Baby names of 1997

Emily and Michael topped the lists in 1997, out of 3,625,850 births recorded across 24,890 different names. That is 0.6% fewer than the 1996 files hold. About 3.5 million of them are alive today.

← 1996 All years 1998 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Emily	25,734
2	Jessica	21,045
3	Ashley	20,897
4	Sarah	20,716
5	Hannah	20,597
6	Samantha	20,170
7	Taylor	19,504
8	Alexis	17,171
9	Elizabeth	15,430
10	Madison	15,189
11	Megan	14,244
12	Kayla	13,885
13	Rachel	13,798
14	Lauren	13,248
15	Alyssa	12,649
16	Amanda	12,243
17	Brianna	12,008
18	Jennifer	11,840
19	Victoria	11,795
20	Brittany	11,529
21	Nicole	10,744
22	Morgan	10,342
23	Stephanie	9,778
24	Jasmine	9,680
25	Rebecca	9,634

All 200 girls’ names of 1997 (16,163 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	Michael	37,562
2	Jacob	34,163
3	Matthew	31,517
4	Christopher	29,108
5	Joshua	28,289
6	Nicholas	27,258
7	Andrew	25,208
8	Brandon	25,197
9	Austin	25,118
10	Tyler	24,879
11	Daniel	23,950
12	Joseph	23,604
13	Zachary	21,929
14	David	21,896
15	John	21,386
16	Ryan	20,527
17	James	20,408
18	Anthony	20,034
19	William	20,020
20	Justin	18,745
21	Jonathan	18,542
22	Alexander	17,112
23	Robert	16,304
24	Kyle	15,919
25	Christian	15,059

All 200 boys’ names of 1997 (10,814 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1996:

Yulisa #10,567 → #985 +9,582
Yulissa #4,306 → #424 +3,882
Tea #3,429 → #795 +2,634
Taya #2,901 → #855 +2,046
Julisa #1,930 → #728 +1,202
Camryn #1,792 → #850 +942
Salma #1,565 → #734 +831
Gisselle #1,532 → #759 +773

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1996:

Jaret #2,145 → #725 +1,420
Kobe #1,265 → #553 +712
Ronaldo #1,465 → #885 +580
Jarett #1,334 → #914 +420
Gianni #1,093 → #677 +416
Kenan #1,359 → #966 +393
Amari #1,292 → #914 +378
Jarod #723 → #348 +375

First recorded in 1997, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1997:

Erykah 279
Yuliza 63
Ajaysia 31
Keja 22
Reganne 19
Taeya 18
Allure 18
Luzclarita 17
Dzyre 16
Areisy 15

First recorded in 1997, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1997:

Cross 43
Zeandre 37
Livan 36
Djimon 16
Kross 16
Tanyon 15
Keeshon 12
Aayush 12
Makaveli 11
Kristion 11

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.