Born in 2021 · Gen Alpha
Baby names of 2021
The Social Security name files, which cover every name given to at least 5 babies, list 3,390,343 babies born in 2021: 1,640,861 girls and 1,749,482 boys. Olivia and Liam were the most popular names, and 7.8% of all babies got a top-10 name, down from 9.0% in 2011. The name most tied to 2021 is Kehlani: among girls, it was 817× as common that year as in the decades before it.
Quick facts
- Generation
- Gen Alpha
- Born 2013–2025
- Babies on record
- 3,390,343
- 1,640,861 girls · 1,749,482 boys
- Different names
- 17,676
- for girls, plus 14,096 for boys (5+ babies each)
- Top-10 names
- 7.8%
- of babies got one · girls 7.7%, boys 7.8%
Top 10 names of 2021
- Olivia has been the #1 name for girls every year since 2019.
- Liam has been the #1 name for boys every year since 2017.
How many babies got a top-10 name?
In 2021, 7.8% of babies were given one of that year's 10 most popular names. Across all years, that share fell from 29.0% in 1935 to 7.5% in 2025.
Names that sound like 2021
These names were far more common in 2021 than in the decades before it: the multiplier compares each name's share of 2021 babies with its average share 6–25 years earlier.
| Name | Sex | Rank | Vs. nearby |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kehlani | Girl | #151 | 817× |
| Oaklynn | Girl | #206 | 218× |
| Alaia | Girl | #128 | 52× |
| Kairo | Boy | #263 | 50× |
| Everleigh | Girl | #99 | 34× |
| Atlas | Boy | #147 | 29× |
| Nova | Girl | #32 | 22× |
| Legend | Boy | #118 | 22× |
| Zayn | Boy | #282 | 17× |
| Thiago | Boy | #141 | 16× |
Names that peaked in 2021
Each of these reached its highest share of US babies in 2021, the high point in records going back to 1880. Rank is for 2021.
| Name | Sex | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Amelia | Girl | #4 |
| Willow | Girl | #39 |
| Kinsley | Girl | #57 |
| Emmett | Boy | #103 |
| Kingston | Boy | #112 |
| Natalia | Girl | #79 |
| Legend | Boy | #118 |
| Rhett | Boy | #149 |
| Jude | Boy | #152 |
| Messiah | Boy | #172 |
New to the top 1,000 in 2021
Names that made the national top 1,000 for the first time in 2021 (records go back to 1880).
Girls
- Jaylani354 babies
- Nyra324 babies
- Clover319 babies
- Ocean313 babies
- Baylor302 babies
- Indigo300 babies
- Zayla289 babies
- Taytum279 babies
Boys
- Ozzy366 babies
- Eliam346 babies
- Amiri330 babies
- Jiraiya289 babies
- Elio286 babies
- Avyaan250 babies
- Azriel245 babies
- Jakai245 babies
Where are they now?
Every top-100 name from 2021 is still in the 2025 top 1,000.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration baby-name data, which covers names given to at least 5 babies of one sex in a year. About the data