What is the most popular baby name in North Carolina?

On a heavy SSA book, North Carolina's cumulative #1 boy is James (212,379 births) and #1 girl is Mary (134,193 births) since 1910.

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

North 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 Liam/Olivia (2020s).

How many babies are named in North Carolina?

Our data covers 3,543,831 name registrations in North Carolina for the top 50 boys and top 50 girls names (HEAVY volume stamp · #9 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 North Carolina

The boys' and girls' names most often given in North 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: 3,543,831
Births recorded: 1910–2025
Years covered

North Carolina's all-time #1 names are James for boys and Mary for girls, based on 3,543,831 SSA birth registrations since 1910.

According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, North Carolina has recorded 3,543,831 births across its top 50 boy and top 50 girl names since 1910. James leads all boys with 212,379 births, while Mary tops the girls with 134,193. This profile covers decade-by-decade leaders and the full top-50 rankings for both sexes.

James #1 boy name
Mary #1 girl name
3,543,831 births recorded

Where North Carolina sits by recorded name volume

North Carolina: 9,597,543 SSA name registrations (HEAVY · rank 9/51). Inventory signal only, orthogonal to the top-50 lists below.

North Carolina vs all states by SSA name registrations

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

9,597,543 9th of 51 higher than 42 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

North Carolina naming snapshot

According to SSA state files through 2025, Mary is #1 of 134,193 cumulative SSA births in North Carolina ≠ Amelia #1 of 1,687 2025 girl names at all-time rank #51; James is #1 of 212,379 cumulative SSA births in North Carolina ≠ Noah #1 of 1,470 2025 boy names at all-time rank #49.

Amelia
2025 girls #1, all-time #51: Mary
all-time girls #1, 2025 #51: Noah
2025 boys #1, all-time #49: James
all-time boys #1, 2025 #5

Both sexes in North 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

What a heavy registry book shows for North Carolina

North Carolina sits in the heaviest third of SSA name-state registration totals (9,597,543 · HEAVY · #9/51). Cumulative top-50 leaders are James (212,379 boy births) and Mary (134,193 girl births) across 3,543,831 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 2,158,274 vs 1,385,557 for girls.

In North 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.

Coverage notes on a heavy state file

Decade-by-decade data for North 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 Liam 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.

Amelia

459
Charlotte

453
Olivia

441
Sophia

396
Emma

391
Isabella

342
Mia

325
Eliana

321
Evelyn

317
Eleanor

315

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

Noah

684
Liam

680
Oliver

507
William

500
James

471
Henry

450
Elijah

426
Theodore

425
Levi

376
John

360

What this shows Noah leads 2025 boys in North Carolina; James remains the all-time cumulative #1 at rank #49 in 2025.

Mary

134,193
Elizabeth

50,665
Linda

44,003
Betty

44,002
Margaret

39,604
Sarah

38,616
Barbara

38,394
Patricia

35,858
Jennifer

33,556
Dorothy

33,437

What this shows Mary leads North Carolina girls with 134,193 recorded births.

James

212,379
William

161,929
John

126,129
Robert

116,448
Michael

96,294
David

92,454
Charles

82,640
Christopher

63,519
Thomas

60,702
Joseph

57,681

What this shows James leads North Carolina boys with 212,379 recorded births.

Decade-by-Decade Leaders

The #1 boy and girl name in North 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	16,989	Mary	16,575
1920s	James	29,732	Mary	28,711
1930s	James	28,222	Mary	24,040
1940s	James	34,897	Mary	23,555
1950s	James	29,863	Mary	16,906
1960s	James	22,470	Lisa	13,392
1970s	Michael	17,286	Jennifer	12,523
1980s	Christopher	16,155	Jessica	12,616
1990s	Christopher	12,092	Ashley	9,128
2000s	William	9,357	Madison	6,899
2010s	William	6,990	Emma	5,991
2020s	Liam	4,192	Olivia	2,977

Boy Top 50 Boy Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	James	212,379
2	William	161,929
3	John	126,129
4	Robert	116,448
5	Michael	96,294
6	David	92,454
7	Charles	82,640
8	Christopher	63,519
9	Thomas	60,702
10	Joseph	57,681
11	Richard	46,287
12	George	41,846
13	Joshua	40,700
14	Matthew	38,227
15	Daniel	37,087
16	Kenneth	36,784
17	Larry	33,664
18	Timothy	32,998
19	Donald	32,962
20	Samuel	30,271
21	Jerry	30,151
22	Anthony	30,099
23	Jonathan	29,314
24	Willie	29,016
25	Andrew	28,595
26	Bobby	27,737
27	Edward	27,397
28	Paul	27,217
29	Jacob	26,795
30	Henry	26,131
31	Brandon	25,970
32	Ronald	24,615
33	Jason	24,270
34	Benjamin	24,225
35	Steven	24,018
36	Kevin	23,487
37	Billy	23,326
38	Jeffrey	23,048
39	Mark	23,021
40	Justin	22,486
41	Brian	22,269
42	Walter	21,848
43	Gary	20,504
44	Stephen	20,302
45	Jack	19,858
46	Johnny	19,048
47	Eric	18,458
48	Alexander	18,333
49	Noah	18,008
50	Jimmy	17,727

Girl Top 50 Girl Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	Mary	134,193
2	Elizabeth	50,665
3	Linda	44,003
4	Betty	44,002
5	Margaret	39,604
6	Sarah	38,616
7	Barbara	38,394
8	Patricia	35,858
9	Jennifer	33,556
10	Dorothy	33,437
11	Annie	32,228
12	Brenda	30,443
13	Ashley	27,960
14	Jessica	26,741
15	Kimberly	26,295
16	Nancy	26,254
17	Carolyn	26,060
18	Angela	25,509
19	Shirley	25,493
20	Emma	25,157
21	Emily	24,999
22	Helen	24,862
23	Sandra	24,280
24	Martha	24,041
25	Rebecca	23,830
26	Lisa	23,069
27	Ruth	22,478
28	Susan	22,472
29	Frances	22,105
30	Amanda	21,943
31	Deborah	21,925
32	Virginia	21,739
33	Donna	21,597
34	Doris	21,262
35	Cynthia	21,086
36	Ruby	20,529
37	Anna	19,881
38	Evelyn	19,716
39	Laura	19,568
40	Karen	19,016
41	Teresa	18,775
42	Pamela	18,678
43	Sharon	18,649
44	Joyce	18,351
45	Amy	18,190
46	Melissa	17,884
47	Alice	17,882
48	Stephanie	17,453
49	Hannah	17,443
50	Katherine	17,386

Read with North Carolina

Nearest ABS peers for a heavy-registry state (North Carolina · HEAVY · TREND-LED).

HEAVY TREND-LED

Georgia · HEAVY

9,368,996 SSA registrations (near-scale with North Carolina; ABS Δ 228,547). Leader lane may differ from North Carolina's TREND-LED.

New Jersey · HEAVY

9,242,220 SSA registrations (near-scale with North Carolina; ABS Δ 355,323). Leader lane may differ from North Carolina's TREND-LED.

Massachusetts · HEAVY

8,213,855 SSA registrations (near-scale with North Carolina; ABS Δ 1,383,688). Leader lane may differ from North Carolina's TREND-LED.

Indiana · DENSE

7,926,947 SSA registrations (near-scale with North Carolina; ABS Δ 1,670,596). Leader lane may differ from North Carolina's TREND-LED.

Why names rise and fall

North Carolina stamps HEAVY · 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.