Welcome to the world, baby Mia. And same to you, Liam. You are tops in California – in names, at least.
The Social Security Administration keeps an eye on baby names, which come to it by way of registering newborns for Social Security accounts. Each year it publishes a list of the 100 most popular baby names, and for 2024 – they don’t yet have a running total for 2025 – Olivia was number one for girls and Liam came in tops for boys.
For 2024, here are the top 10 names for both girls and boys:
- Mia, Liam
- Olivia, Noah
- Camila, Matteo
- Emma, Santiago
- Sophia, Sebastian
- Isabella, Julian
- Amelia, Oliver
- Sofia, Ezra
- Luna, Lucas
- Gianna , Ethan
You can see all 100 top names at the website for Social Security, www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/namesbystate.cgi. And once you are there, you can scroll back to any year to 1960 and see what names were popular and how they have changed over time.
Half a century ago, names were markedly different in California. Here are the top five girls and boys names for 1975:
- Jennifer, Michael
- Michelle, Jason
- Amy, David
- Maria, Christopher
- Heather, Robert
Obviously, there has been a shift toward Hispanic names. In 1975 it is believed that around 12 percent of California’s population was Hispanic. Today the figure is around 40 percent.
While there is a lot of research on baby names, there is little by way of scientific explanation. Clive Thompson, writing in 2019 in JSTOR Daily, said that in the earliest days of the Puritans immigrating to America, Americans tended to pick Biblical names, like Ichabod and Samuel. Later, they switched to moral attributes like Faith, Mercy, and Standfast. But in the late 18th century, the American Revolution began filling newspapers with tales of rebels fighting for independence from Britain. So American parents began naming their children George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Washington Irving and Martha Dandridge (Washington’s wife).
Waves of non-British Isles immigrants from Germany, Italy and Scandinavia began to change, and broaden, the name game. And obviously Hispanics.
You can explore baby naming protocols to your heart´s content at Baby Center, a digital parenting resource, www.babycenter.com. It has peaked at 2025 names ahead of Social Security and informs us that the most popular names year-to- date are Noah, Liam and Oliver for boys and Olivia, Amelia and Sophia for girls. www.babycenter.com.
Nationwide, Liam and Olivia dominate. Still.
The two names have, for a sixth year together, topped the list of names for babies born in the U.S. in 2024.
Liam has reigned for eight years in a row for boys, while Olivia has topped the girls’ list for six. Also, for the sixth consecutive year, Emma took the second slot for girls, and Noah for boys.
The girls’ name Luna slipped out of the Top 10 and was replaced by Sofia, which enters at number 10 for the first time.
After Liam, the most common names for boys are, in order: Noah, Oliver, Theodore, James, Henry, Mateo, Elijah, Lucas and William.
After Olivia, the most common names for girls are Emma, Amelia, Charlotte, Mia, Sophia, Isabella, Evelyn, Ava and Sofia.
Sophie Kihm, editor-in-chief of nameberry, a baby naming website, said the latest data showcases how American parents are increasingly choosing names that have cross- cultural appeal. Kihm’s first name shows up in two variations on the annual list.
“A trend we’re tracking is that Americans are more likely to choose heritage choices,” Kihm said, including names that work “no matter where you are in the world.” ”More families in the U.S. come from mixed cultural backgrounds and I hear parents commonly request that they want their child to travel and have a relatively easy to understand name.”
The Social Security Administration’s latest data show that 3.61 million babies were born in the U.S. in 2024. That’s a slight increase from last year’s 3.59 million babies, representing an overall increase in the American birthrate.
Social media stars and popular television shows are having some impact on the rising popularity of certain names, Social Security says. Among those rising in popularity for girls: Ailany, a Hawaiian name that means “chief,” topped the list. The boys’ name Truce, an Old English name meaning “peace,” rose 11,118 spots from last year’s position to rank 991.The complete, searchable list of baby names is on the Social Security website.
