Baby names of 1982

Jennifer and Michael topped the lists in 1982, out of 3,507,772 births recorded across 17,923 different names. That is 1.4% more than the 1981 files hold. About 3.3 million of them are alive today.

← 1981 All years 1983 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Jennifer	57,120
2	Jessica	45,453
3	Amanda	34,214
4	Sarah	28,483
5	Melissa	25,864
6	Nicole	21,706
7	Stephanie	20,861
8	Elizabeth	20,506
9	Crystal	19,099
10	Amy	18,799
11	Michelle	17,765
12	Heather	17,493
13	Tiffany	17,175
14	Kimberly	16,101
15	Rebecca	15,730
16	Angela	15,002
17	Ashley	14,851
18	Amber	14,678
19	Christina	14,518
20	Erin	14,362
21	Rachel	13,871
22	Laura	13,310
23	Lisa	12,637
24	Emily	12,519
25	Kelly	12,170

All 200 girls’ names of 1982 (12,332 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	Michael	68,216
2	Christopher	59,223
3	Matthew	46,045
4	Jason	40,628
5	David	40,453
6	James	38,874
7	Joshua	38,004
8	John	34,698
9	Robert	34,409
10	Daniel	32,652
11	Joseph	31,035
12	Justin	29,115
13	Ryan	26,685
14	Brian	25,829
15	William	25,604
16	Jonathan	23,113
17	Andrew	22,833
18	Brandon	20,212
19	Adam	20,099
20	Eric	19,878
21	Anthony	19,648
22	Nicholas	19,643
23	Thomas	17,578
24	Timothy	17,464
25	Kevin	17,462

All 200 boys’ names of 1982 (7,367 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1981:

Kaleena #2,375 → #660 +1,715
Kala #1,958 → #761 +1,197
Chelsie #2,028 → #934 +1,094
Tenika #2,028 → #947 +1,081
Falon #1,958 → #914 +1,044
Chelsey #1,528 → #569 +959
Roseanna #1,848 → #958 +890
Cassondra #1,674 → #840 +834

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1981:

Colt #2,418 → #460 +1,958
Eliot #1,695 → #965 +730
Colton #1,334 → #802 +532
Kiel #1,101 → #623 +478
Eugenio #1,411 → #995 +416
Chase #611 → #245 +366
Taurean #938 → #593 +345
Cooper #1,270 → #991 +279

First recorded in 1982, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1982:

Tyechia 71
Luisana 37
Bilan 17
Tocara 14
Ivorie 13
Arriel 13
Dasia 12
Katiejo 12
Cieara 12
Shakkia 12

First recorded in 1982, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1982:

Eder 48
Gemayel 22
Kolt 16
Veasna 16
Travanti 15
Trystan 13
Arya 12
Chaise 11
Johnross 11
Kellon 10

Arya 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.

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.