Top Baby Names of 2016

What the Data Says About 2016

The Social Security Administration's national 2016 file shows 1,413,252 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 2016 was Noah, with 19,188 births registered nationally. The #1 girl name of 2016 was Emma, with 19,550 births nationally. The top 100 boys captured 815,876 births compared with 597,376 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.

2016 sits within a specific era of U.S. naming trends. 2016 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. Noah and Emma leading 2016 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 2016. Names with fewer than five occurrences nationally in 2016 are excluded from SSA's public file to protect privacy, meaning the true number of unique names given in 2016 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.