Baby names of 1996

Emily and Michael topped the lists in 1996, out of 3,647,307 births recorded across 24,309 different names. That is 0.4% fewer than the 1995 files hold. About 3.6 million of them are alive today.

← 1995 All years 1997 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Emily	25,150
2	Jessica	24,201
3	Ashley	23,678
4	Sarah	21,048
5	Samantha	20,552
6	Taylor	19,155
7	Hannah	18,596
8	Alexis	16,592
9	Rachel	16,121
10	Elizabeth	16,003
11	Kayla	15,269
12	Megan	14,770
13	Amanda	13,980
14	Brittany	13,797
15	Madison	13,412
16	Lauren	12,595
17	Brianna	11,925
18	Victoria	11,859
19	Jennifer	11,732
20	Stephanie	11,643
21	Courtney	11,344
22	Nicole	11,135
23	Alyssa	11,024
24	Rebecca	10,626
25	Morgan	10,295

All 200 girls’ names of 1996 (15,894 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	Michael	38,373
2	Matthew	32,077
3	Jacob	31,925
4	Christopher	30,904
5	Joshua	29,175
6	Nicholas	27,724
7	Tyler	26,956
8	Brandon	25,847
9	Austin	25,663
10	Andrew	25,244
11	Daniel	25,128
12	Joseph	24,758
13	David	23,022
14	Zachary	22,369
15	John	22,188
16	Ryan	21,809
17	James	21,165
18	William	20,546
19	Anthony	20,508
20	Justin	20,015
21	Jonathan	18,602
22	Alexander	17,964
23	Robert	17,676
24	Christian	15,824
25	Kyle	15,600

All 200 boys’ names of 1996 (10,536 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1995:

Odalys #2,845 → #678 +2,167
Tamia #2,028 → #497 +1,531
Jaycie #2,486 → #962 +1,524
Odalis #2,394 → #908 +1,486
Zaria #2,155 → #725 +1,430
Xena #1,900 → #757 +1,143
Jailene #1,787 → #946 +841
Amari #1,730 → #890 +840

Amari 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 1995:

Keyshawn #2,178 → #780 +1,398
Jair #2,055 → #884 +1,171
Kordell #2,055 → #990 +1,065
Shemar #1,758 → #902 +856
Nasir #1,648 → #962 +686
Keion #1,244 → #868 +376
Trystan #1,151 → #795 +356
Dangelo #740 → #390 +350

First recorded in 1996, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1996:

Moesha 426
Monifah 61
Moeshia 24
Maribi 23
Rebeccalynn 20
Zoria 19
Marivi 19
Accacia 19
Moeisha 18
Jailine 16

First recorded in 1996, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1996:

Quindon 67
Keyshaun 27
Jaekwon 20
Keyshon 14
Andruw 14
Keshone 13
Kolyn 13
Tayson 12
Jashun 12
Maddux 12

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.