The new Census data on first names revealed many things about America, but mostly this: the country has shown remarkable commitment to the name Michael.
Recently released 2020 Census tables showed that Michael was the most common first name in the United States, meaning America is still absolutely packed with men named Michael.
More than 3.4 million people share the name, according to the rankings.
According to Laura Wattenberg, a baby name expert and the founder of Namerology, the country’s millions of Michaels are largely a legacy of an era when we gave enormous numbers of boys the exact same names.
The numbers, she says, are less a snapshot of current baby name trends than a running tally of generations raised during America’s great age of naming conformity.
For much of the 20th century, Wattenberg tells TODAY.com, Americans approached boy names with extraordinary caution. Parents recycled the same sturdy, respectable options — Michael, James, John, Robert, and David — over and over again.
Girls’ names moved differently, she says.
Jennifer gave way to Ashley, then Jessica, and Brittany, names that arrived in distinct cultural eras before eventually fading from dominance.
“For generations, Americans were much more conservative naming sons than daughters,” Wattenberg explains. “Names of girls were considered objects of fashion. But names of boys, you had to take seriously. They had to be sturdy and reliable.”
That divide still shapes the rankings today. The most common names remain overwhelmingly male not because men outnumber women, but because male names stayed concentrated for much longer, Wattenberg says. Even hugely popular girls’ names rarely accumulated the same statistical weight as Michael.
Wattenberg points to Emma as an example. Emma has spent years near the top of baby name rankings. Nationally, though, it remains less common than Brenda.
“It’s just because back in the age of John and Mary or even Michael and David, everybody was getting the same names,” Wattenberg says.
The rankings also reveal how much American naming culture has changed. Parents today spread out far more. No single modern name dominates the way Michael once did.
And boys’ names, long treated as practical, have increasingly entered the fashion cycle too.
“The gap has disappeared for current baby names,” Wattenberg says. “If you look at the top 10, it’s half boys, half girls.”
Then she put it more bluntly.
“We turned boys into objects of fashion too,” Wattenberg says. “Just look at the male grooming aisle at the drug store!”
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