Name histories / Liam
Liam: U.S. name history
Published Social Security birth-name counts for the exact spelling Liam in the male recorded field, 1880–2025.
In the latest file, Liam was first among published male-field spellings, with 20,818 recorded births. That is down 1,434 from 22,252 in 2024. Its first released row in this archive is from 1947; a missing earlier row does not establish when the name began to exist.
What the historical pattern shows
Liam first appears in the published male-field file in 1947. It was still outside the first 600 spellings in 1990, but had reached position 140 by 2000 and position 30 by 2010.
It held first position in 2025, although its highest annual count in this archive was in 2024. The distinction matters: a rank is a relative measure for a given year, while a count lets you see whether use of the spelling itself rose or fell.
Selected annual records
| Birth year | Published count | Position* |
|---|---|---|
| 1950 | 10 | 2,518 |
| 1975 | 82 | 910 |
| 1990 | 277 | 605 |
| 2000 | 2,781 | 140 |
| 2010 | 10,933 | 30 |
| 2015 | 18,410 | 2 |
| 2020 | 19,865 | 1 |
| 2024 | 22,252 | 1 |
| 2025 | 20,818 | 1 |
*Position is calculated from the published entries in one year and field, ordered by count; it is not an official SSA rank. Counts are not adjusted for population or coverage. SSA suppresses small cells, so no row does not mean zero births.
Keep exploring
Compare Noah · Oliver; inspect any spelling in the annual popularity tool; or see the 2025 overview.
Sources: SSA national data and suppression rules · our data method. Data reviewed 1 November 2026.