Most Popular Baby Girl Names in the U.S. 2025 (SSA) and Their Meanings

Olivia is America's most popular name for baby girls again in 2025, but this time it was a photo finish. Olivia was given to 13,544 girls, and Charlotte came in right behind with 13,400. The gap: just 144 babies.

Below you'll find the top 30 girls' names from the Social Security Administration's 2025 list, with their meanings, origins, Arabic spellings and Abjad values. Then we look at what changed since 2024 through five questions put to the data itself, and finish with the letters of the names.

First, what the numbers are

The SSA list isn't a survey. It is compiled from the names of babies born in the U.S. whose families applied for a Social Security card, and it covers the whole country. Our data runs from 2021 to 2025 and includes the top 100 names for each year, with counts. Three details help you read it correctly:

• Every spelling counts separately. Sophia and Sofia are two different lines.
• Ties get consecutive ranks. In 2025, Ellie and Lucy were both given to 6,176 girls; the SSA lists them at No. 24 and No. 25.
• Figures can be revised. Each year the SSA republishes earlier years as well. We use the figures published as of 2026, so you may see small differences from numbers you've seen before.

A photo finish at the top

Olivia is No. 1 in all five years of our data. But the distance to No. 2 has shrunk every single year:

Two things happened at once in 2025: 1,228 fewer girls were named Olivia than in 2024, while 803 more were named Charlotte. Charlotte was No. 3 from 2021 to 2023 and No. 4 in 2024; in 2025 it moved up to No. 2. Emma, the runner-up since 2021, slipped to No. 3. In the top five, only two names were given to more babies than the year before: Charlotte and Sophia (up 435).

The 30 most popular baby girl names in the U.S. in 2025

Counts are for girls born in the U.S. in 2025 for whom a Social Security card application was filed.

Five questions for the data

1. Where did Ailany come from?

Ailany is No. 14 in 2025, given to 7,136 girls. It doesn't appear in the top 100 in any of our 2021–2024 lists, so it entered the top 100 straight at No. 14. Our source records it as a spelling variant of Ailani; it gives no meaning and leaves the origin open, so we haven't assigned it one in the table. The other names new to the 2025 top 100 are Sienna (94), Amara (98), Georgia (99) and Juniper (100), all at the very bottom of the list.

2. Which name is climbing fastest?

Among names in the top 100 in both years, the biggest jump in babies belongs to Eliana: from 6,447 to 8,191, 1,744 more girls. Eliana rose from No. 18 to No. 10; it was No. 47 in 2021, and this is its first time in the top 10 in our 2021–2025 data. Within the top 30, the biggest jump in rank goes to Lucy, 34 → 25; across the full top 100, Eloise, Clara and Lucia each climbed 15 places. Lainey (38 → 30), Isla (35 → 28), Lily (24 → 18) and Penelope (28 → 22) are also strong climbers.

3. Who slipped?

Among the top 30 names, the steepest drop is Luna's: from No. 13 to No. 27, with 1,088 fewer girls given the name. Across the full top 100, Addison and Natalie fell furthest, 16 places each. Camila went 11 → 19 and Harper 12 → 16. Gianna (23 → 33), Emily (25 → 34), Scarlett (27 → 32) and Zoe (29 → 31) left the top 30, though all four are still in the top 100. Ailany, Lucy, Isla and Lainey took their places in the top 30.

4. What if Sophia and Sofia counted as one name?

A quick thought experiment: Sophia (12,561) and Sofia (8,252) come from the same name, but the SSA counts them separately. Add them up and you get 20,813, which is 7,269 more than Olivia's 13,544. That isn't an official ranking. It simply shows that the answer to "what's the most popular name?" depends on how you count spellings. For Abjad it makes no difference: both are written صوفيا in Arabic and add up to 187.

5. Any names with an Arabic or Muslim connection?

None of the top 30 is a classic Arabic name, but there are some interesting overlaps. Nora is written نورا in Arabic, exactly like the Arabic name Nura (257), although the English Nora comes from a separate tradition as a short form of Honora or Eleanor. One of the Arabic spellings of Lily, ليلى, is letter for letter the same as Layla (Leyla); either way the value is 80. A little further down the list, Ayla is No. 77 (3,149 girls); in Turkish it means "moonlight, the halo around the moon." Its American popularity, though, owes less to Turkish than to Ayla, the heroine of Jean M. Auel's 1980 novel The Clan of the Cave Bear. Maria is No. 87 (2,887 girls). Maria is the Latin form of Miryam, whose Arabic equivalent is Maryam (مريم, 290). Maryam, the mother of Jesus, is the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur'an.

An Abjad view: the letters of 30 names

Abjad works with Arabic letters, so the value of a name written in the Latin alphabet is calculated from its established Arabic spelling. The values in the table come from these spellings, using the classical Abjad value of each letter. Ailany and Lainey have no established Arabic spelling, so we used a phonetic one.

• First letters of the top 10: eight names begin with a Fire letter, while Sophia and Sofia begin with ص, an Air letter. None begins with a Water or Earth letter. Six of the eight Fire names start with alif, because names beginning with a vowel are written with alif in Arabic; Charlotte starts with ش and Mia with م. This is the classical classification used on our site; some authors order the elements differently.
• Highest and lowest: Charlotte leads with 937, carried by ش (300), ر (200) and ت (400). Elizabeth comes second with 561, most of it from ث (500). The lowest are Isla and Ella, both 42. The two names in the race for No. 1 are far apart in Abjad: Olivia 138, Charlotte 937.
• Shared values: Emma and Hazel 52, Mia and Ellie 51, Ailany and Camila 102, Isla and Ella 42. Ayla (أيلا) also comes to 42.

Change the spelling and the value changes: Elizabeth is 561 as إليزابيث and 461 as إليزابيت; Chloe is 66 as كلوي and 56 as كلو; Luna is 87 as لونا and 91 as لونة. That doesn't make one spelling "more auspicious," but it explains why our paid reports always start by fixing the exact spelling of the child's and the parents' names.

A short checklist before you choose

1. Settle the spelling first. To the SSA, Sophia and Sofia are two different names; in Abjad, what counts is the Arabic spelling.
2. Check the meaning against a source. For names like Ailany and Lainey, our sources give no meaning, so don't treat the explanations floating around online as settled fact.
3. Don't read the number on its own. In the Abjad tradition, a big or small number is not good or bad by itself. What the tradition looks at is how the name's letters and elements sit alongside the mother's and father's names; the child's yıldızname (star chart) is calculated together with the mother's name, too.

A final word

The list shows what American parents chose in 2025; it doesn't tell you what is right for your family. The 144-baby gap between Olivia and Charlotte makes a good story. The question that matters for you is the meaning of the name you choose, its spelling, and how it fits with your family's names.

This article is for information only. Abjad interpretations are based on tradition and contain no definitive judgment or guarantee about any name.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA), Popular Baby Names. Names of babies born in the U.S., based on Social Security card applications.