Baby names of 2012

Sophia and Jacob topped the lists in 2012, out of 3,657,999 births recorded across 31,326 different names. That is under 0.1% fewer than the 2011 files hold. About 3.6 million of them are alive today.

← 2011 All years 2013 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Sophia	22,336
2	Emma	20,976
3	Isabella	19,138
4	Olivia	17,333
5	Ava	15,549
6	Emily	13,666
7	Abigail	12,730
8	Mia	12,039
9	Madison	11,417
10	Elizabeth	9,730
11	Chloe	9,672
12	Ella	9,210
13	Avery	8,319
14	Addison	8,183
15	Aubrey	8,061
16	Lily	7,970
17	Natalie	7,908
18	Sofia	7,837
19	Charlotte	7,483
20	Zoey	7,482
21	Grace	7,393
22	Hannah	7,293
23	Amelia	7,249
24	Harper	7,199
25	Lillian	7,171

All 200 girls’ names of 2012 (19,534 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	Jacob	19,110
2	Mason	18,994
3	Ethan	17,697
4	Noah	17,385
5	William	16,917
6	Liam	16,824
7	Michael	16,211
8	Jayden	16,152
9	Alexander	15,259
10	Aiden	14,924
11	Daniel	14,304
12	Matthew	13,993
13	Elijah	13,914
14	James	13,458
15	Anthony	13,228
16	Benjamin	12,835
17	Joshua	12,681
18	Andrew	12,643
19	Joseph	12,594
20	David	12,565
21	Jackson	12,498
22	Logan	12,488
23	Christopher	11,921
24	Gabriel	11,580
25	Samuel	11,470

All 200 boys’ names of 2012 (14,250 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 2011:

Cataleya #4,807 → #480 +4,327
Adley #2,664 → #733 +1,931
Litzy #1,515 → #598 +917
Kenia #1,427 → #643 +784
Monroe #1,531 → #951 +580
Katalina #1,446 → #994 +452
Malaysia #961 → #570 +391
Blakely #929 → #546 +383

Monroe 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 2011:

Jionni #2,105 → #868 +1,237
Foster #1,544 → #993 +551
Major #990 → #486 +504
Kase #1,395 → #962 +433
Jael #1,411 → #983 +428
Brentley #1,159 → #751 +408
Axton #1,331 → #925 +406
Kyrie #1,244 → #868 +376

Jael 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.

First recorded in 2012, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 2012:

First recorded in 2012, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 2012:

Naksh 28
Viaan 23
Shenouda 21
Tyrann 15
Dmoni 14
Uwais 13
Ardan 13
Kaydien 12
Viyan 11
Arkan 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.