The 50 most common first names in the U.S., and why only 18 are women's names

Michael is the most common first name in the United States, held by 3,476,721 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2020 first-name tabulation. John is second with 3,125,123 and James third with 2,996,421. The most common woman's name doesn't appear until seventh place: Mary, with 1,768,343.

Counting men and women together changes the picture from separate lists. Of the 50 most common first names, 32 belong mostly to men and 18 mostly to women. The top six are all men's names. Women's names are spread across far more choices, so fewer of them reach the very top even though the tabulation counts slightly more women than men.

Together, these 50 names belong to about 63.2 million people, roughly 22 percent of the 283.2 million people in the tabulation. Its list includes 53,615 distinct first names.

Most of the women's names near the top peaked decades ago. Jennifer, 14th, and Linda, 20th, were among the most popular baby names of their eras, and their holders are now mostly in middle age or older. Maria, eighth overall, is the second most common name for women. Jose ranks 16th, ahead of Charles.

Very few common names are shared evenly. Even the names on the top 50 that cross over stay lopsided: 20,627 women are named Ryan, about 2 percent of all Ryans, and 11,218 men are named Ashley. Among names held by at least 60,000 people, only a handful split close to evenly between men and women:

These are counts of people living in 2020, so they lean toward older generations. The names parents are choosing now look different, as shown in our lists of the most popular boy names and girl names of the past 10 years. The top 10 for men and women separately are in the most common first names in America, and state leaders are in the most common first name in every state. Any name can be looked up on the names page.

Sources

Counts are from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2020 first-name tabulation by sex, which counts people by first name and sex and covers 283.2 million people. The combined ranking adds each name's counts for men and women. Spelling variants, such as Jon and John, are counted as separate names. Names are listed as splitting close to evenly when men make up 35 to 65 percent of holders.