What is the most popular baby name in South Dakota?

Even on a thin SSA book, South Dakota's cumulative #1 boy is Robert (18,055 births) and #1 girl is Mary (14,265 births) since 1910.

How have baby names changed in South Dakota over the decades?

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

How many babies are named in South Dakota?

Our data covers 455,505 name registrations in South Dakota for the top 50 boys and top 50 girls names (QUIET volume stamp · #43 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 South Dakota

The boys' and girls' names most often given in South Dakota, 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: 455,505
Births recorded: 1910–2025
Years covered

South Dakota's all-time #1 names are Robert for boys and Mary for girls, based on 455,505 SSA birth registrations since 1910.

According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, South Dakota has recorded 455,505 births across its top 50 boy and top 50 girl names since 1910. Robert leads all boys with 18,055 births, while Mary tops the girls with 14,265. This profile covers decade-by-decade leaders and the full top-50 rankings for both sexes.

Robert #1 boy name
Mary #1 girl name
455,505 births recorded

Where South Dakota sits by recorded name volume

South Dakota: 1,130,783 SSA name registrations (QUIET · rank 43/51). Inventory signal only, orthogonal to the top-50 lists below.

South Dakota vs all states by SSA name registrations

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

1,130,783 43rd of 51 higher than 8 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

South Dakota naming snapshot

According to SSA state files through 2025, Mary is #1 of 14,265 cumulative SSA births in South Dakota ≠ Lainey #1 of 279 2025 girl names at all-time rank #51; Robert is #1 of 18,055 cumulative SSA births in South Dakota ≠ Oliver #1 of 303 2025 boy names at all-time rank #51.

Lainey
2025 girls #1, all-time #51: Mary
all-time girls #1, 2025 #51: Oliver
2025 boys #1, all-time #51: Robert
all-time boys #1, 2025 #51

Both sexes in South Dakota 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 thin registry book shows for South Dakota

South Dakota sits in the lightest third of SSA name-state registration totals (1,130,783 · QUIET · #43/51). Cumulative top-50 leaders are Robert (18,055 boy births) and Mary (14,265 girl births) across 455,505 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 276,241 vs 179,264 for girls.

In South Dakota, 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 thin state file

Decade-by-decade data for South Dakota extends back to 1910. In the 1910s, the #1 boy name was John and the #1 girl name was Helen. 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.

Lainey

50
Charlotte

44
Evelyn

39
Olivia

36
Emma

36
Eleanor

32
Harper

31
Ellie

31
Nora

31
Amelia

30

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

Oliver

66
Liam

60
Hudson

50
Noah

50
Henry

50
Theodore

47
Beau

42
William

41
Leo

40
Maverick

38

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

Mary

14,265
Linda

5,699
Patricia

5,535
Dorothy

5,495
Barbara

5,312
Carol

4,990
Betty

4,874
Donna

4,762
Margaret

4,553
Elizabeth

4,521

What this shows Mary leads South Dakota girls with 14,265 recorded births.

Robert

18,055
James

15,730
John

14,530
Michael

13,016
David

12,427
Richard

10,584
William

10,542
Donald

9,801
Thomas

7,584
Charles

6,927

What this shows Robert leads South Dakota boys with 18,055 recorded births.

Decade-by-Decade Leaders

The #1 boy and girl name in South Dakota 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	1,633	Helen	1,516
1920s	Robert	3,758	Mary	2,456
1930s	Robert	3,061	Mary	2,370
1940s	Robert	2,953	Mary	2,703
1950s	David	3,570	Mary	2,873
1960s	Michael	2,582	Lisa	1,860
1970s	Jason	2,172	Jennifer	2,063
1980s	Matthew	1,721	Jessica	1,577
1990s	Tyler	1,172	Ashley	831
2000s	Jacob	808	Emma	628
2010s	Liam	578	Emma	590
2020s	Oliver	369	Charlotte	248

Boy Top 50 Boy Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	Robert	18,055
2	James	15,730
3	John	14,530
4	Michael	13,016
5	David	12,427
6	Richard	10,584
7	William	10,542
8	Donald	9,801
9	Thomas	7,584
10	Charles	6,927
11	Daniel	6,443
12	Kenneth	5,965
13	Steven	5,886
14	Mark	5,819
15	Joseph	5,676
16	Paul	5,228
17	Ronald	5,213
18	Larry	4,837
19	Gary	4,835
20	Matthew	4,801
21	Christopher	4,519
22	Dennis	4,347
23	Scott	4,246
24	Douglas	4,112
25	Timothy	3,999
26	Brian	3,981
27	Jason	3,960
28	George	3,899
29	Joshua	3,739
30	Roger	3,723
31	Kevin	3,715
32	Jeffrey	3,694
33	Andrew	3,693
34	Dale	3,689
35	Ryan	3,566
36	Raymond	3,336
37	Harold	3,325
38	Jacob	3,306
39	Edward	3,106
40	Wayne	3,059
41	Tyler	2,936
42	Gerald	2,909
43	Justin	2,830
44	Jack	2,778
45	Terry	2,741
46	Jerry	2,734
47	Patrick	2,717
48	Todd	2,601
49	Eric	2,568
50	Benjamin	2,514

Girl Top 50 Girl Names

#	Name	Total Births
1	Mary	14,265
2	Linda	5,699
3	Patricia	5,535
4	Dorothy	5,495
5	Barbara	5,312
6	Carol	4,990
7	Betty	4,874
8	Donna	4,762
9	Margaret	4,553
10	Elizabeth	4,521
11	Jennifer	4,428
12	Helen	4,337
13	Karen	4,330
14	Susan	4,315
15	Shirley	4,088
16	Ruth	3,991
17	Nancy	3,716
18	Sandra	3,583
19	Sharon	3,571
20	Lisa	3,400
21	Julie	3,264
22	Evelyn	3,150
23	Sarah	3,078
24	Jessica	3,068
25	Lois	2,972
26	Debra	2,938
27	Joyce	2,853
28	Kathleen	2,824
29	Amy	2,798
30	Michelle	2,765
31	Rebecca	2,748
32	Doris	2,714
33	Beverly	2,682
34	Alice	2,676
35	Janet	2,675
36	Jean	2,583
37	Laura	2,561
38	Amanda	2,560
39	Pamela	2,523
40	Lori	2,443
41	Marilyn	2,442
42	Phyllis	2,442
43	Janice	2,431
44	Anna	2,382
45	Judy	2,381
46	Emily	2,375
47	Ashley	2,350
48	Joan	2,292
49	Diane	2,278
50	Virginia	2,251

Read with South Dakota

Nearest ABS peers for a thin-registry state (South Dakota · QUIET · TREND-LED).

QUIET TREND-LED

North Dakota · QUIET

1,139,287 SSA registrations (near-scale with South Dakota; ABS Δ 8,504). Leader lane may differ from South Dakota's TREND-LED.

Nevada · QUIET

1,113,187 SSA registrations (near-scale with South Dakota; ABS Δ 17,596). Leader lane may differ from South Dakota's TREND-LED.

New Hampshire · QUIET

1,052,148 SSA registrations (near-scale with South Dakota; ABS Δ 78,635). Leader lane may differ from South Dakota's TREND-LED.

Rhode Island · QUIET

1,222,600 SSA registrations (near-scale with South Dakota; ABS Δ 91,817). Leader lane may differ from South Dakota's TREND-LED.

New Mexico (volume-lane contrast)

Near South Dakota on SSA registration volume yet stamps SPARSE vs QUIET.

Why names rise and fall

South Dakota stamps QUIET · 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 - thin-registry states: how small SSA state files are compared without inventing suppressed names.

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.