Most famous people were born with ordinary names, so they share them with thousands of other people. No record counts full names, but you can estimate them: combine how many people alive in the US have the first name with how common the last name was in the 2010 Census. By that estimate, about 2,500 … Read more
The longest first names in US Social Security records are 15 letters long, because that is the most the records hold: each name is 2 to 15 characters. 40 names reach the limit, and every one of them is two names run together, many cut off at the 15th letter. The long names families actually … Read more
The shortest names in US Social Security records have two letters. Amy was the #2 name for girls in 1973, the highest any three-letter name has reached, and Mia was #6 in 2025. The records hold 155 two-letter names and 1,049 three-letter names from 1880 to 2025. This guide lists the 50 most popular short … Read more
Ashley was a boys’ name: in the 1930s, 2% of the babies given it were girls. By the 1990s, 100% were. Social Security records since 1880 show 30 names given to at least 50,000 babies that went from mostly boys to mostly girls, and only 3 that went the other way. This guide shows when … Read more
In 146 years of Social Security baby name records, 14,881 first names appear exactly once: 5 babies in a single year, and never again. That is as rare as a name can be and still show up in the records, because Social Security lists a name only in years when at least 5 babies of … Read more
First names and last names are popular in very different ways. The most common first name in the US, Michael, belongs to about 1.3% of the people How Many of Mee’s estimates cover. The most common surname, Smith, belonged to 0.83% of the people in the 2010 Census. Surnames are spread across far more names, … Read more
A name feels unique when you have never met anyone else who has it. That says more about the people you know than about the name. To check how unique your name really is, compare it with everyone in the country: how many people alive in the US have it, and how that compares with … Read more