What is the most popular baby name in Missouri?

On a heavy SSA book, Missouri's cumulative #1 boy is James (126,319 births) and #1 girl is Mary (106,159 births) since 1910.

How have baby names changed in Missouri over the decades?

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

How many babies are named in Missouri?

Our data covers 2,971,444 name registrations in Missouri for the top 50 boys and top 50 girls names (DENSE volume stamp · #15 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 Missouri

The boys' and girls' names most often given in Missouri, 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: 2,971,444
Births recorded: 1910–2025
Years covered

Missouri's all-time #1 names are James for boys and Mary for girls, based on 2,971,444 SSA birth registrations since 1910.

According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, Missouri has recorded 2,971,444 births across its top 50 boy and top 50 girl names since 1910. James leads all boys with 126,319 births, while Mary tops the girls with 106,159. This profile covers decade-by-decade leaders and the full top-50 rankings for both sexes.

James #1 boy name
Mary #1 girl name
2,971,444 births recorded

Where Missouri sits by recorded name volume

Missouri: 7,456,004 SSA name registrations (DENSE · rank 15/51). Inventory signal only, orthogonal to the top-50 lists below.

Missouri vs all states by SSA name registrations

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

7,456,004 15th of 51 higher than 36 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

Missouri naming snapshot

According to SSA state files through 2025, Mary is #1 of 106,159 cumulative SSA births in Missouri ≠ Charlotte #1 of 1,082 2025 girl names at all-time rank #51; James is #1 of 126,319 cumulative SSA births in Missouri ≠ Oliver #1 of 994 2025 boy names at all-time rank #51.

Charlotte
2025 girls #1, all-time #51: Mary
all-time girls #1, 2025 #51: Oliver
2025 boys #1, all-time #51: James
all-time boys #1, 2025 #8

Both sexes in Missouri 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 Missouri

Missouri sits in the heaviest third of SSA name-state registration totals (7,456,004 · DENSE · #15/51). Cumulative top-50 leaders are James (126,319 boy births) and Mary (106,159 girl births) across 2,971,444 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 1,838,681 vs 1,132,763 for girls.

In Missouri, 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 Missouri extends back to 1910. In the 1910s, the #1 boy name was William and the #1 girl name was Mary. By the 2020s, the top names had shifted to Oliver 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

334
Amelia

288
Olivia

260
Eleanor

248
Evelyn

227
Sophia

211
Emma

196
Willow

183
Violet

183
Harper

176

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

Oliver

405
Theodore

393
Henry

327
Noah

322
Liam

284
Hudson

284
William

253
James

248
Cooper

222
Bennett

216

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

Mary

106,159
Linda

38,301
Patricia

38,008
Barbara

34,965
Betty

34,816
Elizabeth

32,619
Dorothy

32,458
Jennifer

30,995
Margaret

26,565
Helen

25,159

What this shows Mary leads Missouri girls with 106,159 recorded births.

James

126,319
John

113,137
Robert

111,945
Michael

97,065
William

96,433
David

80,315
Charles

67,298
Richard

56,348
Joseph

48,829
Thomas

48,237

What this shows James leads Missouri boys with 126,319 recorded births.

Decade-by-Decade Leaders

The #1 boy and girl name in Missouri 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	William	9,436	Mary	13,114
1920s	Robert	16,562	Mary	21,154
1930s	Robert	16,152	Mary	17,703
1940s	James	20,694	Mary	18,434
1950s	Michael	22,017	Mary	16,853
1960s	Michael	18,704	Lisa	12,124
1970s	Michael	16,157	Jennifer	13,483
1980s	Michael	13,439	Jessica	10,587
1990s	Jacob	9,003	Jessica	6,409
2000s	Jacob	6,407	Emma	4,792
2010s	William	3,822	Emma	3,893
2020s	Oliver	2,286	Charlotte	1,885

Boy Top 50 Boy Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	James	126,319
2	John	113,137
3	Robert	111,945
4	Michael	97,065
5	William	96,433
6	David	80,315
7	Charles	67,298
8	Richard	56,348
9	Joseph	48,829
10	Thomas	48,237
11	Donald	43,104
12	Christopher	43,017
13	Daniel	37,677
14	Matthew	36,229
15	Kenneth	36,083
16	Mark	34,902
17	Paul	32,623
18	Steven	32,219
19	Larry	29,778
20	Gary	28,979
21	Ronald	28,902
22	George	28,762
23	Andrew	28,345
24	Timothy	27,891
25	Kevin	26,852
26	Joshua	26,628
27	Brian	25,233
28	Edward	24,541
29	Jacob	24,367
30	Anthony	24,248
31	Jason	23,031
32	Jeffrey	22,831
33	Jerry	21,925
34	Ryan	21,125
35	Stephen	21,117
36	Jack	19,924
37	Nicholas	18,936
38	Harold	18,854
39	Dennis	18,844
40	Raymond	18,392
41	Eric	17,828
42	Scott	17,724
43	Justin	17,456
44	Samuel	17,295
45	Benjamin	16,939
46	Gregory	16,811
47	Brandon	16,164
48	Carl	16,135
49	Tyler	15,565
50	Terry	15,479

Girl Top 50 Girl Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	Mary	106,159
2	Linda	38,301
3	Patricia	38,008
4	Barbara	34,965
5	Betty	34,816
6	Elizabeth	32,619
7	Dorothy	32,458
8	Jennifer	30,995
9	Margaret	26,565
10	Helen	25,159
11	Sarah	24,452
12	Karen	24,219
13	Donna	23,909
14	Susan	23,820
15	Carol	22,472
16	Shirley	22,457
17	Lisa	22,320
18	Nancy	22,007
19	Sharon	21,887
20	Jessica	21,639
21	Ruth	21,254
22	Virginia	20,806
23	Sandra	20,023
24	Anna	19,814
25	Kimberly	19,368
26	Deborah	19,140
27	Angela	19,005
28	Emily	18,727
29	Rebecca	18,636
30	Amanda	18,575
31	Laura	18,300
32	Ashley	18,263
33	Michelle	17,790
34	Amy	17,357
35	Melissa	16,220
36	Janet	15,949
37	Carolyn	15,836
38	Pamela	15,739
39	Emma	15,677
40	Stephanie	15,573
41	Brenda	15,252
42	Cynthia	15,249
43	Kathleen	15,077
44	Joyce	14,943
45	Katherine	14,828
46	Julie	13,503
47	Martha	13,294
48	Evelyn	13,268
49	Mildred	13,157
50	Rachel	12,913

Read with Missouri

Nearest ABS peers for a heavy-registry state (Missouri · DENSE · TREND-LED).

DENSE TREND-LED

Virginia · DENSE

7,595,197 SSA registrations (near-scale with Missouri; ABS Δ 139,193). Leader lane may differ from Missouri's TREND-LED.

Tennessee · DENSE

7,123,698 SSA registrations (near-scale with Missouri; ABS Δ 332,306). Leader lane may differ from Missouri's TREND-LED.

Indiana · DENSE

7,926,947 SSA registrations (near-scale with Missouri; ABS Δ 470,943). Leader lane may differ from Missouri's TREND-LED.

Massachusetts · HEAVY

8,213,855 SSA registrations (near-scale with Missouri; ABS Δ 757,851). Leader lane may differ from Missouri's TREND-LED.

Why names rise and fall

Missouri 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 - 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.