Baby names of 1952

Linda and James topped the lists in 1952, out of 3,797,968 births recorded across 9,579 different names. That is 3.1% more than the 1951 files hold. About 2.6 million of them are alive today.

← 1951 All years 1953 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Linda	67,082
2	Mary	65,629
3	Patricia	53,101
4	Deborah	49,811
5	Susan	41,348
6	Barbara	39,864
7	Nancy	31,739
8	Karen	28,956
9	Debra	26,832
10	Sandra	26,097
11	Kathleen	25,767
12	Carol	24,000
13	Donna	23,718
14	Sharon	23,386
15	Brenda	21,439
16	Diane	21,063
17	Pamela	20,879
18	Cynthia	19,878
19	Janet	17,921
20	Christine	17,548
21	Margaret	17,102
22	Elizabeth	16,022
23	Janice	14,978
24	Carolyn	14,272
25	Judith	14,064

All 200 girls’ names of 1952 (6,389 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	James	87,065
2	Robert	86,588
3	John	83,140
4	Michael	79,037
5	David	71,752
6	William	63,039
7	Richard	58,350
8	Thomas	48,647
9	Charles	38,866
10	Gary	38,754
11	Steven	32,037
12	Joseph	28,510
13	Donald	28,269
14	Larry	28,239
15	Ronald	27,800
16	Kenneth	25,909
17	Mark	25,678
18	Dennis	24,552
19	Paul	24,292
20	Daniel	23,418
21	Stephen	23,055
22	George	19,821
23	Edward	19,501
24	Gregory	15,191
25	Bruce	14,480

All 200 boys’ names of 1952 (4,257 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1951:

Pandora #3,284 → #783 +2,501
Lise #1,314 → #946 +368
Vanessa #656 → #303 +353
Dorinda #1,170 → #836 +334
Mitzi #928 → #596 +332
Marlena #1,292 → #983 +309
Charmaine #623 → #331 +292
Kimberley #1,090 → #836 +254

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1951:

Darren #1,598 → #845 +753
Robby #1,242 → #870 +372
Cris #1,218 → #863 +355
Ethan #1,295 → #994 +301
Adan #1,150 → #870 +280
Orrin #1,242 → #981 +261
Garfield #1,097 → #840 +257
Jonnie #1,195 → #939 +256

Jonnie 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 1952, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1952:

Terria 17
Darcelle 13
Aprille 12
Barbe 12
Birute 11
Darnice 11
Shena 10
Dinna 10
Kathyjo 10
Kimmie 10

First recorded in 1952, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1952:

Faron 12
Gevan 12
Zbigniew 11
Adriel 10
Carlester 10
Athony 9
Timoth 9
Kennan 8
Michle 8
Darr 8

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.