica	136,185
5	Patricia	116,996
6	Linda	114,963
7	Michelle	114,585
8	Maria	105,796
9	Stephanie	101,692
10	Emily	98,899
11	Ashley	98,011
12	Kimberly	95,543
13	Lisa	94,846
14	Susan	91,696
15	Karen	91,366
16	Sarah	90,770
17	Barbara	87,644
18	Melissa	86,611
19	Cynthia	82,713
20	Nancy	81,573
21	Sandra	80,699
22	Samantha	80,251
23	Laura	76,244
24	Nicole	75,577
25	Victoria	71,416
26	Amanda	69,484
27	Christina	68,934
28	Sophia	68,267
29	Andrea	67,015
30	Rebecca	65,869
31	Diana	64,175
32	Isabella	63,371
33	Vanessa	63,074
34	Emma	62,949
35	Natalie	61,816
36	Olivia	61,611
37	Kathleen	60,932
38	Katherine	60,687
39	Julie	59,366
40	Christine	57,287
41	Carol	56,927
42	Mia	56,886
43	Angela	56,851
44	Deborah	56,646
45	Amy	55,780
46	Sharon	55,522
47	Rachel	53,603
48	Donna	52,401
49	Jacqueline	52,284
50	Margaret	52,056

Read with California

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

MEGA TREND-LED

New York · MEGA

25,832,525 SSA registrations (near-scale with California; ABS Δ 7,613,994). Leader lane may differ from California's TREND-LED.

Texas · MEGA

25,553,856 SSA registrations (near-scale with California; ABS Δ 7,892,663). Leader lane may differ from California's TREND-LED.

Pennsylvania · MEGA

17,935,365 SSA registrations (1.9× smaller than California; ABS Δ 15,511,154). Leader lane may differ from California's TREND-LED.

Illinois · MEGA

16,484,702 SSA registrations (2× smaller than California; ABS Δ 16,961,817). Leader lane may differ from California's TREND-LED.

Ohio (volume-lane contrast)

Near California on SSA registration volume yet stamps HEAVY vs MEGA.

Why names rise and fall

California 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.