Baby names of 1984

Jennifer and Michael topped the lists in 1984, out of 3,488,665 births recorded across 17,761 different names. That is 0.7% more than the 1983 files hold. About 3.3 million of them are alive today.

← 1983 All years 1985 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Jennifer	50,564
2	Jessica	45,857
3	Ashley	38,773
4	Amanda	33,915
5	Sarah	25,887
6	Stephanie	23,025
7	Nicole	22,270
8	Melissa	21,896
9	Heather	21,489
10	Elizabeth	20,360
11	Megan	16,984
12	Crystal	16,560
13	Amy	15,988
14	Tiffany	15,861
15	Rachel	15,839
16	Danielle	15,670
17	Michelle	15,499
18	Amber	15,369
19	Laura	14,818
20	Christina	14,705
21	Lauren	14,475
22	Kimberly	14,445
23	Rebecca	13,348
24	Emily	12,786
25	Erin	12,622

All 200 girls’ names of 1984 (12,181 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	Michael	67,735
2	Christopher	60,021
3	Matthew	49,767
4	Joshua	40,266
5	David	38,492
6	Daniel	36,531
7	James	35,859
8	John	32,610
9	Robert	31,768
10	Joseph	30,513
11	Jason	29,953
12	Ryan	28,724
13	Justin	26,769
14	Andrew	25,916
15	Brandon	25,673
16	William	24,900
17	Brian	24,720
18	Adam	23,939
19	Jonathan	23,345
20	Nicholas	21,017
21	Anthony	20,956
22	Eric	20,955
23	Steven	18,217
24	Kevin	17,858
25	Thomas	17,596

All 200 boys’ names of 1984 (7,341 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1983:

Santana #9,015 → #756 +8,259
Tasia #3,151 → #732 +2,419
Teela #3,065 → #867 +2,198
Grisel #1,858 → #784 +1,074
Kaylee #1,715 → #821 +894
Shenna #1,295 → #855 +440
Jena #860 → #427 +433
Brittani #1,049 → #626 +423

Santana 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.

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1983:

Ryne #1,562 → #604 +958
Rachel #1,448 → #976 +472
Zebulon #1,375 → #976 +399
Travon #1,327 → #968 +359
Mackenzie #1,347 → #1,000 +347
Shea #848 → #538 +310
Chance #556 → #250 +306
Tavaris #1,296 → #993 +303

Rachel, Mackenzie and Shea are here because the boys’ 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.

First recorded in 1984, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1984:

Nastassja 40
Santanna 39
Meghaan 36
Laken 19
Nasiya 19
Prisma 18
Safira 18
Natassja 16
Kashonna 15
Teneya 14

First recorded in 1984, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1984:

Jahaziel 12
Koda 12
Adric 12
Lyden 11
Anterrio 11
Coleby 10
Yao 10
Juwon 10
Jojuan 10
Jeovany 10

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.