Baby names of 1994

Jessica and Michael topped the lists in 1994, out of 3,717,784 births recorded across 23,851 different names. That is 1.4% fewer than the 1993 files hold. About 3.6 million of them are alive today.

← 1993 All years 1995 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Jessica	32,122
2	Ashley	30,281
3	Emily	24,154
4	Samantha	22,824
5	Sarah	22,299
6	Taylor	20,734
7	Brittany	18,900
8	Amanda	18,718
9	Elizabeth	16,786
10	Megan	16,580
11	Nicole	16,011
12	Kayla	15,885
13	Rachel	15,492
14	Lauren	15,158
15	Stephanie	14,750
16	Hannah	14,494
17	Jennifer	14,001
18	Alexis	13,039
19	Victoria	12,694
20	Danielle	12,455
21	Amber	12,343
22	Courtney	12,020
23	Jasmine	11,714
24	Rebecca	11,284
25	Morgan	10,655

All 200 girls’ names of 1994 (15,759 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	Michael	44,477
2	Christopher	34,807
3	Matthew	33,654
4	Joshua	31,374
5	Tyler	30,482
6	Brandon	29,492
7	Jacob	29,417
8	Daniel	28,065
9	Nicholas	27,770
10	Andrew	26,019
11	Joseph	25,734
12	Zachary	25,139
13	David	24,877
14	James	24,778
15	John	24,187
16	Ryan	24,063
17	Austin	23,192
18	Anthony	21,604
19	William	21,492
20	Justin	20,940
21	Robert	20,560
22	Alexander	20,101
23	Jonathan	19,068
24	Kyle	18,399
25	Cody	17,589

All 200 boys’ names of 1994 (10,245 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1993:

Nohely #5,419 → #896 +4,523
Aaliyah #4,524 → #202 +4,322
Zana #3,108 → #802 +2,306
Aliyah #2,068 → #357 +1,711
Zhane #2,012 → #582 +1,430
Ricki #2,127 → #941 +1,186
Clarisa #1,590 → #664 +926
Kennedy #1,271 → #524 +747

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1993:

Tyrin #2,509 → #935 +1,574
River #1,638 → #924 +714
Bryton #1,460 → #988 +472
Kahlil #1,444 → #981 +463
Jayden #1,295 → #849 +446
Menachem #1,248 → #831 +417
Markel #1,248 → #840 +408
Jaden #1,007 → #630 +377

First recorded in 1994, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1994:

Ajee 185
Alliyah 94
Taliyah 57
Jaliyah 36
Kaliyah 33
Mileena 30
Shaliyah 26
Itati 25
Liyah 24
Imalay 22

First recorded in 1994, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1994:

Shyheim 168
Romello 80
Draven 54
Trayvond 49
Raekwon 39
Roemello 32
Larenz 30
Ajee 29
Shyheem 23
Romelo 18

Ajee 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.