Looking for a name for your baby? Trying to avoid a name that's getting too popular or trendy? One of the best tools that American parents can use to choose a name is the Social Security Baby Name Index.
This index lists the 1000 most popular boy and girl baby names in the United States for every year between 1880 and the past year. The website is updated with the previous year's names every year around Mother's Day.
How to Search the SSBNI
The Social Security Baby Name Index is easy to use. One way to search is to look up the list of popular names for a given year, whether it's the year that just passed, or any year back to 1880. For any given year, you can search for the top 20, 50, 100, 500, or 1000 baby names.
The second way to search is to search the popularity of a boy's name or girl's name over time. For example, if you search for the popularity of the name Emma, you'll see that it's been a very popular name since the 1990s and that it was also very popular in the 1910s and 1920s.
In addition to these search functions, the index has several other features. The site lists the top 100 names for boys and girls in each state, dating back to 1960. For parents who are expecting twins, there's a list of the most popular sets of names for boy-boy, girl-girl, and boy-girl twins. There's also a list of names that have had big jumps in popularity over the past year.
Using the SSBNI for Choosing a Baby Name
The SSBNI is especially useful for parents who are looking for a name that's not too popular. After all, there's an awful lot of parents out there who have given their children names they thought were original but were not. The SSBNI can prevent this. Think Addison is an original name? Not really -- in 2010 it was the eleventh most popular girl's name in the United States.
The state popularity function is a very helpful feature, since name popularity can vary quite a bit by region. In 2010, Addison was the third most popular girls' name in Mississippi. But in California, it was #54.
For parents who are trying to avoid names that are trendy and that may quickly become dated, it's helpful to use the name search function to identify names that have suddenly come into vogue. A good example of this is the popular boy's name Jayden, which was not even on the charts until 1994 and shot up very quickly. Another good example of this is Nevaeh, which is the word Heaven spelled backwards. This wasn't even a name until singer Sonny Sandoval gave his daughter this name in 2000, and it caught on quick -- in 2010, it was #25.
The SSBNI is also helpful if you want to avoid giving your child a name that's very unpopular. Want to name your daughter Naomi? By using the name search, you'll see that back in 1970 (when the author was given this name), Naomi was way down at #411. But in recent years it's gotten more popular, and in 2010 Naomi actually cracked the Top 100 at #96.
You can also use this tool to avoid names that were previously very trendy and now are "out." A good example of this is the girl's name Brittany, which was very popular in the late 1980s and peaked at #3 in 1990. Then the name did a nose dive and was ranked at #427 in 2010. Conversely, you can also use the index to search for names that are classically popular as opposed to trendy. For example, since 1880, the name Elizabeth has never been ranked lower than #26. William and James have never been ranked lower than #20.
Of course, one of the most simple ways to look for baby names with the Social Security Baby Name Index is simply to browsing it. Whether you're reading this year's names or looking for classic names from 1930, the SSBNI is a great tool for checking out lots of possible names for your kid.
Source
Social Security Administration. Popular Baby Names: The Social Security Baby Name Index.
Naomi Rockler-Gladen - Instructional designer and freelance writer, Naomi Rockler-Gladen writes some of Suite101's most read work.
