Most Popular Baby Boy Names in the USA 2024 (SSA) and Their Meanings

In the United States, the official record of baby names comes from the Social Security Administration (SSA). Every year it compiles the names of babies whose parents applied for a Social Security card and publishes a national list. At the top of the 2024 boys' list, nothing moved: Liam was No. 1 with 22,252 babies, Noah No. 2 with 20,409 and Oliver No. 3 with 15,396. The same three names held the same three spots in every year of the 2021–2024 data we looked at.

Just below the top, though, things were busy: Theodore climbed to No. 4, and Santiago jumped 16 places into the top 30. Below, we follow that movement on a four-year ladder, then turn to a single Abjad question: is a name's value decided by how many letters it has, or by which letters they are?

The 30 Most Popular Boy Names in the U.S. in 2024

The SSA counts every spelling separately, so Luca and Luka, or Miles and Myles, are separate entries. Names with the same count get consecutive ranks: in 2024, Enzo and Ian both had 4,560 babies and sit at No. 74 and No. 75. Abjad values are calculated from each name's established Arabic spelling using this site's rule: the written letters count, vowel marks and the doubling sign (shadda) do not. A name written in the Latin alphabet has no single Abjad value until its Arabic spelling is chosen.

From 2023 to 2024: Who Climbed, Who Slipped

Liam has been given to a few more babies every year: 20,424 in 2021, 20,579 in 2022, 20,904 in 2023 and 22,252 in 2024. Over the year, 1,348 more babies were named Liam, while 1,293 more babies were named Noah. That widened the gap between them from 1,788 babies in 2023 to 1,843 in 2024. The combined total of the top 100 boy names also rose, from 648,160 to 654,627. Within the top 30, 20 names were given to more babies than the year before and 10 to fewer.

• Biggest climber in the top 30: Santiago jumped from No. 45 to No. 29. Its count went from 6,358 to 7,434, an increase of 1,076 babies, the third-largest rise in the top 30 after Liam and Noah. Among names in the top 100 in both years, the biggest jump in rank was Thiago's: 72 → 55.
• Reshuffling in the top 10: Theodore moved from No. 7 to No. 4 with 12,069 babies, passing James. Henry rose from No. 8 to No. 6. Elijah went the other way, from No. 5 to No. 8, with 285 fewer babies given the name.
• New in the top 30: Santiago, Elias (36 → 25), Dylan (34 → 28) and Julian (33 → 30).
• Out of the top 30: David (27 → 31), Joseph (29 → 32), Jackson (28 → 35) and Mason (30 → 42). All four are still in the top 100.
• Slipping: Leo (18 → 24) and Owen (20 → 26) each fell six places, and Alexander dropped from No. 22 to No. 27.

The top 10 is made up of exactly the same ten names as in 2023; only their order changed.

A Four-Year Ladder

A single year can mislead; to see where a name is heading, it helps to look at several years together. The table below lines up the ranks of names that clearly rose or fell between 2021 and 2024. The last column shows how many places each name gained (+) or lost (−) since 2021.

Santiago climbed 34 places in four years; Ezra went from No. 37 to No. 13 and Luca from No. 42 to No. 23. Theodore's path is shorter but ends closer to the top: from 10 to 4. At the other end is Jacob, a top-30 name in 2021 and No. 40 in 2024. Alexander slipped a little further every year, and Benjamin and William are both four places below where they stood in 2021. This table is not a forecast; it simply puts four years of SSA ranks side by side.

A quick look at origins shows a varied list: 14 of the top 30 are Hebrew in origin (Noah, James, Elijah, Michael and Ezra among them), Santiago is Spanish, Mateo is the Spanish form of a Hebrew name, Luca is Italian, Liam Irish, Dylan Welsh and Owen Welsh/Irish.

In Abjad, Does Letter Count Matter, or the Letter Itself?

It is natural to assume that a longer name has a bigger value. Group the top 30 by the number of letters in their Arabic spelling, and the picture changes:

Nine-letter Sebastian stops at 594, while six-letter Theodore reaches 726. Six-letter Elijah (50) is even lower than three-letter John (59). That is because Abjad letters sit in ones (ا to ط), tens (ي to ص), hundreds (ق to ظ) and a thousand (غ). What decides the value is not the number of letters but whether the name contains a letter from the hundreds or the thousand.

• A sharp dividing line: 20 of the top 30 contain no letter worth 100 or more; the highest of them is Samuel (صموئيل, 186). The other 10 contain at least one, and even the lowest of those, Henry (هنري, 265), is higher. In other words, every name with a hundreds letter outranks every name without one.
• A worked example: Theodore, ثيودور = ث 500 + ي 10 + و 6 + د 4 + و 6 + ر 200 = 726. Two letters supply 700 of the total.
• The extremes: the highest value is Santiago, سانتياغو = 1528, with 1000 from غ alone. The lowest is Jack, جاك = ج 3 + ا 1 + ك 20 = 24. No two names in the top 30 share a value.
• One letter can cross the line: Samuel is 186 as صموئيل but 386 as شمويل, with ش instead of ص. William is 86 as وليم and 97 as ويليام.
• Traditional counterparts: Noah's common spelling نواه is 62, while نوح, the Quranic prophet Nuh, is 64. Michael's common spelling مايكل is 101. The angel named in the Qur'an (al-Baqara 2:98) is spelled ميكال (Mikal) in the Hafs mushaf, also 101, and ميكائيل (Mikail) in the common Arabic form, 121; مايكل and ميكال use the same letters, so their values match.
• First letters of the top 10: by the classical classification used in this site's reports, four are Fire (Oliver, Henry, Mateo, Elijah), two Water (Theodore, James), two Earth (Liam, Lucas) and two Air (Noah, William). Some authors order the elements differently.

None of this makes one spelling luckier than another. It simply shows that in Abjad the spelling has to be settled first. And a name's value on its own is not an analysis. The real question is how those letters work together with the parents' names, and what total the child's name gives with the mother's name in the star chart (yıldızname) calculation.

Three Questions Parents Often Ask

Why isn't Muhammad on the list?

The SSA counts names exactly as they are spelled, and the list we use covers the top 100. In 2024, none of the spellings Muhammad, Mohammed or Muhammed made the top 100. That does not mean the name isn't given in the U.S.; it only means no single spelling reached the count needed. On the very last rung, though, sits a name that also appears in the Qur'an: Adam, outside the top 100 in 2023, came in at No. 100 in 2024 with 3,507 babies.

Theo or Theodore?

The SSA counts them separately: Theodore is No. 4, while its short form Theo is No. 80 (4,129 babies). In Abjad they are not the same name either: ثيو is 516, ثيودور is 726. Families can register the short form and use the long one at home, or the other way around; for Abjad, what counts is the legal name and its Arabic spelling.

Is a name with a higher Abjad value better?

No. In the Abjad tradition a bigger number is not a sign of superiority on its own; Santiago's 1528 is not "better" than Jack's 24. Traditionally, a value is read together with other names and calculations.

In the Baby Name Finder & Analysis report, both parents' names are examined letter by letter, the family's element map is drawn up, and names that fit that map are suggested with their Abjad value, element and meaning. If you already have a name in mind, say you are torn between Ezra and Elias, the Baby Name Family Compatibility report shows each family member's Abjad value, element and planet, the mother–father, mother–baby and father–baby compatibility scores, and the family's energy map.

This article covers the 2024 data; the SSA has since released its 2025 list as well.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA), Popular Baby Names — names of babies born in the U.S., based on Social Security card applications. The figures are national; because the SSA republishes earlier years each year, small differences can appear. Abjad readings are a traditional interpretive method; a name does not determine a child's future, and the final decision always belongs to the family.