Baby names of 1999

Emily and Jacob topped the lists in 1999, out of 3,693,973 births recorded across 26,350 different names. That is 0.4% more than the 1998 files hold. About 3.6 million of them are alive today.

← 1998 All years 2000 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Emily	26,542
2	Hannah	21,679
3	Alexis	19,237
4	Sarah	19,119
5	Samantha	19,044
6	Ashley	18,136
7	Madison	18,054
8	Taylor	16,906
9	Jessica	16,350
10	Elizabeth	15,350
11	Alyssa	14,036
12	Lauren	13,911
13	Kayla	13,292
14	Brianna	12,419
15	Megan	12,230
16	Victoria	11,874
17	Emma	11,751
18	Abigail	11,686
19	Rachel	11,632
20	Olivia	11,257
21	Jennifer	10,616
22	Amanda	9,750
23	Sydney	9,649
24	Morgan	9,607
25	Nicole	9,515

All 200 girls’ names of 1999 (16,947 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	Jacob	35,371
2	Michael	33,915
3	Matthew	30,418
4	Joshua	27,265
5	Nicholas	25,639
6	Christopher	25,604
7	Andrew	23,866
8	Joseph	23,220
9	Daniel	22,704
10	Tyler	22,669
11	Brandon	21,601
12	Ryan	21,014
13	Austin	20,767
14	William	20,718
15	John	20,366
16	David	20,352
17	Zachary	19,985
18	Anthony	19,472
19	James	18,555
20	Justin	18,277
21	Alexander	17,420
22	Jonathan	17,068
23	Dylan	15,981
24	Noah	14,931
25	Christian	14,783

All 200 boys’ names of 1999 (11,614 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1998:

Citlalli #2,338 → #931 +1,407
Noelia #2,048 → #719 +1,329
Amaya #1,458 → #398 +1,060
Kyara #1,789 → #925 +864
Journey #1,557 → #953 +604
Jadyn #1,300 → #791 +509
Shaniya #1,290 → #793 +497
Kiarra #1,242 → #761 +481

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1998:

Trajan #2,235 → #996 +1,239
Tyreese #1,558 → #889 +669
Latrell #1,231 → #636 +595
Zion #694 → #274 +420
Xander #1,338 → #924 +414
Tyrese #611 → #201 +410
Jaxson #1,297 → #924 +373
Braiden #1,338 → #975 +363

First recorded in 1999, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1999:

Verania 62
Litzy 56
Trinitee 29
Ezri 25
Diavion 21
Deavian 20
Syncere 19
Berania 18
Felecity 18
Makaiya 17

Syncere 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 1999, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1999:

Cauy 32
Syncere 21
Rahzel 20
Carlosdaniel 16
Braijon 15
Yadiel 15
Cincere 14
Zyion 14
Andrik 14
Sabien 14

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.