John to Liam, Mary to Olivia: every number one name since 1880

William has been one of the twenty most popular boys' names in America in every year we hold, from 1880 to 2025. It was second for forty of them. In 1880 it missed the top spot by one baby in a thousand, 8.05% of boys against John's 8.15%. It has never been number one. Not once.

That got us wondering how many names have. So we went through every year of American records we hold, 1880 to 2008 and 2015 to 2025, and wrote down the top name for boys and for girls. The answer is a short list. In the 129 years from 1880 to 2008, six boys' names were number one and eight girls' names. Add the years since 2015 and it is eight and nine. Then we looked at where those names are now, and the two sexes could not be more different.

How we counted

The number one is the name given to the largest share of babies of that sex in the year, as the official American file ranks it. Boys and girls from their own lists. One limit you should know about: our long series runs 1880 to 2008 and our rankings run 2015 to 2025, so we do not hold 2009 to 2014. A name that was first only in those six years is not in this article, and the gap is drawn as a hollow block on the chart rather than painted over.

The boys: six names in 129 years

John was number one for 44 years in a row, 1880 to 1923. In 1880 it went to one boy in twelve. Robert took over in 1924 and held it for sixteen years, James for thirteen through the war, then Robert again for 1953 alone. Michael was first from 1954 to 1959, lost 1960 to David by a hair, and then held number one for 38 years running, 1961 to 1998. Forty-four years in all, the same as John. Jacob passed it in 1999 and was still first in 2008. When our rankings pick up again in 2015, Noah is first, and Liam has been first every year since 2017.

Three of those changes were close. In 1998 Michael had 1.807% of boys and Jacob 1.777%. In 1946 Mary had 4.18% of girls and Linda 3.27%; a year later Linda had 5.48% and Mary 3.94%, the biggest one-year swing at the top in the whole series. And in 1996 Emily edged Jessica by 1.312% to 1.262%.

Now look at the last two columns. Every boys' name that has ever been number one in America is still in the American top 100. The lowest is Robert at 92nd. James is sixth. John, given to one boy in twelve in 1880, is 23rd. Michael, 44 years at the top, is 21st. And the six that were number one before 2008 have never been outside the top 100 in any year we hold, not one of them, not for a single year.

The girls: Mary, then everybody else

Mary was number one for 76 of the 129 years from 1880 to 2008: every year to 1946, and again from 1953 to 1961. In 1880 one girl in fourteen was Mary. The only name that broke the run was Linda, for six years from 1947, and that was the biggest single year any name has ever had: 99,686 Lindas in 1947. Then Lisa for eight years, Jennifer for fifteen, Jessica for nine in two spells either side of Ashley's two, Emily for twelve, and Emma in 2008. Emma was first again from 2015 to 2018 and Olivia has been first since 2019.

Same last two columns, different story. Linda is 902nd. Lisa is 991st, and it was outside the top 1,000 altogether in 2020 and 2021. Jennifer is 586th and Jessica 665th. Four names that were each the most popular girls' name in America for at least six years, and today between them they went to 3,022 American girls in 2017, fewer than Emily on its own. Mary, 76 years at number one, is 125th. Of the nine, only Emily, Emma and Olivia are inside the top 100.

The falls were not slow. Linda left the top 100 in 1979, 27 years after its last year at number one. Lisa left in 1994, 25 years after. Jennifer was still eighth in 1990 and 84th in 2008; by 2015 it was 251st. Jessica was eighth in 2000 and 206th in 2015. Ashley, number one in 1991 and 1992, was still 18th in 2008 and is 164th now. The boys' number ones slid too, but from first to the twenties and thirties, and there they stopped.

One more thing the girls' table shows. Emma was number one in 2008 with 0.90% of girls. In 1881 it was the third name in the country, behind Mary and Anna, with 2.06%. Emma was more than twice as common as a third-placed name in 1881 as it was as number one in 2008. That is because number one is not what it was.

Number one is a tenth of what it was

In 1880 the number one boys' name went to 81 boys in every 1,000 and the number one girls' name to 72 girls in every 1,000. In 2008 it was 10 and 9. The top name is a tenth of the size it was, and the chart shows the fall was not even: the boys' line held at around 50 per 1,000 for the whole of the first half of the twentieth century, then dropped by three quarters between 1970 and 2008. Every bump on the girls' line is a new name arriving at the top bigger than the one it replaced: Linda in 1947, Lisa in 1965, Jennifer in 1972, Jessica in 1987.

The names that never got there

William is the big one. Second from 1880 to 1909, third in 1910 behind James, second again from 1911 to 1920. In the top five for 76 of the years we hold, in the top ten for 112, and never lower than 20th, which is where it sat in 1995. It was third from 2016 to 2018 and is ninth now. Charles spent 37 years in the top five and never got above fourth. George 32 years, never above fourth. Christopher was second for eighteen years, 1972, 1973 and then 1979 to 1994, every one of them behind Michael. Joseph was in the top 20 for 131 years and never above fifth.

The girls' runners-up came in pairs of decades. Anna was second to Mary every year from 1880 to 1899, twenty years. Helen was second to Mary every year from 1900 to 1919, another twenty. Dorothy took the 1920s, Betty 1928 to 1934, Barbara 1937 to 1944. None of them ever got past Mary. Margaret spent 46 years in the top five and never got above third. Elizabeth was in the top 20 for 122 of the 140 years we hold, never lower than 26th and never higher than third; it is 17th now.

And the one to watch is Charlotte. Ninth in 2015, third from 2021 to 2023, and in 2025 second for the first time, behind Olivia. The last name to go from second to first was Olivia itself, in 2019.

England and Wales

We hold two years of British records, 2024 and 2025, so we cannot write Britain's version of this list. We can say who is at the top now. For boys it is Muhammad, 5,957 boys in 2025, then Noah with 4,075 and Leo with 3,278; in 2024 Oliver was third. For girls it is Olivia, 2,386, then Lily 2,249 and Amelia 2,153; in 2024 Amelia was second and Lily third. So the two countries share a girls' number one, and Noah is second in both. Liam, nine years at the top in America, is 68th here with 763 boys. Muhammad is 239th in America.

The American number ones of the past are in much the same shape here as there. John went to 296 British boys in 2025, Robert to 310, Mary to 131 girls. Linda, Lisa, Jennifer and Ashley were each given to fewer than 60 girls in England and Wales last year, too few for the ONS rank to mean anything, so we have not given one. And William, America's eternal runner-up, is 25th here with 1,456 boys, the same rank as Charlotte.

What we cannot tell you

Why. The files record which names parents chose, not what they were thinking, and we are not going to guess why the boys' number ones stayed and the girls' went. We can only tell you that it happened, and that it happened every time. We do not hold 2009 to 2014, so any name that was first only in those years is missing from this article, and Jacob's and Emma's totals are the years we can see. Our series before 2015 covers the thousand most popular names of each year, which is more than enough to find the top one. And the British list is two years long, which is not a history.

What it means for you

If you are choosing a boys' name and you like one that was once number one, the files say it will still be a name everyone knows when he is forty. James, John, Michael, David and Robert have never left the top 100. If you are choosing a girls' name, the same bet has failed four times out of nine. And if you want a name that has been near the top for 146 years without ever being the most common name in the room, it is William, and nobody has managed to beat it to that.