Baby names of 1977

Jennifer and Michael topped the lists in 1977, out of 3,176,366 births recorded across 16,563 different names. That is 4.7% more than the 1976 files hold. About 3 million of them are alive today.

← 1976 All years 1978 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Jennifer	58,964
2	Melissa	26,879
3	Amy	26,729
4	Jessica	24,846
5	Heather	23,773
6	Angela	20,998
7	Michelle	19,540
8	Kimberly	18,286
9	Amanda	18,278
10	Kelly	18,234
11	Sarah	18,096
12	Lisa	17,014
13	Elizabeth	16,431
14	Stephanie	15,417
15	Nicole	15,247
16	Christina	14,501
17	Rebecca	14,196
18	Jamie	12,895
19	Shannon	12,518
20	Laura	11,318
21	Mary	10,656
22	Julie	10,204
23	Erin	10,198
24	Andrea	9,782
25	Crystal	9,724

All 200 girls’ names of 1977 (11,329 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	Michael	67,587
2	Jason	55,631
3	Christopher	46,721
4	David	40,515
5	James	40,040
6	Robert	34,214
7	John	34,195
8	Brian	32,492
9	Matthew	31,965
10	Joseph	26,483
11	Daniel	26,073
12	William	24,758
13	Kevin	22,463
14	Joshua	22,068
15	Jeremy	21,610
16	Ryan	21,246
17	Eric	20,745
18	Timothy	17,977
19	Jeffrey	17,481
20	Richard	17,442
21	Anthony	16,804
22	Thomas	16,586
23	Steven	16,484
24	Andrew	16,017
25	Mark	15,418

All 200 boys’ names of 1977 (6,861 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1976:

Shawnte #2,486 → #740 +1,746
Jacklyn #2,060 → #983 +1,077
Talia #1,482 → #707 +775
Haley #1,047 → #442 +605
Raven #1,154 → #578 +576
Hayley #1,237 → #710 +527
Kamilah #1,355 → #854 +501
Chante #1,446 → #971 +475

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1976:

Lavar #5,587 → #485 +5,102
Kinte #5,587 → #834 +4,753
Jedidiah #1,873 → #904 +969
Conor #1,748 → #937 +811
Amin #1,608 → #904 +704
Cade #1,469 → #981 +488
Rian #1,390 → #933 +457
Jedediah #1,144 → #762 +382

First recorded in 1977, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1977:

Kizzy 1,117
Riann 76
Fanta 66
Meghann 53
Kissy 44
Kissie 34
Shakonda 27
Kizzi 26
Rianne 25
Jamilia 23

First recorded in 1977, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1977:

Levar 523
Kunta 215
Kinta 32
Khaalis 25
Omoro 19
Kente 19
Kunte 18
Jedadiah 17
Lucan 16
Jonte 16

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.