{"chart":{"slug":"top-boys-name-by-decade","title":"What was the most popular boys' name in each decade?","takeaway":"John was the top boys' name from the 1880s to the 1910s, given to about 8% of boys in the 1880s. Robert, James and Michael followed; Michael led for four decades. Since then the top name has had a far smaller share: Jacob, then Noah. So far in the 2020s the top name (2020–25: Liam) has 1.2% of boys. The bars show each top name's share of boys born in the decade, so decades compare fairly; the 2020s cover 2020 to 2025. Social Security leaves out any name given to fewer than 5 babies in a year.","topic":"Baby names","chart_type":"bar","ranking":false,"x_label":"Decade and top name","y_label":"Percent of boys born in the decade given the name","unit":"percent","points_count":15,"source":{"name":"U.S. Social Security Administration, Baby Names from Social Security Card Applications (national data)","url":"https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/limits.html"},"license":{"name":"Public domain (U.S. government work)","url":"https://www.usa.gov/government-copyright"},"data_as_of":"2025-12-31","updated_at":"2026-10-17T18:50:41.642Z","url":"https://chart.ly/charts/top-boys-name-by-decade","api_url":"https://chart.ly/api/v1/charts/top-boys-name-by-decade","csv_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/top-boys-name-by-decade/data.csv","image_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/top-boys-name-by-decade/image.png","embed_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/top-boys-name-by-decade/embed","credit":"U.S. Social Security Administration, Baby Names from Social Security Card Applications (national data), via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/top-boys-name-by-decade)","credit_html":"U.S. Social Security Administration, Baby Names from Social Security Card Applications (national data), via \u003ca href=\"https://chart.ly/charts/top-boys-name-by-decade\"\u003eChartly\u003c/a\u003e","average_label":null,"zero_axis":true,"data":[{"label":"1880s: John","value":8.21},{"label":"1890s: John","value":7.07},{"label":"1900s: John","value":6.23},{"label":"1910s: John","value":5.64},{"label":"1920s: Robert","value":5.23},{"label":"1930s: Robert","value":5.59},{"label":"1940s: James","value":5.35},{"label":"1950s: James","value":4.17},{"label":"1960s: Michael","value":4.32},{"label":"1970s: Michael","value":4.28},{"label":"1980s: Michael","value":3.6},{"label":"1990s: Michael","value":2.37},{"label":"2000s: Jacob","value":1.37},{"label":"2010s: Noah","value":0.98},{"label":"2020–25: Liam","value":1.2}],"annotations":[]},"docs":"https://chart.ly/developers","terms":"Free to use with credit: wherever you show or quote a chart's data, name Chartly with a link to that chart's url (each chart's credit line does both) and credit its source as its license asks.","credit":"U.S. Social Security Administration, Baby Names from Social Security Card Applications (national data), via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/top-boys-name-by-decade)"}