Top Baby Names of 2006

What the Data Says About 2006

The Social Security Administration's national 2006 file shows 1,730,211 births concentrated in the top 100 boy and top 100 girl names, the segment of U.S. baby-name data released to the public for that year. The #1 boy name of 2006 was Jacob, with 24,871 births registered nationally. The #1 girl name of 2006 was Emily, with 21,412 births nationally. The top 100 boys captured 1,033,265 births compared with 696,946 for the top 100 girls, consistent with the historical SSA pattern in which a smaller pool of boy names dominates a larger share of annual births while girl names are more evenly distributed.

2006 sits within a specific era of U.S. naming trends. 2006 reflects the contemporary naming landscape, shorter names, -a endings for girls, classic revivals for boys, and a steadily flattening distribution in which no single name dominates the way they did mid-century. Jacob and Emily leading 2006 fits this broader cultural signature.

These rankings come directly from Social Security Administration card applications and represent approximately 96% of all U.S. births in 2006. Names with fewer than five occurrences nationally in 2006 are excluded from SSA's public file to protect privacy, meaning the true number of unique names given in 2006 is significantly larger than any public top-100 list can show. Each spelling variation is counted separately, Sophia and Sofia, Aiden and Ayden, so rankings reflect only the specific spelling filed on the SS card, not combined name pools. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute naming advice.