Name Popularity & Rarity Checker
There are around 349 million people living in the United States. Have you ever wondered, “How many of me?” or “How rare or common is my name?”
Our name popularity checker uses real U.S. Census Bureau surname data and SSA baby name records to estimate how many people share your name across the United States.
How Many Of Me Are There?
Enter a first name, a last name, or both to estimate how many people share your name.
There are — people in the U.S. with the first name —.
Names similar to this oneThere are — people in the U.S. with the last name —.
Everything below switches between First Name and Last Name detail. The summary cards above always show both.
🇺🇸 US Census + SSA Birth Records
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📊 Cumulative SSA and Census records since 1880
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Find out how many of me there are in the United States. Get the estimated number of people who share your name, plus a full breakdown by gender, age group, state, and decade going back to 1880.
Covering 349M+ Americans across 100,000+ first names and 150,000+ surnames, built entirely from SSA and US Census Bureau records dating back to 1880.
Names are everywhere, but how often do you actually stop to wonder how many other people in the country are walking around with the same one? If you have ever been in a room where two people turned around when someone called your name, or never met a single other person with yours in your entire life, you have felt both ends of the spectrum firsthand.
The How Many of Me tool is a free name popularity checker built from over 140 years of Social Security Administration name records to estimate how many Americans currently share your name, and how common your name really is. Search by first name, last name, or both together to get all name data.
People who land here are usually asking one of these questions:
You will find answers to all of those here. And if you want to understand the methodology behind the numbers, the methodology page explains exactly how the estimates are calculated.
A lot of name tools just give you a single number and leave you to figure out what it means. This one goes further. When you search a name, eight different sections load, each answering a different question about it.
Total people with your name
The headline figure: an estimated count of living Americans who currently carry this name, drawn from SSA birth records dating back to 1880 and adjusted for expected survival rates by age.
Name rarity score and probability
A "1 in X people" ratio that puts the count in real terms, plus a classification (Very Common, Common, Uncommon, Rare, or Very Rare) and a normalized score from 0 to 100.
Gender distribution
How many bearers of the name appear in SSA records as male versus female, shown as a percentage split and a donut chart. Some names are almost entirely one gender. Others are genuinely split. The tool predicts the dominant gender automatically based on the data. See our guide to gender-neutral names for names that sit right in the middle.
Age group breakdown
Estimated living bearers split across six generations: Kids (born 2022 onwards), Young Adults (2002-2021), Adults (1982-2001), Middle-Aged (1962-1981), Seniors (1942-1961), and Elderly (before 1942). This shows you which generation actually owns a name today.
Popularity over time (year by year)
A line chart showing annual name usage from 1880 to now. The peak year is marked automatically. A trend indicator tells you whether usage is currently rising, declining, or holding steady compared to the previous decade.
Decade-by-decade breakdown
The same historical data grouped into 10-year periods, shown as a bar chart with the single highest-usage decade highlighted. You can immediately see which era produced the most bearers of a given name, whether that is the 1940s or the 2010s.
State-by-state distribution
All 50 states ranked by estimated bearer count. Useful for understanding why certain names concentrate in specific regions, whether from immigration patterns, religious traditions, or regional cultural trends.
Name meaning, origin, and cultural background
Every name result includes a dedicated meaning and origin section covering the name's linguistic roots, historical usage, and cultural significance. Whether a name is Hebrew, Latin, Old English, or Arabic in origin, the tool surfaces that context alongside the statistics. Browse the full name statistics directory to explore all names alphabetically.
All figures are statistical estimates, not exact government headcounts. Privacy note: the name you type is never stored or logged.
Knowing how many people share your name is one thing. Knowing what it actually means and where it came from is another. Every name result on this site includes a full name meaning and origin section that goes beyond the statistics.
For each name you search, the meaning section covers the language the name derives from, what the word or root originally meant, how it spread across cultures and centuries, and any notable historical or religious associations it carries. A name like James traces back to the Latin Iacomus and ultimately the Hebrew Ya'aqov. A name like Olivia owes its modern popularity partly to Shakespeare. That kind of background changes how you see a name entirely.
Language of Origin
Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Arabic, Old English, and more. The tool identifies the linguistic root of every name.
What the Name Means
The original meaning of the root word, whether that is "strong," "gift of God," "bright one," or something else entirely.
Cultural and Historical Context
Saints, monarchs, literary figures, and cultural moments that shaped how a name spread and what associations it carries today.
To explore name meanings directly, search any name above and scroll to the meaning section in the results.
This is the question with the biggest gap between people's intuition and the actual data. Whether you're asking how rare your name is, how unique it feels, or simply how common it turns out to be. Most people assume their name rarity is either higher or lower than it actually is.
The numbers tell a different story. James has been given to more Americans than any other name over the last 100 years, according to the SSA century dataset. But even a name like Jennifer, which peaked so strongly in the 1970s that it felt inescapable at the time, has slipped far enough out of fashion that relatively few babies get it today. The rarity score shifts constantly as generations age out and new ones arrive.
On the other side, names that people think are unique often turn out to have thousands of bearers. A name that feels rare in one city might be surprisingly common in another state.
Expectant parents
Checking whether a baby name they love will mean their child is one of thirty in their class, or the only one in the school. Use our Baby Name Generator to discover unique, rare, and trending baby names, then check how common they are with our popularity data. Our guide to choosing a unique baby name can help narrow down the perfect choice.
Genealogists
Estimating how many potential relatives share a surname to decide where to focus research.
Writers and game designers
Finding names that feel authentic to a specific era. A character born in 1952 named Kevin reads very differently than one named Ezra. Our common American names guide helps with this.
Curious people
Sometimes the question is simply personal. How many of me are there? How many people in the US have my exact name? This tool answers it in seconds.
Baby naming trends are one of the most reliable cultural records we have. They capture things that are hard to measure any other way: what people were watching, who they admired, what they feared, and what they hoped for.
The SSA records show Arya jumping sharply in the years after Game of Thrones aired. Khaleesi appeared in the data where it had never existed before. The Hunger Games produced a measurable increase in Katniss. These spikes are brief and sharp, usually peaking within a year or two of the source material and then fading. Our blog post on how cultural moments affect name popularity covers this in depth.
Names that feel dated at 40 years of age start feeling fresh and distinctive again at 80. Clara, Ezra, Walter, and Theodore all dropped off sharply after their peak decades, then quietly came back as parents started gravitating toward names that felt vintage rather than old. The popularity timeline in the tool shows these cycles clearly.
Spanish names became far more common in US records from the 1970s onward, tracking closely with immigration and birth rate data. Names from South Asian, East Asian, and African origins have risen steadily since the 1990s. The state distribution section shows how these patterns cluster geographically in ways that match actual demographic data. See our article on gender-neutral names for another angle on how naming evolves.
Research in social psychology documents what is sometimes called the "name-letter effect": people feel a mild but real positive response toward others who share their name. A common name increases the odds of that small social bond. A rare name trades it for memorability and distinctiveness. Neither outcome is better, but understanding the numbers lets you know which trade-off you are actually making. Our post on resume name bias shows how that effect can even extend into hiring decisions.
The main dataset is the SSA National Baby Names dataset, which records how many times each name was given to newborns in the United States each year going back to 1880. Names given to fewer than five babies in a given year are excluded from the SSA's published records for privacy reasons. That exclusion is also why very rare names sometimes return zero or near-zero results here: the data simply does not exist in the public record.
From that raw birth data, the tool applies age-adjusted survival modeling to estimate how many people with a given name are likely still living today. A name given to 50,000 babies in 1920 contributes far fewer living bearers than the same count from 1995. The 1920 cohort is largely gone, and the model accounts for that.
Surname data draws on a different source: US Census Bureau genealogy data, which tracks the frequency of surnames across the population separately from the SSA birth name records.
Primary sources only
Every number on this site traces back to a government agency record, the SSA or the US Census Bureau, never a third-party estimate presented as fact.
Methodology in the open
The survival-modeling and rarity calculations behind every figure are published in full on the methodology page, not hidden behind a black box.
Updated as new data lands
Figures are refreshed as SSA and Census Bureau release new files, most recently the full 2020 Census first-name and surname datasets.
Questions or feedback can be sent via the contact page.
Type a first name, a last name, or both into the search boxes above
Use just the first name field for a given-name lookup, just the last name field for a surname search, or fill in both to see each name's stats side by side. You do not need to create an account or enter any personal information.
Click "Search Names"
Results load within a few seconds and the page scrolls automatically to the report.
If you searched both names, switch between them
A summary card for each name appears first, along with an estimate for the full first-and-last combination. Use the switch to load the complete detail report for either name.
Scroll through the result sections
Each section answers a different question: total count and rarity, gender, age groups, yearly trend, decade breakdown, state ranking, and name meaning and origin.
Click similar names at the bottom to compare
The Similar Names section shows phonetically related names you can click to load stats instantly, without typing a new search.
Share your results
The Share button gives you a direct link to your specific results, ready to send or post to Facebook, WhatsApp, Pinterest, or Instagram.
Based on SSA data covering the last 100 years, these are the most frequently given names in the country. The peak decade column shows when annual usage was highest. Click any name to load its full statistics.
| Rank | Name | Gender | Peak Decade | US Living Today |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James | Male | 1940s | 2,958,503 |
| 2 | Mary | Female | 1920s to 1950s | 1,735,596 |
| 3 | Robert | Male | 1940s to 1960s | 2,621,009 |
| 4 | Patricia | Female | 1940s to 1960s | 1,046,696 |
| 5 | John | Male | 1920s to 1950s | 2,764,671 |
| 6 | Jennifer | Female | 1970s to 1980s | 1,400,929 |
| 7 | Michael | Male | 1960s to 1980s | 3,614,428 |
| 8 | Linda | Female | 1940s to 1960s | 1,091,613 |
| 9 | William | Male | 1910s to 1940s | 2,199,548 |
| 10 | Elizabeth | Female | Consistently popular | 1,144,531 |
| 11 | David | Male | 1950s to 1970s | 2,726,213 |
| 12 | Barbara | Female | 1930s to 1950s | 836,453 |
| 13 | Richard | Male | 1940s to 1960s | 1,465,159 |
| 14 | Susan | Female | 1940s to 1960s | 885,546 |
| 15 | Joseph | Male | 1910s to 1940s | 1,687,237 |
| 16 | Jessica | Female | 1980s to 1990s | 1,022,491 |
| 17 | Charles | Male | 1910s to 1940s | 1,211,558 |
| 18 | Karen | Female | 1950s to 1970s | 812,962 |
| 19 | Christopher | Male | 1970s to 1990s | 1,900,806 |
| 20 | Nancy | Female | 1940s to 1960s | 652,226 |
| 21 | Daniel | Male | 1970s to 1990s | 1,628,019 |
| 22 | Lisa | Female | 1960s to 1970s | 885,696 |
| 23 | Matthew | Male | 1980s to 1990s | 1,527,988 |
| 24 | Betty | Female | 1920s to 1940s | 334,008 |
| 25 | Anthony | Male | 1970s to 1990s | 1,207,882 |
| 26 | Margaret | Female | 1910s to 1940s | 486,935 |
| 27 | Mark | Male | 1960s to 1980s | 1,099,957 |
| 28 | Sandra | Female | 1940s to 1960s | 667,457 |
| 29 | Donald | Male | 1930s to 1950s | 662,438 |
| 30 | Ashley | Female | 1980s to 1990s | 853,241 |
Source: SSA Top Names Over the Last 100 Years. For a deeper look at these names and their origins, see our top 50 American names guide.
The names dominating current birth records and the names that have nearly disappeared from use tell very different stories. Both are worth searching. The rare last names guide profiles surnames on the verge of extinction.
Source: SSA Baby Names by Decade. Click any name to view its full statistics.
Last names follow different data than first names since they come from US Census Bureau surname records rather than SSA birth data, so there is no gender split or peak-decade figure to show.
| Surname | Origin | US Bearers (2020 Census) | National Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aguirre | Basque | 76,796 | #414 |
Baby name popularity shifts more than most people realize. A name that dominates birth records for a decade can nearly vanish in the next. Our baby name popularity checker uses SSA birth records going back to 1880 to show you exactly where any name stands today - whether you are picking a name for a newborn or just curious how your own name has trended over time.
Search any name above to see its full baby name popularity history: peak year, decade-by-decade usage, whether it is currently rising or falling, and how it compares across all 50 states.
Rising names
Names gaining ground in current SSA birth records - useful if you want a name that feels fresh without being unusual.
Peak decade
Every name result shows which decade produced the most bearers - so you know if a name feels vintage, classic, or current.
Popularity score
A normalized 0 to 100 score puts any name's baby name popularity in context against every other name in the SSA dataset.
Type your name in the search box above and click Search Names. The tool returns an estimated count of living Americans who share it, derived from SSA birth records going back to 1880 and adjusted using age-survival modeling. Results load in a few seconds and require no sign-up.
The tool classifies every name as Very Common, Common, Uncommon, Rare, or Very Rare based on its estimated living count against the total US population, alongside a "1 in X people" ratio and a 0-to-100 popularity score. Search your name above to see exactly where it falls.
Search your name above to see its 0-to-100 popularity score, its peak year and peak decade, and whether usage is currently rising, holding steady, or declining. Popularity isn't the same thing as total count. A name can have a huge all-time total while barely being given to newborns today, so the Popularity Over Time chart is the better read on how popular a name is right now versus historically.
The tool calculates a "1 in X people" probability and classifies the name as Very Common, Common, Uncommon, Rare, or Very Rare based on its estimated count against the total US population. It also shows a 0-to-100 popularity score.
Yes. The tool has a first name field and a last name field, and works with either one on its own or both together. Fill in just a first name for a given-name lookup, just a last name for a full last name popularity search using US Census Bureau genealogy data, or both to see individual stats for each name side by side plus an estimate of how many people might share that exact first and last name combination.
Yes. Every name result includes a meaning and origin section covering the name's linguistic roots, what the original word meant, its cultural and historical background, and any notable associations. You can also search any name above and scroll down to the meaning and origin section in the results.
All figures are statistical estimates, not exact government headcounts. No publicly available US database tracks every living person by name in real time. For common names the model is quite reliable. For rare names with sparse birth records the margin of error is wider. The complete explanation is on the methodology page.
The SSA excludes names given to fewer than five people per year from its public dataset, for privacy reasons. If your name returns zero, it is either genuinely very rare, a recent coinage, a non-English name with limited US registration, or an alternate spelling of a more common name. Try searching the most common spelling variant to see if results appear.
Yes. Names you type are processed in real time and are never stored, logged, or tracked. No account or personal information is required to use the tool. The full privacy policy is available on the site.
Yes. The Popularity Over Time section shows annual usage from 1880 to the present. The Decade Breakdown section groups that data into 10-year periods and ranks each decade. The peak year is highlighted automatically and a trend indicator shows whether usage is currently rising, stable, or declining compared to the prior decade.
There is no definitive count. In the US alone the SSA has recorded over 100,000 distinct given names across its history, and new ones appear every year. Globally the number runs into the millions when you account for all languages, cultures, and spelling variations. The SSA publishes its complete name list at ssa.gov/oact/babynames/limits.html for those who want to explore the full dataset.
Yes, completely free with no registration required. Just type a name and search. If you have questions or run into any issues, the contact page is the best way to reach us.