For the seventh consecutive year, Olivia and Liam have claimed the top spots on the Social Security Administration’s annual ranking of the most popular baby names in the United States, but the 2025 list delivered at least one genuine surprise: Eliana cracked the girls’ top 10 for the very first time, vaulting from 18th place all the way to 10th in a single year and pushing longtime staple Ava down to No. 11.
The SSA released its 2025 findings in early May, timed as it does each year to arrive just ahead of Mother’s Day. Social Security Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano accompanied the release with a statement acknowledging the role of mothers and families in shaping future generations, according to coverage of the announcement from ABC3340.
The rankings are drawn from Social Security card applications submitted at birth across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with the agency’s searchable database reaching as far back as 1880.
The Names At The Top — And What Shifted Below Them
Olivia has reigned as the top girls’ name since overtaking Emma back in 2019, while Liam has occupied the boys’ summit since 2017. As HuffPost noted in its breakdown of the full 2025 rankings, “For the seventh year in a row, Olivia is the No. 1 name for girls, having surpassed Emma in 2019. Meanwhile, Liam holds steady as the most popular name for boys for the ninth straight year.”
On the girls’ side, Charlotte made the most notable move among established names, ascending to No. 2 and displacing Emma from the runner up position she had held for years. Emma dropped to third, while Sophia overtook Mia for the No. 5 position. The boys’ top four, Liam, Noah, Oliver, and Theodore, held their positions exactly, though the rankings shifted further down: at positions five and six, Henry and James traded places, Elijah and Mateo did the same at seven and eight, and Lucas edged past William to claim ninth.
One important note for parents comparing names: Forbes contributor Kelly Phillips Erb explained that the SSA treats alternate spellings as entirely separate names, which is why both Sophia and Sofia appear in the girls’ top 10, and why Liam and William both rank on the boys’ list. Hyphens and spaces are stripped from name fields, meaning Julie Anne, Julie-Anne, and Julieanne are counted as one, but phonetic variations are not combined.
Eliana’s Remarkable Rise To The Baby Name Top 10 List
The story generating the most buzz among baby name watchers is Eliana’s debut in the top 10. The name, which carries the Hebrew meaning of “my God has answered,” has deep roots in the Jewish community, where it is sometimes chosen to honor a child who arrived after a difficult journey to parenthood. It also has connections to French and Greek, where it translates roughly to “sun,” and has found broad appeal in Latino communities across the United States.
Eliana first appeared among the SSA’s 1,000 most tracked names as recently as 1986, then spent the following decade quietly gaining ground before its acceleration in the years since. Its single year jump of eight positions caught even seasoned name watchers’ attention. Colleen Slagen, a Boston based baby name consultant, told The Independent that the “El” sound is driving much of the momentum. “It’s a sound that people are drawn to and lends itself to nicknames like Ella, Ellie and Elle, which are all very popular names,” Slagen told The Independent. “People like the sound of a feminine yet professional name in Eliana, but having the option of a more casual, friendly nickname.”
Whether Eliana will hold its top 10 position is an open question. Slagen pointed to names like Luna and Harper, which had brief stints in the top 10 before sliding back down, and suggested a rebound effect can occur when parents realize a name they considered distinctive has gone mainstream. Ficarra was more optimistic, predicting the name will stay in the top 10 for the foreseeable future.
Beyond the top 10, the SSA also tracks the names with the biggest year over year rank jumps. On the boys’ side, Kasai made the most dramatic entrance of any name on the list, rocketing up 1,108 positions to land at No. 639 in its first appearance inside the top 1,000. The name carries meanings associated with “fire” in both Japanese and Swahili. For girls, Klarity saw the largest single year surge of any tracked name, jumping 1,396 spots from rank 2,187 all the way to 791.
What The Numbers Say About American Families
The 2025 data captured 3,593,747 total Social Security card applications for newborns, 1,835,823 for boys and 1,757,924 for girls. That figure is down from 3,628,418 applications recorded in 2024 and remains well below the 2007 peak of 4,332,400, reflecting broader demographic trends in U.S. birth rates.
Even within the top 10, the concentration of any single name is far lower than it once was. Slagen observed to The Independent that just 13,544 babies received the name Olivia in 2025, accounting for roughly 0.770 percent of total girl births, a striking contrast to an era when a single name could dominate entire classrooms. “In 1990, Jessica was the most popular name, and there were probably three Jessica’s in every class,” she explained. “Now there’s probably multiple Olivia’s at a school, but not necessarily in one class.” Parents today are drawing from a wider and more diverse pool of names than any previous generation.
That diversity in naming choices has real implications beyond the playground. Research published in a Psychology Today review of the science behind baby names found that name choices can influence everything from academic trajectories to career outcomes — with studies suggesting that girls with more gender neutral names are more likely to pursue advanced math and science coursework, and that easier to pronounce names are associated with more positive first impressions and higher positions in professional hierarchies.
The dominance of Olivia and Liam for seven straight years is genuinely remarkable in a naming landscape that has historically been far more volatile. But the real takeaway from the 2025 list may be that the top 10 is no longer the cultural monolith it once was. With birth totals declining and parents pulling inspiration from a broader range of languages, cultures, and traditions, a name’s rank on the SSA list tells only part of the story. Eliana’s rise — rooted in Hebrew tradition, embraced by Latino families, and appealing across multiple languages — is a snapshot of how American naming culture is evolving in real time. For expectant parents weighing their options, the 2025 data is a reminder that the most popular name in the country is still chosen by less than one percent of families.
