Most Popular Baby Boy Names in the US (SSA 2025)

The top 50 boys' names in the United States, 2025

Official Social Security Administration figures for US births in 2025, published on 8 May 2026. SSA compiles them from a 100 per cent sample of Social Security card applications held as of March 2026, restricted to births in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

What the 2025 data actually shows

Liam held on, but the gap collapsed

Liam was the most popular US boys' name for a seventh straight year with 20,818 births. But the margin over Noah fell to 460. In 2024, Liam had 22,252 against Noah's 20,409 — a gap of 1,843. Liam lost more than 1,400 registrations in a year while Noah was almost flat. On the current trajectory the top of this chart is genuinely contestable.

The top four did not move

SSA noted that Liam, Noah, Oliver and Theodore all held their positions. The only change inside the top six was Henry and James swapping fifth and sixth. Theodore, meanwhile, gained more than 1,200 registrations year on year, the largest absolute rise in the top 10.

Spanish-language names are a structural feature of the American top 50

Mateo at 8th, Santiago at 26th and Thiago at 50th are not curiosities — they reflect the composition of American births, and they are the clearest single difference between the US chart and the England and Wales chart, where none of the three appears in the top 100.

The fastest risers

SSA highlighted Kasai, which it glosses as meaning "fire" in Japanese and Swahili, as the leading boys' riser: up 1,108 places to 639th, entering the top 1,000 for the first time. Akari rose 1,089 places to 542nd, Eziah 789 to 610th, Jasai 775 to 439th and Neithan 656 to 723rd. All five are outside the top 400, which is a useful reminder that "fastest rising" and "popular" are different measurements.

Boys' names concentrate more than girls' names

SSA's coverage figures show the top 1,000 boys' names accounting for 75.59 per cent of US boys born in 2025, against 67.25 per cent for girls. American parents experiment more with girls' names than with boys' — a pattern that holds across almost every country that publishes this data.

How to use this list

Combine the variants before deciding a name is uncommon. SSA is explicit that different spellings of similar names are not merged, and that its rankings are done separately by sex, so a name used for both will hold two different ranks. Lucas at 10th, Luca at 14th and Luke at 33rd are three entries for what many people hear as one name family. Elijah at 7th and Elias at 13th are another.

Note also what is excluded. SSA's national data covers only the 50 states and DC — US territories are not in it. Names must be at least two characters long to be counted, and any name with fewer than five occurrences in a geographic area is suppressed for privacy. The data is otherwise unedited, so oddities in the long tail are real records rather than mistakes SSA has cleaned up.

If you are comparing across countries, do not read this list against a British or Australian one without allowing for the diminutive rule. Freddie, Archie, Alfie and Charlie sit high in the England and Wales top 50; in the US, parents overwhelmingly register Frederick, Charles or Alfred and use the short form at home, so the American table understates how often those sounds are actually used.