What is the most popular baby name in Illinois?

On a heavy SSA book, Illinois's cumulative #1 boy is Robert (277,790 births) and #1 girl is Mary (200,599 births) since 1910.

How have baby names changed in Illinois over the decades?

Illinois 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 Illinois?

Our data covers 6,728,194 name registrations in Illinois for the top 50 boys and top 50 girls names (MEGA volume stamp · #5 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 Illinois

The boys' and girls' names most often given in Illinois, 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: 6,728,194
Births recorded: 1910–2025
Years covered

Illinois's all-time #1 names are Robert for boys and Mary for girls, based on 6,728,194 SSA birth registrations since 1910.

According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, Illinois has recorded 6,728,194 births across its top 50 boy and top 50 girl names since 1910. Robert leads all boys with 277,790 births, while Mary tops the girls with 200,599. This profile covers decade-by-decade leaders and the full top-50 rankings for both sexes.

Robert #1 boy name
Mary #1 girl name
6,728,194 births recorded

Where Illinois sits by recorded name volume

Illinois: 16,484,702 SSA name registrations (MEGA · rank 5/51). Inventory signal only, orthogonal to the top-50 lists below.

Illinois vs all states by SSA name registrations

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

16,484,702 5th of 51 higher than 46 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

Illinois naming snapshot

According to SSA state files through 2025, Mary is #1 of 200,599 cumulative SSA births in Illinois ≠ Olivia #1 of 1,636 2025 girl names at all-time rank #51; Robert is #1 of 277,790 cumulative SSA births in Illinois ≠ Liam #1 of 1,483 2025 boy names at all-time rank #51.

Olivia
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 Illinois 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 Illinois

Illinois sits in the heaviest third of SSA name-state registration totals (16,484,702 · MEGA · #5/51). Cumulative top-50 leaders are Robert (277,790 boy births) and Mary (200,599 girl births) across 6,728,194 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 4,246,005 vs 2,482,189 for girls.

In Illinois, 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 Illinois 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

501
Charlotte

500
Sophia

473
Emma

458
Mia

412
Amelia

405
Sofia

343
Isabella

338
Camila

298
Evelyn

296

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

Liam

690
Noah

683
Oliver

541
Theodore

537
Henry

462
Mateo

417
James

406
Leo

385
Benjamin

365
Sebastian

360

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

Mary

200,599
Patricia

96,928
Barbara

82,917
Linda

78,467
Jennifer

77,170
Elizabeth

75,412
Susan

70,375
Margaret

63,305
Nancy

62,654
Karen

61,295

What this shows Mary leads Illinois girls with 200,599 recorded births.

Robert

277,790
John

275,051
Michael

257,375
James

254,727
William

201,081
David

186,067
Richard

150,614
Joseph

135,774
Thomas

134,032
Charles

116,862

What this shows Robert leads Illinois boys with 277,790 recorded births.

Decade-by-Decade Leaders

The #1 boy and girl name in Illinois 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	22,508	Mary	24,745
1920s	Robert	42,220	Mary	34,926
1930s	Robert	38,722	Mary	28,278
1940s	Robert	45,487	Mary	32,975
1950s	Michael	55,745	Mary	39,076
1960s	Michael	50,663	Lisa	25,558
1970s	Michael	39,542	Jennifer	32,158
1980s	Michael	35,042	Jennifer	21,381
1990s	Michael	24,590	Jessica	14,892
2000s	Michael	11,851	Emily	9,770
2010s	Noah	7,638	Olivia	8,050
2020s	Noah	4,090	Olivia	3,504

Boy Top 50 Boy Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	Robert	277,790
2	John	275,051
3	Michael	257,375
4	James	254,727
5	William	201,081
6	David	186,067
7	Richard	150,614
8	Joseph	135,774
9	Thomas	134,032
10	Charles	116,862
11	Daniel	113,914
12	Donald	90,385
13	Christopher	86,723
14	Anthony	83,273
15	Matthew	81,953
16	Mark	79,891
17	Edward	79,813
18	Steven	76,665
19	Kenneth	74,568
20	Paul	72,691
21	George	72,286
22	Ronald	70,343
23	Brian	69,634
24	Kevin	67,872
25	Timothy	62,068
26	Andrew	61,716
27	Jeffrey	55,844
28	Frank	50,914
29	Joshua	49,305
30	Nicholas	49,205
31	Eric	48,783
32	Scott	48,222
33	Ryan	47,579
34	Jason	47,438
35	Raymond	45,507
36	Gary	44,647
37	Patrick	43,227
38	Jacob	43,199
39	Gregory	42,114
40	Larry	41,981
41	Jack	40,955
42	Stephen	38,008
43	Alexander	37,622
44	Dennis	37,410
45	Jonathan	35,740
46	Benjamin	34,799
47	Peter	34,056
48	Walter	32,303
49	Brandon	32,075
50	Henry	31,904

Girl Top 50 Girl Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	Mary	200,599
2	Patricia	96,928
3	Barbara	82,917
4	Linda	78,467
5	Jennifer	77,170
6	Elizabeth	75,412
7	Susan	70,375
8	Margaret	63,305
9	Nancy	62,654
10	Karen	61,295
11	Dorothy	60,804
12	Carol	55,311
13	Helen	52,520
14	Sandra	51,864
15	Lisa	50,007
16	Betty	49,019
17	Kathleen	48,681
18	Donna	48,352
19	Michelle	47,679
20	Jessica	46,670
21	Sharon	46,058
22	Laura	45,029
23	Kimberly	44,860
24	Sarah	44,347
25	Emily	40,820
26	Ruth	40,482
27	Cynthia	39,882
28	Deborah	38,687
29	Shirley	38,636
30	Diane	37,265
31	Janet	36,669
32	Stephanie	35,962
33	Amy	35,888
34	Christine	35,840
35	Pamela	35,551
36	Anna	35,379
37	Ashley	35,259
38	Melissa	35,040
39	Judith	34,944
40	Nicole	34,565
41	Virginia	33,987
42	Debra	33,935
43	Catherine	33,809
44	Angela	33,655
45	Amanda	33,619
46	Julie	33,507
47	Rebecca	33,163
48	Evelyn	32,285
49	Katherine	32,014
50	Joan	31,023

Read with Illinois

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

MEGA TREND-LED

Ohio · HEAVY

15,480,878 SSA registrations (near-scale with Illinois; ABS Δ 1,003,824). Leader lane may differ from Illinois's TREND-LED.

Pennsylvania · MEGA

17,935,365 SSA registrations (near-scale with Illinois; ABS Δ 1,450,663). Leader lane may differ from Illinois's TREND-LED.

Michigan · HEAVY

12,648,459 SSA registrations (near-scale with Illinois; ABS Δ 3,836,243). Leader lane may differ from Illinois's TREND-LED.

Florida · HEAVY

11,447,493 SSA registrations (1.4× smaller than Illinois; ABS Δ 5,037,209). Leader lane may differ from Illinois's TREND-LED.

Why names rise and fall

Illinois 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.