Baby names of 2001

Emily and Jacob topped the lists in 2001, out of 3,743,505 births recorded across 27,993 different names. That is 1.0% fewer than the 2000 files hold. About 3.7 million of them are alive today.

← 2000 All years 2002 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Emily	25,059
2	Madison	22,166
3	Hannah	20,723
4	Ashley	16,531
5	Alexis	16,404
6	Sarah	15,929
7	Samantha	15,867
8	Abigail	14,807
9	Elizabeth	14,792
10	Olivia	13,977
11	Jessica	13,925
12	Taylor	13,693
13	Emma	13,327
14	Alyssa	13,272
15	Lauren	12,782
16	Grace	12,090
17	Kayla	11,892
18	Brianna	11,776
19	Anna	10,596
20	Megan	10,300
21	Victoria	10,179
22	Destiny	9,752
23	Sydney	9,639
24	Rachel	9,556
25	Jasmine	8,958

All 200 girls’ names of 2001 (17,978 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	Jacob	32,573
2	Michael	29,689
3	Matthew	26,812
4	Joshua	26,024
5	Christopher	23,132
6	Nicholas	22,849
7	Andrew	22,422
8	Joseph	22,030
9	Daniel	21,013
10	William	20,110
11	Anthony	19,737
12	David	19,362
13	Tyler	19,275
14	John	18,904
15	Ryan	18,289
16	Zachary	18,185
17	Ethan	17,962
18	Brandon	17,893
19	James	17,074
20	Alexander	16,720
21	Dylan	16,497
22	Justin	16,231
23	Jonathan	16,147
24	Christian	15,457
25	Austin	14,955

All 200 boys’ names of 2001 (12,307 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 2000:

Dafne #2,569 → #967 +1,602
Nevaeh #1,759 → #266 +1,493
Jimena #2,213 → #874 +1,339
Taina #2,174 → #911 +1,263
Yuliana #1,759 → #690 +1,069
Nayely #1,730 → #731 +999
Ainsley #1,481 → #483 +998
Kaliyah #1,602 → #920 +682

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 2000:

Jaheim #6,316 → #437 +5,879
Imanol #2,049 → #921 +1,128
Jagger #1,391 → #661 +730
Maximus #850 → #311 +539
Daunte #1,429 → #968 +461
Rocco #1,165 → #730 +435
Jadyn #1,282 → #891 +391
Johan #902 → #547 +355

Jadyn 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 2001, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 2001:

Yaire 184
Neveah 52
Nayelis 43
Shadimon 22
Navaeh 21
Jersie 20
Lorelai 20
Jaydy 19
Taygan 17
Jerzie 16

First recorded in 2001, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 2001:

Jahiem 155
Caillou 35
Caziah 26
Maxamus 21
Sirr 18
Jahmeir 18
Carlosmanuel 16
Aaryan 16
Jarule 15
Deakon 14

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.