Baby names of 1981

Jennifer and Michael topped the lists in 1981, out of 3,459,237 births recorded across 17,757 different names. That is 0.4% more than the 1980 files hold. About 3.3 million of them are alive today.

← 1980 All years 1982 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Jennifer	57,046
2	Jessica	42,531
3	Amanda	34,372
4	Sarah	28,175
5	Melissa	28,005
6	Amy	20,345
7	Nicole	20,310
8	Stephanie	20,212
9	Elizabeth	20,168
10	Heather	17,946
11	Michelle	17,781
12	Rebecca	16,737
13	Kimberly	16,689
14	Tiffany	16,416
15	Angela	15,924
16	Crystal	15,888
17	Christina	14,392
18	Lisa	14,294
19	Erin	13,853
20	Amber	13,814
21	Laura	13,292
22	Rachel	12,590
23	Kelly	11,873
24	Andrea	11,686
25	April	11,406

All 200 girls’ names of 1981 (12,198 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	Michael	68,750
2	Christopher	50,221
3	Matthew	43,330
4	Jason	41,927
5	David	40,629
6	Joshua	39,024
7	James	38,283
8	John	34,868
9	Robert	34,395
10	Daniel	30,985
11	Joseph	30,761
12	Justin	27,307
13	Ryan	26,811
14	Brian	26,583
15	William	24,798
16	Jonathan	22,588
17	Eric	20,712
18	Andrew	20,232
19	Brandon	20,206
20	Adam	20,044
21	Nicholas	19,775
22	Jeremy	19,113
23	Anthony	18,569
24	Timothy	18,228
25	Kevin	17,454

All 200 boys’ names of 1981 (7,289 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1980:

Tashina #4,743 → #893 +3,850
Krystle #3,215 → #473 +2,742
Tierra #2,342 → #542 +1,800
Martine #2,189 → #791 +1,398
Nereida #1,981 → #982 +999
Evita #1,552 → #779 +773
Sheena #1,009 → #356 +653
Tiara #1,125 → #675 +450

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1980:

Marchello #2,162 → #841 +1,321
Skylar #2,058 → #954 +1,104
Kellen #1,432 → #616 +816
Marcello #1,291 → #792 +499
Tyrel #1,089 → #633 +456
Anwar #1,166 → #730 +436
Skyler #1,019 → #642 +377
Jordon #1,031 → #784 +247

Skylar is here because the boys’ 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.

First recorded in 1981, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1981:

Toccara 182
Nastassia 56
Falon 54
Yalitza 42
Kaleena 41
Natassia 24
Yuliana 22
Shiona 19
Shambrica 18
Laiza 18

First recorded in 1981, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1981:

Taurean 91
Argenis 36
Argelis 17
Blong 15
Mikkos 15
Andron 14
Peng 13
Jaycob 12
Magnum 12
Tynan 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.