What is the most popular baby name in New Jersey?

On a heavy SSA book, New Jersey's cumulative #1 boy is John (198,618 births) and #1 girl is Mary (90,614 births) since 1910.

How have baby names changed in New Jersey over the decades?

New Jersey 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 Liam/Olivia (2020s).

How many babies are named in New Jersey?

Our data covers 4,182,538 name registrations in New Jersey for the top 50 boys and top 50 girls names (HEAVY volume stamp · #11 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 New Jersey

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

Compiled byNameAlmanac, Independent data publisher

John
#1 boy name: Mary
#1 girl name: 4,182,538
Births recorded: 1910–2025
Years covered

New Jersey's all-time #1 names are John for boys and Mary for girls, based on 4,182,538 SSA birth registrations since 1910.

According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, New Jersey has recorded 4,182,538 births across its top 50 boy and top 50 girl names since 1910. John leads all boys with 198,618 births, while Mary tops the girls with 90,614. This profile covers decade-by-decade leaders and the full top-50 rankings for both sexes.

John #1 boy name
Mary #1 girl name
4,182,538 births recorded

Where New Jersey sits by recorded name volume

New Jersey: 9,242,220 SSA name registrations (HEAVY · rank 11/51). Inventory signal only, orthogonal to the top-50 lists below.

New Jersey vs all states by SSA name registrations

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

9,242,220 11th of 51 higher than 40 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

New Jersey naming snapshot

According to SSA state files through 2025, Mary is #1 of 90,614 cumulative SSA births in New Jersey ≠ Emma #1 of 1,353 2025 girl names at all-time rank #51; John is #1 of 198,618 cumulative SSA births in New Jersey ≠ Liam #1 of 1,185 2025 boy names at all-time rank #51.

Emma
2025 girls #1, all-time #51: Mary
all-time girls #1, 2025 #51: Liam
2025 boys #1, all-time #51: John
all-time boys #1, 2025 #26

Both sexes in New Jersey 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 New Jersey

New Jersey sits in the heaviest third of SSA name-state registration totals (9,242,220 · HEAVY · #11/51). Cumulative top-50 leaders are John (198,618 boy births) and Mary (90,614 girl births) across 4,182,538 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 2,719,270 vs 1,463,268 for girls.

In New Jersey, 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 New Jersey 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 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.

Emma

428
Mia

427
Olivia

396
Sophia

396
Isabella

368
Charlotte

340
Amelia

317
Ailany

299
Sofia

292
Ava

286

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

Liam

749
Noah

742
Lucas

399
Luca

378
Joseph

374
James

350
Michael

343
Theodore

338
Oliver

335
Jack

333

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

Mary

90,614
Patricia

60,220
Barbara

53,647
Elizabeth

52,170
Jennifer

47,579
Susan

43,070
Margaret

42,401
Linda

40,860
Kathleen

35,950
Nancy

34,997

What this shows Mary leads New Jersey girls with 90,614 recorded births.

John

198,618
Robert

172,391
Michael

170,624
Joseph

138,689
William

133,803
James

129,267
David

99,600
Thomas

95,022
Richard

89,539
Anthony

74,581

What this shows John leads New Jersey boys with 198,618 recorded births.

Decade-by-Decade Leaders

The #1 boy and girl name in New Jersey 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	15,923	Mary	14,555
1920s	John	23,341	Mary	16,736
1930s	Robert	20,399	Joan	11,708
1940s	Robert	29,357	Barbara	16,619
1950s	Robert	33,839	Patricia	18,735
1960s	Michael	31,666	Lisa	17,578
1970s	Michael	25,905	Jennifer	19,141
1980s	Michael	26,880	Jennifer	13,712
1990s	Michael	21,219	Jessica	9,445
2000s	Michael	11,513	Emily	6,914
2010s	Michael	5,658	Isabella	5,534
2020s	Liam	4,399	Olivia	2,754

Boy Top 50 Boy Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	John	198,618
2	Robert	172,391
3	Michael	170,624
4	Joseph	138,689
5	William	133,803
6	James	129,267
7	David	99,600
8	Thomas	95,022
9	Richard	89,539
10	Anthony	74,581
11	Christopher	71,264
12	Daniel	67,014
13	Charles	63,727
14	Edward	62,049
15	Matthew	59,912
16	George	54,779
17	Frank	47,198
18	Kevin	46,665
19	Brian	45,717
20	Andrew	43,952
21	Paul	43,389
22	Nicholas	41,925
23	Mark	41,171
24	Steven	39,878
25	Kenneth	37,997
26	Peter	37,499
27	Ryan	34,321
28	Donald	33,437
29	Jeffrey	33,022
30	Stephen	33,009
31	Ronald	30,144
32	Raymond	28,403
33	Jason	28,079
34	Eric	27,490
35	Alexander	27,035
36	Jonathan	26,874
37	Timothy	25,596
38	Joshua	24,279
39	Scott	24,261
40	Patrick	24,247
41	Walter	24,101
42	Vincent	23,144
43	Justin	22,665
44	Gregory	22,647
45	Gary	21,187
46	Louis	21,143
47	Henry	20,067
48	Sean	19,597
49	Samuel	19,360
50	Benjamin	18,892

Girl Top 50 Girl Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	Mary	90,614
2	Patricia	60,220
3	Barbara	53,647
4	Elizabeth	52,170
5	Jennifer	47,579
6	Susan	43,070
7	Margaret	42,401
8	Linda	40,860
9	Kathleen	35,950
10	Nancy	34,997
11	Karen	34,449
12	Helen	34,147
13	Lisa	33,646
14	Dorothy	33,472
15	Jessica	32,343
16	Carol	30,999
17	Donna	29,008
18	Nicole	28,591
19	Anna	28,384
20	Joan	27,584
21	Catherine	27,457
22	Christine	26,314
23	Emily	25,626
24	Michelle	25,275
25	Diane	24,539
26	Sarah	24,526
27	Marie	24,114
28	Melissa	23,834
29	Ruth	23,700
30	Deborah	23,583
31	Laura	23,555
32	Stephanie	23,182
33	Kimberly	23,177
34	Ashley	22,274
35	Samantha	21,376
36	Amanda	20,658
37	Rose	20,523
38	Lauren	20,514
39	Sharon	20,223
40	Sandra	19,908
41	Jean	19,406
42	Katherine	19,312
43	Victoria	19,004
44	Theresa	18,918
45	Janet	18,254
46	Cynthia	18,215
47	Kelly	18,075
48	Maria	17,954
49	Danielle	17,861
50	Judith	17,780

Read with New Jersey

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

HEAVY TREND-LED

Georgia · HEAVY

9,368,996 SSA registrations (near-scale with New Jersey; ABS Δ 126,776). Leader lane may differ from New Jersey's TREND-LED.

North Carolina · HEAVY

9,597,543 SSA registrations (near-scale with New Jersey; ABS Δ 355,323). Leader lane may differ from New Jersey's TREND-LED.

Massachusetts · HEAVY

8,213,855 SSA registrations (near-scale with New Jersey; ABS Δ 1,028,365). Leader lane may differ from New Jersey's TREND-LED.

Indiana · DENSE

7,926,947 SSA registrations (near-scale with New Jersey; ABS Δ 1,315,273). Leader lane may differ from New Jersey's TREND-LED.

Why names rise and fall

New Jersey 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.