Mary is the most-given girl's name in 49 states
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Across a century of American birth certificates, one name wins almost everywhere. Mary is the most-given girl's name in 49 of the 51 states and the District of Columbia. Not the most popular today, but the most given across all the births Social Security has on record since 1910, which is about as close to a national verdict as a name can get.
The boys' side is a four-way fight. Robert leads 16 states, James takes 14, Michael 11, and John 10. No single name owns the map the way Mary does.
The two states that broke ranks
Only two states don't have Mary on top, California and Nevada, and both went to Jennifer. That's an accident of timing. Jennifer was the number one girl's name in America every year from 1970 to 1984, an unbroken fifteen-year run no name has matched, and it landed exactly when California and Nevada were adding people faster than anywhere else in the country. Enough Jennifers arrived in that window to outrun a century of Marys.
The boys' map is almost perfectly regional. James takes the South, all 14 states of it, from Virginia and the Carolinas down through Georgia and across to Texas. John holds the urban Northeast and Mid-Atlantic: New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. Robert owns the Midwest and the northern tier, 16 states running from Ohio and Michigan across the Plains to Montana and Wyoming, plus northern New England. Michael takes the West and the Sun Belt, including California, Arizona, Florida, Nevada, and Hawaii.
Read that way, the map is really a picture of when each state filled up. States that grew early are named for the early-century favorites, and states that grew late carry mid-century names.
Why these aren't today's baby names
Every name on this map would sound out of place in a current kindergarten. That's the nature of the measure. These are cumulative totals going back to 1910, so they're weighted toward the decades that produced the most births, which means the postwar baby boom does most of the work.
Today's actual leaders, Olivia, Emma, Liam, and Noah, are nowhere near the top of any state's all-time list, and most of them won't ever get there. To dethrone Mary, a name needs both a high peak and a long run, and modern naming works against that. Parents now choose from a far wider pool, so the top name in any given year captures a much smaller slice of babies than Mary or Robert did in the 1920s. The number one name of 2026 will never be as dominant as the number one name of 1926.
That's also why the all-time list is so stable. Barring something strange, Mary is going to hold 49 states for a long time.
You can look up any name at our names hub, including how it has trended by year and how many people share it. For the national picture of who's alive right now rather than everyone ever born, see the most common first names in America.
Sources
State-level name counts are from Social Security Administration state birth records, summed across every year in the series, which begins in 1910. The SSA data cover births recorded with the agency, and names given to fewer than five babies in a state in a given year are not published, so very rare names are undercounted. National baby-name rankings for recent years come from the same source.
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What is the most common first name in every state?
Mary is the most-given girl's name in 49 of the 51 states and DC, based on Social Security birth records going back to 1910. On the boys' side, Robert leads 16 states, James 14, Michael 11, and John 10, with no single name dominating the way Mary does.
Why is Jennifer the top name in California?
Jennifer was the number one girl's name in America every year from 1970 to 1984, the longest unbroken run of any name. California grew faster than any other state during exactly that period, so enough Jennifers were born there to outrank two centuries of Marys.
Are these the most popular baby names today?
No. These are cumulative totals across every year since 1910, so they are weighted toward the decades with the most births, especially the postwar baby boom. Today's leading names, such as Olivia, Emma, Liam, and Noah, rank nowhere near the top of any state's all-time list.
