How US Baby Names Have Changed Since 1950
Most writing about baby names is about which names are popular. This guide looks at something else: what names are like. How long are they, and what do they end on? We counted it directly from the US Social Security Administration's national files for every year from 1950 to 2025, so the figures can be checked and none of them is an estimate.
One caution first. Everything here is counted from letters, not from how names are said. A silent final "e", as in Jake or Grace, counts as a vowel letter, and "y" is not counted as a vowel. Names are weighted by births, so a name given to 20,000 babies counts for more than one given to 20.
Names got longer, then shorter
The average name was 5.92 letters long for girls and 5.71 for boys in 1950. Both rose until about 1989 (girls 6.41, boys 6.01) and have fallen since. In 2025 the averages were 5.91 and 5.67: back close to where they started.
The share of babies with a name of seven letters or more shows the same turn. For girls it went from 32.9% in 1950 to 47.2% in 1989 and 31.6% in 2025. For boys it peaked at 34.5% in 1984 and was 23.8% in 2025 (2024 was fractionally lower, so this is essentially the lowest of any year).
Boys' names: more endings in n, and more in vowels
In 1950, 14.1% of boys had a name ending in "n". That climbed to 36.4% in 2011 and was 28.0% in 2025, so more than one boy in four still has an "n" name. At the same time, boys' names ending in a vowel letter rose from 8.9% in 1968 to 21.2% in 2025, the highest figure in the whole series. For the open-vowel names behind that shift, see why so many new boy names end in a vowel.
Girls' names: the vowel ending barely moved
Across all the years, the share of girls with a name ending in a vowel letter stayed between 57.0% (1998) and 63.0% (1967): about six in ten, every year. What shifted is the letter. Names ending in "a" went from 33.1% in 1958 to 39.7% in 2006, and were 38.0% in 2025. Names ending in "n" fell from 14.7% to 9.7%.
The numbers behind it
| Year | Letters | Ends in a vowel letter | Ends in n | Ends in a | 7+ letters | Top 10 names |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | 5.71 | 10.8% | 14.1% | 0.2% | 27.8% | 33.8% |
| 1975 | 5.87 | 11.0% | 23.5% | 1.3% | 31.8% | 25.7% |
| 2000 | 5.92 | 14.8% | 31.3% | 2.1% | 30.9% | 13.4% |
| 2025 | 5.67 | 21.2% | 28.0% | 2.5% | 23.8% | 8.0% |
| Year | Letters | Ends in a vowel letter | Ends in n | Ends in a | 7+ letters | Top 10 names |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | 5.92 | 57.2% | 14.7% | 33.7% | 32.9% | 24.1% |
| 1975 | 6.11 | 60.8% | 8.7% | 36.9% | 40.2% | 17.4% |
| 2000 | 6.24 | 57.3% | 13.7% | 37.2% | 40.4% | 10.2% |
| 2025 | 5.91 | 62.6% | 9.7% | 38.0% | 31.6% | 7.0% |
"Top 10 names" is the share of that year's births held by the ten most common names. The full year-by-year table is in the download below.
Why this matters when two names meet
When you pair a first and a middle name, or two siblings' names, the last sound of one meets the first sound of the next. Because 28.0% of boys' names end in "n" and 38.0% of girls' names end in "a", two names that end the same way are not unusual. The sibling and twin scores on this site mark down names that end on the same sound, because said together they can blur into one another. See how the score works and why rhythm and syllables matter.
Method, data and limits
- Data: US Social Security Administration national baby-name files, 1950 to 2025. A name appears only once at least 5 babies of that sex got it in a year, so very rare names are not counted.
- Counted by letters: not by sound, spelling variants are separate names, and nothing here is about meaning or origin.
- US only: these are US births, not a world picture.
- Check it yourself: download the table (CSV). The counting script,
name-sound-trends.mjs, is the same one we used to produce it. You are welcome to quote the figures; please link back to this page.
Source: US Social Security Administration national baby-name files. NamePairings is not connected to or endorsed by the Social Security Administration.