Baby names of 2002

Emily and Jacob topped the lists in 2002, out of 3,738,396 births recorded across 28,290 different names. That is 0.1% fewer than the 2001 files hold. About 3.7 million of them are alive today.

← 2001 All years 2003 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Emily	24,470
2	Madison	21,774
3	Hannah	18,828
4	Emma	16,558
5	Alexis	15,636
6	Ashley	15,344
7	Abigail	15,303
8	Sarah	14,779
9	Samantha	14,671
10	Olivia	14,631
11	Elizabeth	14,621
12	Alyssa	12,847
13	Lauren	12,327
14	Isabella	12,171
15	Grace	12,056
16	Jessica	11,921
17	Brianna	11,524
18	Taylor	11,468
19	Kayla	11,310
20	Anna	10,398
21	Victoria	9,785
22	Megan	9,210
23	Sydney	9,034
24	Rachel	8,944
25	Chloe	8,902

All 200 girls’ names of 2002 (18,086 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	Jacob	30,586
2	Michael	28,258
3	Joshua	25,998
4	Matthew	25,154
5	Ethan	22,113
6	Andrew	22,037
7	Joseph	21,920
8	Christopher	21,689
9	Nicholas	21,390
10	Daniel	21,352
11	William	20,136
12	Anthony	19,590
13	David	18,704
14	Tyler	18,266
15	Alexander	17,718
16	Ryan	17,658
17	John	17,477
18	James	16,968
19	Zachary	16,622
20	Brandon	16,282
21	Jonathan	15,514
22	Justin	14,906
23	Dylan	14,821
24	Christian	14,597
25	Samuel	14,579

All 200 boys’ names of 2002 (12,489 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 2001:

Cadence #2,126 → #958 +1,168
Lisbeth #1,573 → #624 +949
Ashanti #825 → #115 +710
Elle #1,076 → #612 +464
Nyla #865 → #453 +412
Lola #1,147 → #752 +395
Galilea #1,304 → #933 +371
Danna #1,193 → #839 +354

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 2001:

Omarion #10,556 → #535 +10,021
Amarion #4,302 → #719 +3,583
Yahir #3,974 → #604 +3,370
Gael #2,185 → #719 +1,466
Lisandro #2,185 → #898 +1,287
Cael #1,960 → #777 +1,183
Waylon #1,265 → #756 +509
Bradyn #1,337 → #965 +372

First recorded in 2002, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 2002:

Kaydence 70
Jashanti 63
Isyss 57
Dashanti 55
Amerie 51
Thaily 48
Jenin 46
Jakhia 39
Nakhia 38
Deshanti 33

First recorded in 2002, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 2002:

Omarian 31
Amarian 21
Josejulian 19
Yoskar 17
Jaeven 17
Omarrion 16
Amareon 16
Lissandro 15
Krishi 15
Apolo 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.