Baby names of 1949

Linda and James topped the lists in 1949, out of 3,484,816 births recorded across 9,242 different names. That is 0.9% more than the 1948 files hold. About 2.2 million of them are alive today.

← 1948 All years 1950 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Linda	91,015
2	Mary	66,874
3	Patricia	46,324
4	Barbara	42,600
5	Susan	37,709
6	Sandra	30,643
7	Nancy	29,249
8	Carol	26,780
9	Kathleen	26,357
10	Sharon	25,713
11	Karen	22,468
12	Donna	22,056
13	Brenda	20,543
14	Margaret	19,452
15	Deborah	19,209
16	Judith	17,610
17	Carolyn	17,404
18	Shirley	17,281
19	Diane	17,252
20	Judy	15,979
21	Pamela	15,132
22	Betty	14,936
23	Janet	14,860
24	Janice	14,453
25	Elizabeth	13,714

All 200 girls’ names of 1949 (6,066 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	James	86,858
2	Robert	83,873
3	John	81,178
4	William	61,506
5	Michael	60,047
6	David	59,611
7	Richard	50,946
8	Thomas	45,192
9	Charles	40,052
10	Larry	31,819
11	Ronald	31,502
12	Gary	28,935
13	Donald	27,121
14	Joseph	26,408
15	Kenneth	23,589
16	Dennis	21,746
17	Paul	21,589
18	George	21,308
19	Stephen	20,488
20	Steven	19,923
21	Edward	19,174
22	Daniel	18,240
23	Jerry	15,871
24	Mark	13,725
25	Roger	12,821

All 200 boys’ names of 1949 (4,205 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1948:

Sharman #1,708 → #771 +937
Roseanna #1,422 → #757 +665
Shauna #1,173 → #690 +483
Jacalyn #1,116 → #823 +293
Sanjuana #1,185 → #918 +267
Sanjuanita #1,057 → #791 +266
Valorie #1,041 → #787 +254
Shelly #863 → #615 +248

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1948:

Lannie #1,107 → #569 +538
Lenwood #1,296 → #885 +411
Robby #1,296 → #958 +338
Ocie #1,323 → #997 +326
Denzil #1,127 → #808 +319
Leonel #1,217 → #899 +318
Donell #1,280 → #967 +313
Christophe #1,001 → #698 +303

Ocie 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 1949, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1949:

Rainelle 46
Rainell 24
Randye 24
Clovia 22
Darrylin 11
Belynda 11
Lexa 11
Brendalee 10
Balinda 9
Rorie 9

First recorded in 1949, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1949:

Ezzard 21
Keary 16
Ruddie 9
Dov 9
Tighe 9
Kimo 8
Michae 8
Timothey 8
Joes 7
Elijha 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.