Trying to find a name? There's one baby-naming tool you need if you’re about to welcome a new addition and are in the process of picking out a baby name.
Baby name choices can be overwhelming, especially if you’re concerned with the popularity of a baby name name. Perhaps you want a baby name no one else in your little one’s class will have, or perhaps you want a baby name that is trending.
Or, maybe you just want to check in on your own name. Have you ever wondered how popular your name was when you were born? How popular it is now? How has it trended through the decades? There’s a very simple tool that can show you exactly that — for your name or any other.
The Social Security Administration has data on baby names going back to 1880. The agency’s website has a simple tool that allows you to plug in any name and see the popularity ranking of that name every year from 1900 to 2022. Click on this link and then scroll down to the part of the page that says “Items of Interest.” Under that headline, you will find two tools.
The tool on the right is called “Popularity of a name.”
Using my name — Genevieve — as an example, I was able to see the name’s popularity over the last 122 years. Pay careful attention to the column labeled rankings — the lower the number, the more popular the name in the corresponding year. “Genevieve” was at its peak in popularity in 1914, 1915, and 1916 when it ranked number 76. In 1968, “Genevieve” bottomed out in terms of popularity, ranking its lowest at 692.
The tool on the left is called “Popular Names by Birth Year.”
Using my son’s birth year — 2016 — as an example, I found out his name, Luke, was not in the top 20 that year. The most popular baby boy name the year he was born was Noah.
If you're wondering what names will be popular in the next few years, you can look at rankings from the recent past to see trends.
Happy name hunting!
