Baby names of 1948

Linda and James topped the lists in 1948, out of 3,452,526 births recorded across 9,188 different names. That is 4.2% fewer than the 1947 files hold. About 2.1 million of them are alive today.

← 1947 All years 1949 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Linda	96,220
2	Mary	68,597
3	Barbara	46,826
4	Patricia	46,140
5	Susan	35,988
6	Sandra	31,063
7	Nancy	29,411
8	Carol	28,977
9	Sharon	26,143
10	Kathleen	23,257
11	Donna	22,033
12	Karen	21,996
13	Margaret	18,873
14	Carolyn	18,623
15	Judith	17,787
16	Judy	17,706
17	Brenda	17,700
18	Betty	16,625
19	Diane	16,607
20	Shirley	16,121
21	Joyce	14,380
22	Pamela	14,281
23	Janice	14,162
24	Janet	13,977
25	Cheryl	13,220

All 200 girls’ names of 1948 (6,040 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	James	88,605
2	Robert	85,478
3	John	82,834
4	William	61,972
5	David	56,627
6	Michael	52,566
7	Richard	50,970
8	Thomas	43,780
9	Charles	38,676
10	Ronald	33,527
11	Larry	33,436
12	Gary	28,397
13	Joseph	26,801
14	Donald	26,442
15	Kenneth	23,550
16	George	21,926
17	Dennis	21,765
18	Paul	21,252
19	Edward	18,983
20	Stephen	17,061
21	Jerry	16,809
22	Daniel	16,510
23	Steven	15,979
24	Roger	12,818
25	Frank	12,698

All 200 boys’ names of 1948 (4,199 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1947:

Shawn #1,510 → #955 +555
Regena #1,488 → #939 +549
Regenia #1,255 → #764 +491
Mickie #1,228 → #768 +460
Shirleen #1,377 → #964 +413
Delilah #1,217 → #914 +303
Coleen #803 → #520 +283
Hollis #1,150 → #885 +265

Shawn and Hollis are here because the girls’ file records them: the SSA publishes every name given to five or more babies of one sex, and a rank is a position within that list. It is not a claim about whose name it is.

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1947:

Arnulfo #1,316 → #802 +514
Lucio #1,394 → #972 +422
Isidro #1,190 → #813 +377
Shawn #923 → #560 +363
Aurelio #1,233 → #902 +331
Stevie #1,053 → #766 +287
Federico #1,029 → #752 +277
Brock #1,000 → #733 +267

Stevie is here because the boys’ file records it: the SSA publishes every name given to five or more babies of one sex, and a rank is a position within that list. It is not a claim about whose name it is.

First recorded in 1948, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1948:

Vickii 30
Deborrah 28
Rolayne 16
Tisa 15
Brendalyn 14
Migdalia 13
Vikkie 12
Tawn 12
Jamelle 12
Valeri 11

Jamelle is here because the girls’ file records it: the SSA publishes every name given to five or more babies of one sex, and a rank is a position within that list. It is not a claim about whose name it is.

First recorded in 1948, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1948:

Ridge 11
Vinny 9
Menachem 9
Rodd 8
Micael 7
Jeoffrey 7
Galin 7
Richrd 7
Rian 7
Geoffry 7

Try it on yourself

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby-name files. Names given to fewer than five babies in a year are not published, so the totals here run below the true number of births. How far below is not the same in every year: the files hold 201,484 births for 1880 and 3,315,343 for 2025, so a change from one year to the next in the early decades is partly a change in what the record covers.