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Top 1000 Most Popular U.S. Baby Names Of 1972

* If Year is set to 'All', Compare To may only be set to 2018 and Order By defaults to Number High to Low.
** If Compare To year is not Year-1, Top may only be set to 100.

 

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1972 Popular Names U.S. - Top 1000 Baby Names
  Change from
1971
  Change from
1971
Girls Number
of Girls
% Rank Number Boys Number
of Boys
% Rank Number
1 Jennifer 63,603 3.945 0 6,820 1 Michael 71,405 4.264 0 -6,189
2 Michelle 29,284 1.816 0 -3,876 2 Christopher 52,189 3.117 4 3,955
3 Lisa 27,549 1.709 0 -5,360 3 James 47,083 2.812 -1 -7,538
4 Kimberly 26,290 1.630 0 -4,406 4 David 46,366 2.769 -1 -6,752
5 Amy 25,873 1.605 0 -364 5 John 43,181 2.579 -1 -8,337
6 Angela 23,556 1.461 0 -2,340 6 Robert 43,037 2.570 -1 -7,617
7 Melissa 22,503 1.396 0 -1,366 7 Jason 37,446 2.236 1 3,259
8 Stephanie 16,885 1.047 3 1,742 8 Brian 36,322 2.169 1 3,685
9 Heather 16,321 1.012 3 1,301 9 William 30,529 1.823 -2 -4,903
10 Nicole 15,752 0.977 17 5,326 10 Matthew 22,943 1.370 9 387
11 Tammy 14,210 0.881 -3 -3,447 11 Scott 22,857 1.365 -1 -8,064
12 Julie 14,070 0.873 -2 -1,256 12 Joseph 22,467 1.342 3 -2,056
13 Mary 13,761 0.853 -4 -2,936 13 Kevin 22,363 1.335 1 -2,507
14 Rebecca 13,252 0.822 9 1,060 14 Richard 22,318 1.333 -3 -3,843
15 Elizabeth 12,185 0.756 4 -1,417 15 Daniel 22,111 1.320 5 326
16 Christine 11,988 0.743 2 -1,688 16 Eric 22,037 1.316 2 -938
17 Laura 11,772 0.730 -1 -2,104 17 Jeffrey 21,686 1.295 -5 -4,161
18 Tina 11,521 0.715 2 -1,746 18 Mark 21,500 1.284 -5 -3,637
19 Tracy 11,436 0.709 -6 -2,891 19 Steven 19,857 1.186 -3 -3,820
20 Dawn 11,340 0.703 -6 -2,942 20 Thomas 19,574 1.169 -3 -3,590
21 Karen 11,182 0.693 -6 -3,027 21 Timothy 17,605 1.051 0 -2,492
22 Shannon 10,965 0.680 -1 -1,687 22 Anthony 17,462 1.043 1 -1,766
23 Kelly 10,943 0.679 -1 -1,653 23 Charles 16,980 1.014 -1 -2,872
24 Susan 10,577 0.656 -7 -3,200 24 Paul 14,563 0.870 0 -2,914
25 Cynthia 10,171 0.631 -1 -1,974 25 Chad 13,399 0.800 4 1,263
26 Christina 10,170 0.631 4 256 26 Gregory 13,060 0.780 -1 -1,707
27 Patricia 9,600 0.595 -1 -1,865 27 Kenneth 12,334 0.737 -1 -2,430
28 Lori 9,434 0.585 -3 -2,400 28 Shawn 11,284 0.674 0 -1,548
29 Wendy 8,532 0.529 0 -1,532 29 Stephen 11,043 0.659 -2 -2,065
30 Andrea 8,018 0.497 5 -460 30 Andrew 10,125 0.605 3 -795
31 Sandra 7,914 0.491 0 -1,795 31 Todd 9,981 0.596 -1 -2,086
32 Maria 7,703 0.478 5 -416 32 Ronald 9,511 0.568 -1 -2,121
33 Stacy 7,603 0.472 -1 -1,511 33 Sean 9,457 0.565 3 -1,058
34 Pamela 7,476 0.464 -6 -2,667 34 Edward 9,297 0.555 -2 -1,763
35 Denise 7,383 0.458 1 -834 35 Patrick 9,282 0.554 0 -1,525
36 Michele 7,376 0.457 3 -579 36 Donald 9,263 0.553 -2 -1,609
37 Tonya 7,244 0.449 8 344 37 Jonathan 9,227 0.551 3 595
38 Tara 7,231 0.448 11 897 38 Keith 9,155 0.547 -1 -705
39 Teresa 7,177 0.445 -5 -1,385 39 Ryan 8,892 0.531 12 2,702
40 Rachel 6,414 0.398 14 294 40 Aaron 7,864 0.470 1 -543
41 Stacey 6,380 0.396 0 -1,102 41 Gary 7,766 0.464 -3 -1,425
42 Melanie 6,294 0.390 24 1,157 42 Jeremy 7,400 0.442 3 -94
43 Deborah 6,273 0.389 -10 -2,400 43 Douglas 7,392 0.441 -4 -1,345
44 Brenda 6,271 0.389 -1 -887 44 George 7,167 0.428 -2 -1,056
45 Donna 6,261 0.388 -7 -1,749 45 Bryan 7,039 0.420 3 424
46 Jessica 6,210 0.385 18 850 46 Craig 6,736 0.402 -3 -1,224
47 Monica 6,127 0.380 1 -298 47 Larry 6,604 0.394 -3 -1,160
48 April 6,121 0.380 8 183 48 Peter 6,480 0.387 -1 -551
49 Sarah 6,113 0.379 9 268 49 Troy 6,351 0.379 -3 -987
50 Sharon 6,110 0.379 -10 -1,413 50 Jose 5,932 0.354 5 -73

 

United States name popularity data is provided by the Social Security Administration and is based on Social Security card applications.

Data for a given year is not made available until well into the next year.

Data reflects what was recorded and has not been edited for errors, so for example the gender associated with a name may be incorrect.

The more babies that are given a particular name, the higher the popularity ranking. If multiple names have the same usage, the tie is broken by assigning popularity rank in alphabetical order. Therefore in the case of names with fewer occurrences, names with the same number of occurrences may have vastly different rankings because they will be interranked alphabetically.

To safeguard privacy, the SSA does not include names with less than 5 occurrences.

Please note, we update the data each May when the SSA releases new figures. All data changes at that time, including previous years, which will change minutely based on new information.