Most Popular Baby Names of 1976

In 1976, the most popular baby names in the United States were Jennifer for girls and Michael for boys. Jennifer was given to 59,473 girls and Michael to 66,915 boys, according to Social Security card applications.

Across all names, the Social Security Administration recorded 3,034,106 births for names given to at least five babies that year, up from 3,019,218 in 1975. The tables below show the top 100 names for each sex with their rank change from the year before, followed by the biggest movers in the top 1,000.

New to the top 100 this year: Jaime, Courtney, Natalie, Samantha, Victoria, and Kristina.

1977 →The 1970s Download top 1,000 (CSV)

Top 100 baby names of 1976

Girls

Girls
#	Name	Babies	Change
1	Jennifer	59,473	–
2	Amy	31,339	–
3	Melissa	25,094	↑ 1
4	Heather	24,192	↓ 1
5	Angela	22,038	–
6	Michelle	19,550	–
7	Kimberly	18,962	–
8	Jessica	18,368	↑ 5
9	Lisa	17,346	↓ 1
10	Amanda	15,588	↑ 4
11	Stephanie	15,180	↓ 2
12	Rebecca	14,491	↓ 1
13	Nicole	14,453	↓ 3
14	Christina	14,033	↓ 2
15	Sarah	13,993	↑ 2
16	Elizabeth	13,547	↓ 1
17	Shannon	13,368	↑ 4
18	Jamie	12,539	↑ 50
19	Kelly	11,791	↓ 3
20	Laura	11,252	–
21	Julie	10,839	↓ 3
22	Mary	10,315	↓ 3
23	Rachel	8,453	↑ 3
24	Erin	8,381	↑ 14
25	Andrea	8,352	↑ 3
26	Christine	8,111	↓ 4
27	Sara	8,020	↑ 27
28	Carrie	7,991	↑ 1
29	Jaime	7,838	↑ 234
30	April	7,761	↓ 5
31	Karen	7,505	↓ 4
32	Tiffany	7,482	↑ 5
33	Danielle	7,364	↑ 9
34	Maria	7,358	↓ 4
35	Dawn	7,048	↓ 12
36	Crystal	6,946	↑ 7
37	Tracy	6,822	↓ 13
38	Stacy	6,523	↓ 4
39	Wendy	6,464	↓ 6
40	Susan	6,402	↓ 8
41	Tammy	6,228	↓ 10
42	Tara	6,020	↓ 1
43	Patricia	6,017	↓ 7
44	Cynthia	6,012	↓ 4
45	Monica	5,978	↑ 4
46	Misty	5,906	↑ 1
47	Lori	5,849	↓ 8
48	Tina	5,747	↓ 13
49	Amber	5,646	↑ 10
50	Emily	5,547	↓ 2
51	Stacey	5,390	↓ 7
52	Jill	5,283	↓ 6
53	Melanie	5,241	↓ 1
54	Erica	5,236	↑ 9
55	Brandy	5,232	↑ 2
56	Holly	5,173	↓ 1
57	Katherine	5,051	↑ 1
58	Tonya	4,966	↓ 13
59	Sandra	4,861	↓ 8
60	Christy	4,853	↓ 7
61	Tanya	4,819	↓ 11
62	Megan	4,463	↑ 7
63	Michele	4,443	↓ 7
64	Dana	4,408	↓ 2
65	Leslie	4,311	↑ 6
66	Teresa	4,056	↓ 5
67	Allison	4,028	↑ 22
68	Veronica	4,022	↑ 4
69	Denise	3,986	↓ 5
70	Heidi	3,890	↓ 4
71	Alicia	3,791	↑ 5
72	Catherine	3,780	↑ 1
73	Kristen	3,653	↓ 13
74	Kristin	3,627	–
75	Robin	3,623	↓ 10
76	Courtney	3,619	↑ 26
77	Brenda	3,587	↓ 10
78	Anna	3,584	↑ 1
79	Brandi	3,537	↑ 9
80	Natalie	3,499	↑ 30
81	Sharon	3,453	↓ 6
82	Kathleen	3,405	↓ 2
83	Valerie	3,386	↑ 9
84	Pamela	3,364	↓ 14
85	Samantha	3,347	↑ 16
86	Renee	3,314	↑ 1
87	Nancy	3,281	↓ 5
88	Kathryn	3,262	↑ 11
89	Theresa	3,173	↓ 11
90	Linda	3,138	↓ 9
91	Tamara	3,086	↓ 14
92	Victoria	3,036	↑ 13
93	Donna	3,032	↓ 8
94	Gina	3,010	↓ 10
95	Melinda	2,995	↓ 4
96	Deborah	2,992	↓ 10
97	Kristina	2,972	↑ 6
98	Barbara	2,968	↓ 15
99	Jacqueline	2,948	↓ 9
100	Mandy	2,924	↑ 6

Boys

Boys
#	Name	Babies	Change
1	Michael	66,915	–
2	Jason	52,643	–
3	Christopher	45,190	–
4	David	39,265	↑ 1
5	James	38,294	↓ 1
6	John	33,976	↑ 1
7	Robert	33,789	↓ 1
8	Brian	30,517	–
9	Matthew	29,951	–
10	Daniel	24,702	↑ 1
11	William	24,428	↓ 1
12	Joseph	24,055	–
13	Eric	21,359	–
14	Jeremy	20,126	↑ 10
15	Kevin	18,474	–
16	Ryan	17,484	↑ 7
17	Jeffrey	17,013	↓ 3
18	Joshua	16,845	↑ 8
19	Richard	16,752	↓ 3
20	Steven	16,650	↓ 2
21	Timothy	16,620	↑ 1
22	Anthony	16,601	↓ 1
23	Thomas	16,122	↓ 3
24	Scott	15,717	↓ 7
25	Mark	15,508	↓ 6
26	Charles	13,921	↓ 1
27	Andrew	13,301	↑ 1
28	Paul	11,781	↑ 1
29	Chad	11,766	↓ 2
30	Aaron	11,344	↑ 2
31	Jonathan	11,314	↓ 1
32	Benjamin	10,672	↑ 4
33	Justin	10,144	↑ 4
34	Shawn	10,108	↓ 3
35	Gregory	10,060	↓ 2
36	Adam	9,937	↑ 2
37	Stephen	9,727	↓ 3
38	Kenneth	9,127	↓ 3
39	Nathan	8,611	↑ 6
40	Brandon	7,786	↑ 4
41	Patrick	7,642	↓ 2
42	Sean	7,565	↓ 2
43	Bryan	7,288	↑ 4
44	Jose	7,061	↑ 4
45	Edward	7,048	↓ 4
46	Travis	6,832	↑ 5
47	Donald	6,792	↓ 5
48	Keith	6,745	↑ 1
49	Ronald	6,457	↓ 3
50	Todd	6,440	↓ 7
51	Bradley	5,976	↑ 1
52	Gary	5,592	↓ 2
53	George	5,556	–
54	Peter	5,445	–
55	Jesse	5,300	↑ 9
56	Douglas	5,224	↓ 1
57	Shane	5,095	–
58	Juan	5,053	↑ 2
59	Samuel	5,025	↑ 2
60	Larry	4,842	↓ 4
61	Craig	4,732	↓ 3
62	Jamie	4,621	–
63	Jacob	4,509	↑ 12
64	Corey	4,432	↑ 7
65	Raymond	4,218	↓ 2
66	Dennis	4,169	↓ 7
67	Jerry	4,070	↓ 2
68	Frank	3,899	↓ 2
69	Phillip	3,789	↑ 3
70	Carlos	3,787	↑ 3
71	Antonio	3,774	↑ 6
72	Joel	3,722	↑ 2
73	Troy	3,715	↓ 4
74	Marcus	3,681	↓ 6
75	Terry	3,668	↓ 8
76	Jeffery	3,564	↓ 6
77	Nicholas	3,466	↑ 4
78	Brent	3,405	↑ 1
79	Randy	3,320	↓ 1
80	Kyle	3,308	↑ 8
81	Gabriel	3,303	↑ 25
82	Dustin	3,212	↑ 14
83	Cory	3,182	↑ 16
84	Derek	3,168	↓ 1
85	Billy	3,158	↓ 1
86	Tony	3,067	↓ 6
87	Russell	2,999	↓ 5
88	Rodney	2,984	↓ 12
89	Philip	2,943	↓ 4
90	Jared	2,929	↑ 10
91	Derrick	2,921	↓ 1
92	Johnny	2,874	↓ 6
93	Jeremiah	2,872	↑ 56
94	Erik	2,754	↓ 7
95	Carl	2,670	↓ 4
96	Bobby	2,644	↓ 3
97	Zachary	2,644	↑ 48
98	Shannon	2,611	↑ 3
99	Marc	2,598	↓ 10
100	Victor	2,528	↓ 5

Biggest movers of 1976

Changes in rank within the top 1,000 compared with the year before.

Rising Girls

Jayme ↑ 282 #421
Lindsay ↑ 263 #133
Rosalyn ↑ 250 #743
Jaime ↑ 234 #29
Lindsey ↑ 230 #267
Spring ↑ 209 #623
Cortney ↑ 208 #541
Alejandra ↑ 206 #566
Bree ↑ 197 #643
Charla ↑ 197 #755

Falling Girls

Kira ↓ 292 #905
Emilie ↓ 269 #982
Tamiko ↓ 209 #625
Shelli ↓ 195 #963
Lissette ↓ 192 #883
Suzette ↓ 173 #843
Carole ↓ 173 #927
Nikia ↓ 171 #764
Juliet ↓ 171 #858
Lacy ↓ 168 #877

New in the top 1,000 (Girls)

Farrah, Tennille, Nadia, Jaimie, Jaclyn, Liberty, Rhiannon, Jillian, Jammie, Khalilah, January, Janae, Jaimee, Shayla, Farah

Dropped out of the top 1,000 (Girls)

Rhoda, Syreeta, Nanette, Penelope, Toby, Ayanna, Polly, Shawnda, Tressa, Tangela, Tobi, Ethel, Roseann, Lenora, Keesha

Rising Boys

Deangelo ↑ 177 #770
Weston ↑ 164 #710
Jan ↑ 163 #685
Jamil ↑ 160 #704
Josiah ↑ 143 #750
Jeramie ↑ 142 #553
Jarred ↑ 141 #649
Isaiah ↑ 136 #579
Rory ↑ 128 #520
Jonah ↑ 126 #597

Falling Boys

Nakia ↓ 456 #793
Benji ↓ 227 #850
Rob ↓ 180 #997
Brandy ↓ 172 #990
Darwin ↓ 160 #907
Chauncey ↓ 153 #912
Michelle ↓ 138 #919
Cordell ↓ 134 #934
Shon ↓ 133 #686
Garland ↓ 131 #821

New in the top 1,000 (Boys)

Jamaal, Jovan, Seneca, Jermey, Quintin, Torey, Anson, Hakim, Corbin, Aurelio, Benjamen, Buck, Roscoe, Uriah, Anibal

Dropped out of the top 1,000 (Boys)

Glendon, Marcellus, Angela, Eliseo, Carnell, Robb, Vince, Kimberly, Andra, Britt, Hal, Maria, Rod, Vincenzo, Kristin

Other years

Trend lists

Source: US Social Security Administration. Ranks are computed from birth counts for each sex; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are not published.