US Baby Name Statistics: Key Findings

Key Findings

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  The SSA's public baby-name files track 105,966 distinct names (117,820 name-and-sex entries) and 375,362,447 total recorded births since 1880.

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  James is the all-time #1 name by cumulative births, with 5,250,638 babies recorded since 1880.

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  Mary held the #1 national rank for 76 of the years between 1880 and 1961 -- the longest #1 reign on record.

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  Only 907 names have appeared in the SSA data every single year since 1880, a streak of 146 consecutive years.

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  3,731 names are genuinely used for both boys and girls (each sex accounting for at least 5% of the name's total births).

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  21% of all name-and-sex entries in the archive (24,955 of 117,820) have fewer than 10 total recorded births -- names that barely crossed the SSA's 5-birth-per-year disclosure floor.