Random Name Generator

Every first name is a real one from Social Security's records of babies born in the United States. For each decade from the 1880s to the 2020s, the generator draws from the 500 names given to the most girls and the 500 given to the most boys, and it picks a name as often as parents did: in the 1950s, Linda comes up far more often than names lower on the list. That makes it useful for naming a character from a particular time, since a woman born in 1955 is more likely to be a Linda or a Debra than an Olivia.

"Popular" keeps to each decade's top 100; "less common" uses ranks 101 to 500. Gender-neutral names are ones where neither women nor men make up more than 80% of the people alive with the name. Last names come from the 5,000 most common surnames in the 2010 Census, picked by how many people had each one. Open any name to see how many people have it.