Baby names of 1974

Jennifer and Michael topped the lists in 1974, out of 3,039,868 births recorded across 14,744 different names. That is 0.8% more than the 1973 files hold. About 2.8 million of them are alive today.

← 1973 All years 1975 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Jennifer	63,107
2	Amy	29,566
3	Michelle	25,826
4	Heather	23,179
5	Angela	22,803
6	Kimberly	22,427
7	Melissa	22,166
8	Lisa	19,778
9	Stephanie	16,984
10	Rebecca	15,163
11	Nicole	13,112
12	Elizabeth	12,259
13	Mary	11,738
14	Julie	11,360
15	Kelly	10,851
16	Christina	10,849
17	Jessica	10,656
18	Shannon	10,608
19	Christine	9,901
20	Sarah	9,788
21	Laura	9,716
22	Dawn	9,417
23	Tracy	9,286
24	Tammy	9,238
25	Tina	8,668

All 200 girls’ names of 1974 (10,247 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	Michael	67,534
2	Jason	54,756
3	Christopher	48,585
4	David	41,786
5	James	41,334
6	John	37,612
7	Robert	37,005
8	Brian	34,449
9	Matthew	27,194
10	William	26,980
11	Daniel	23,833
12	Joseph	21,834
13	Eric	20,193
14	Kevin	19,461
15	Jeffrey	19,320
16	Mark	18,905
17	Richard	18,636
18	Scott	18,030
19	Steven	17,663
20	Thomas	17,268
21	Anthony	16,391
22	Timothy	15,890
23	Charles	15,151
24	Jeremy	13,295
25	Ryan	13,179

All 200 boys’ names of 1974 (6,004 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1973:

Nakia #6,666 → #226 +6,440
Nikia #6,080 → #751 +5,329
Luciana #2,914 → #920 +1,994
Cortney #2,349 → #793 +1,556
Nia #1,885 → #672 +1,213
Maranda #1,857 → #847 +1,010
Brande #1,788 → #787 +1,001
Syreeta #1,732 → #912 +820

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1973:

Rashad #4,505 → #961 +3,544
Telly #1,312 → #468 +844
Jabari #1,312 → #914 +398
Ahmad #1,123 → #767 +356
Toma #1,238 → #882 +356
Mauro #1,294 → #993 +301
Nathanial #1,238 → #942 +296
Heather #1,201 → #923 +278

Heather 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 1974, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1974:

Shalawn 70
Toshiba 58
Nekia 46
Dayanara 41
Passion 34
Charnissa 32
Kidada 28
Saresa 26
Takia 24
Tiaa 24

First recorded in 1974, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1974:

Tavares 60
Savalas 30
Tavaris 15
Rishi 15
Rashard 14
Kito 14
Telley 14
Shareef 14
Nekia 14
Free 12

Nekia and Free are here because the boys’ 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.

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.