Every name has a shape
12,250 names, plotted from the birth registers of two countries.
Mary · share of US births, 1880–2025
Its moment was 1921. Every name on the site is drawn in this shape. See Mary in full →
SOURCE·US SSA (1880–2025) + NZ DIA (1900–2025) birth registrations·REVIEWED JUL 2026
Choosing a name is the one decision you make before you meet them — and everyone has an opinion. Here is the part nobody can argue with: what people actually named their babies, every year, for over a century.
Search a name and you get its whole curve — when it arrived, when it peaked, whether it is climbing or fading right now, and whether it did the same thing in New Zealand as in the States.
Number one right now (2025)
Where to start
Browse every name
12,250 curves, A to Z.
Any year, 1880–2025
The top 50 of each year.
Compare names
Put several curves on one chart and settle it.
By US state
Where a name is actually common.
Why the curve matters more than the rank
A name at #40 that has doubled in five years and a name at #40 that has halved are about to feel very different in a classroom. The rank is a snapshot; the curve tells you which way it is heading — and whether the name you love is quietly on its way to being in every second cot.
Every figure here comes from US Social Security Administration, national baby-name data and NZ Department of Internal Affairs, births by first name — 117,820 US name records back to 1880, and New Zealand's full register back to 1900. Nothing is copied from another names site, and nothing is invented.
SOURCE·US Social Security Administration, national baby-name data·Public domain. retrieved from the Internet Archive's 2026 snapshot of ssa.gov (ssa.gov refuses automated requests); files unmodified. SSA lists a name only if it was given to at least 5 babies of that sex that year.·REVIEWED JUL 2026
SOURCE·NZ Department of Internal Affairs, births by first name·CC BY 4.0. DIA lists a name only if it was given to at least 10 babies of that sex that year.·REVIEWED JUL 2026
SOURCE·US SSA (1880–2025) + NZ DIA (1900–2025) birth registrations·ranks and shares computed from the source files, see method·REVIEWED JUL 2026
