Baby names of 2021

Olivia and Liam topped the lists in 2021, out of 3,390,343 births recorded across 29,003 different names. That is 1.4% more than the 2020 files hold. About 3.4 million of them are alive today.

← 2020 All years 2022 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Olivia	17,847
2	Emma	15,549
3	Charlotte	13,368
4	Amelia	13,041
5	Ava	12,873
6	Sophia	12,585
7	Isabella	11,309
8	Mia	11,177
9	Evelyn	9,495
10	Harper	8,448
11	Luna	8,241
12	Camila	8,036
13	Gianna	7,477
14	Elizabeth	7,265
15	Eleanor	7,099
16	Ella	7,041
17	Abigail	6,993
18	Sofia	6,983
19	Avery	6,815
20	Scarlett	6,631
21	Emily	6,594
22	Aria	6,400
23	Penelope	6,370
24	Layla	6,356
25	Chloe	6,347

All 200 girls’ names of 2021 (17,676 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	Liam	20,424
2	Noah	18,919
3	Oliver	14,713
4	Elijah	12,845
5	James	12,474
6	William	12,170
7	Benjamin	11,895
8	Lucas	11,584
9	Henry	11,370
10	Theodore	9,600
11	Jack	9,568
12	Levi	9,559
13	Alexander	9,425
14	Jackson	9,287
15	Mateo	9,181
16	Daniel	9,162
17	Michael	9,150
18	Mason	9,103
19	Sebastian	8,932
20	Ethan	8,863
21	Logan	8,836
22	Owen	8,770
23	Samuel	8,580
24	Jacob	8,494
25	Asher	8,370

All 200 boys’ names of 2021 (14,096 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 2020:

Raya #932 → #495 +437
Wrenley #893 → #497 +396
Angelique #1,173 → #875 +298
Emberlynn #1,241 → #958 +283
Flora #924 → #648 +276
Vida #1,264 → #991 +273
Arleth #1,224 → #962 +262
Ocean #1,130 → #871 +259

Ocean is here because the girls’ 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.

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 2020:

Amiri #1,295 → #759 +536
Eliam #1,177 → #739 +438
Colter #972 → #629 +343
Ozzy #1,046 → #713 +333
Loyal #1,053 → #754 +299
Evander #1,046 → #759 +287
Khai #1,262 → #991 +271
Camilo #875 → #613 +262

First recorded in 2021, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 2021:

Namaari 44
Sayori 37
Parklynn 36
Arianelly 26
Sanem 23
Nezuko 20
Imaray 17
Adrielly 17
Franyeli 15
Kaliani 15

First recorded in 2021, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 2021:

Azaire 25
Gediz 23
Jeyvier 15
Ripton 14
Zakius 13
Khaizer 12
Nuta 11
Shrithik 11
Biden 11
Oleander 11

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.