Why Fewer Kids Share a Name Than Ever

In 1935, 24.7% of American girls were given one of that year’s ten most popular names, about one girl in 4. For boys it was 33.3%. In 2025 the same figures were 7% for girls and 8% for boys: roughly one baby in 13.

Over the same span the number of distinct names given to at least five babies grew from 4,893 to 17,297 for girls (3.5 times as many) and from 4,146 to 13,930 for boys. American parents did not just change their favorite names; they stopped agreeing on them.

The top 10 lost its grip

Boys’ names were the more conservative ones for most of the century: in 1935 the ten most popular, led by Robert, James, John, covered 33.3% of all boys. By the 2010s that gap had closed, and today boys’ and girls’ names are about equally spread out.

More names than ever

Girls’ name variety peaked in 2007 at 20,584 distinct names. Part of the drop since then simply follows the number of births: 1,922,617 girls were born that year against 1,607,267 in 2025, and fewer babies means fewer names clear the five-baby reporting threshold.

What it means for guessing ages

When a quarter of a generation shares ten names, those names say little about any one person. When parents scatter across thousands of names, each name carries a sharper timestamp: a Jaxon or a Harper is almost certainly young. That is good news for anyone playing NameYear: recent rosters are full of names that only exist in one decade.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration national baby-name files, 1935–2025. Names given to fewer than five babies of a sex in a year are not published, so “distinct names” counts only names at or above that line.