Girls' name · peaked in 1975

Heather name popularity since 1925

527,356 babies born in the US from 1925 to 2025 were named Heather. Half of them were born in 1980 or earlier, so the typical Heather is about 46 years old in 2026. Heather peaked in 1975 as the #3 name for girls, and it was outside the top 1,000 in 2025.

US babies since 1925: 527,356; Named Heather, 1925–2025
Peak year: 1975; #3 for girls that year
Typical age: About 46; Median birth year 1980
In 2025: Not top 1,000; #1,264 for girls in 2025
Girls / boys: 99.7% girls; 525,879 girls · 1,477 boys
Most popular in: Vermont; 2.05× its national share

Peak year is the year Heather made up the largest share of US girls, in records going back to 1880. Typical age is based on births from 1925 on, not on who is living today.

Heather births per year, 1925–2025

1975 was the biggest year for Heather both by count and as a share of all babies.

Fastest rise: Between 1965 and 1970, Heather became 5.9× more common, from 1 in 707 baby girls to 1 in 119.
Steepest fall: Between 2002 and 2007, its share of baby girls fell by 64%, from 1 in 869 to 1 in 2,410.

Shaded on the chart. Both compare Heather's share of all US girls five years apart, counting only years with at least 100 babies named Heather.

Decade by decade

Babies named Heather in each decade, and its rank among girls' names in the middle year of the decade (1935, 1945 … 2025).

Decade	Girls	Boys	Rank
1925–29	9	0	–
1930s	434	0	#870
1940s	1,841	0	#554
1950s	5,550	0	#347
1960s	32,705	74	#150
1970s	203,902	632	#3
1980s	191,852	635	#8
1990s	71,626	131	#54
2000s	13,996	5	#300
2010s	2,941	0	#965
2020–25	1,023	0	#1,264

Ranks count every name given to at least 5 girls that year, so they can go past 1,000.

Generation fingerprint

47.3% of babies named Heather from 1925 to 2025 were born in the Gen X years (1965–1980). The full split by generation:

Where Heather is most popular

The index compares Heather's share of babies in each state with its share nationwide, 1925–2025 (1.50× = 50% more common). States with at least 300 babies named Heather.

State	Index	Babies
Vermont	2.05×	1,813
Alaska	1.92×	1,509
New Hampshire	1.89×	3,140
Wyoming	1.88×	1,350
Maine	1.63×	3,685

Names with a similar story

Of the other 499 names on this site, these six had the share of babies closest in shape to Heather's from 1925 to 2025, however common each one got. Each line is scaled to its own high; the dashed line is Heather.

Names from the same era

Other common names that peaked within two years of Heather (1975).

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration national and state baby-name data, which covers names given to at least 5 babies of one sex in a year. About the data