Visualized: The Enduring Popularity of James🤵

Key Takeaways

• James is the most popular American name for boys in the last 100 years, and still ranks 5th in 2024
• In fact, many of the most popular names in the last 100 years, like William, Michael, and John have remarkable staying power.
• The only exception seems to be Richard (7th in the last century, but ranked 232 in 2024.)

❗Where Does This Data Come From?

This chart is based on Social Security card application data as of March 2025, which includes 179 million male births and 174 million female births since 1925.

The sample set is restricted to names where the year of birth, sex, and state of birth are on record, and where the given name is at least 2 characters long.