Baby names of 1983

Jennifer and Michael topped the lists in 1983, out of 3,463,173 births recorded across 17,681 different names. That is 1.3% fewer than the 1982 files hold. About 3.3 million of them are alive today.

← 1982 All years 1984 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Jennifer	54,353
2	Jessica	45,283
3	Amanda	33,749
4	Ashley	33,289
5	Sarah	27,228
6	Melissa	23,475
7	Nicole	22,400
8	Stephanie	22,329
9	Heather	20,747
10	Elizabeth	19,842
11	Crystal	17,904
12	Amy	17,097
13	Michelle	16,838
14	Tiffany	15,959
15	Kimberly	15,370
16	Christina	15,357
17	Amber	14,892
18	Erin	14,836
19	Rebecca	14,714
20	Rachel	14,591
21	Megan	14,124
22	Angela	13,219
23	Laura	13,199
24	Lauren	12,944
25	Emily	12,377

All 200 girls’ names of 1983 (12,074 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	Michael	68,004
2	Christopher	59,324
3	Matthew	50,209
4	David	39,201
5	Joshua	36,687
6	James	36,342
7	Jason	35,113
8	Daniel	34,748
9	John	33,154
10	Robert	32,745
11	Joseph	30,442
12	Justin	28,298
13	Ryan	27,849
14	Brian	26,050
15	Andrew	25,559
16	William	25,396
17	Brandon	23,519
18	Adam	23,488
19	Jonathan	22,756
20	Eric	20,347
21	Nicholas	19,891
22	Anthony	19,830
23	Steven	18,307
24	Thomas	17,565
25	Kevin	17,377

All 200 boys’ names of 1983 (7,344 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1982:

Ciji #7,469 → #697 +6,772
Kirby #7,469 → #718 +6,751
Dwan #3,530 → #874 +2,656
Mallory #2,220 → #332 +1,888
Marquita #1,099 → #112 +987
Echo #1,807 → #845 +962
Elyse #1,489 → #697 +792
Savannah #1,167 → #465 +702

Kirby and Dwan are here because the girls’ file records them: 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.

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1982:

Remington #3,108 → #848 +2,260
Trumaine #3,108 → #949 +2,159
Akeem #1,774 → #617 +1,157
Jacoby #1,654 → #916 +738
Deven #1,622 → #967 +655
Cassidy #1,107 → #669 +438
Devan #1,254 → #827 +427
Kirby #1,023 → #706 +317

Cassidy 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 1983, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1983:

Mallori 35
Erienne 29
Tyger 29
Cigi 28
Deisi 26
Deysi 25
Shadava 25
Marquite 23
Yomayra 22
Kirbi 22

Tyger is here because the girls’ 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 1983, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1983:

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.