Seven eras of U.S. naming

Baby names by American generation

Compare the names that defined each era from 1901 through 2024. Every generation opens into separate boy and girl rankings built from U.S. Social Security records.

Choose an era

A century of naming patterns

Generation boundaries are used as readable comparison windows, not as claims about individual identity.

1901–1927

G.I. Generation

Names carried from the turn of the century into the years surrounding the First World War.

1928–1945

Silent Generation

Names recorded through the Depression era and the years of the Second World War.

1946–1964

Baby Boomers

The postwar baby boom that made a concentrated group of names household standards.

1965–1980

Generation X (Gen X)

A transitional era where established favorites met a broader range of modern choices.

1981–1996

Millennials (Gen Y)

Millennial naming patterns widened while several enduring classics returned to prominence.

1997–2012

Generation Z (Gen Z or Zoomers)

A more diverse era shaped by shorter names, revived classics, and new spellings.

2013–2024

Generation Alpha

The newest complete view in the dataset, covering U.S. births from 2013 through 2024.

How to compare

Rank and birth count tell different stories

A rank shows a name’s position within an era. Recorded births show its scale. Reading both prevents a high rank in a smaller naming pool from being mistaken for greater overall use.