Baby Name Data Guides

These are not name lists. Every guide here starts from a question the ranking tables cannot answer on their own, works it out against the source files, and shows the numbers behind the answer.

The recurring theme is that a single national rank throws away most of what the data knows. The same files also record which state a birth was in, which means we can see where a name actually wins, how thinly it is spread, and whether it is regional or simply on its way out.

Two rules apply to everything here. Numbers are computed from the source files at build time rather than typed in, so when the Social Security Administration publishes a new year these pages update with it instead of going stale. And where the data cannot answer something we say so rather than filling the gap. The files record a name, a sex, a year, and a state. They do not record why a name rose, which community favours it, or what it means, and guides that claim otherwise are inferring from outside the data.

If you are new to this data, start with how the SSA files work. Most of the confusing numbers in US baby name coverage come from four rules about what gets counted and what gets withheld, and knowing them makes the rest of these pages read differently.