Annual field notes / 2023

2023 U.S. baby names: the published record

The ten leading spellings in each national SSA recorded-sex field, with published birth counts and their change in calculated position from 2022.

What stands out in 2023

Mateo entered the male-field top ten at sixth after sitting eleventh in 2022. Luna remained tenth in the female-field list, while Mia moved from eighth to sixth.

Lainey made an especially large move within the published female-field ranking, from position 174 in 2022 to 54 in 2023. Rank movements alone do not establish the reason for a naming choice.

Female recorded field

Top ten published female-field spellings, 2023
Position*	Name	Count	From 2022
1	Olivia	15,329	same
2	Emma	13,590	same
3	Charlotte	12,638	same
4	Amelia	12,365	same
5	Sophia	11,999	same
6	Mia	11,404	up 2
7	Isabella	10,871	down 1
8	Ava	9,737	down 1
9	Evelyn	9,121	same
10	Luna	7,853	same

Male recorded field

Top ten published male-field spellings, 2023
Position*	Name	Count	From 2022
1	Liam	20,904	same
2	Noah	19,116	same
3	Oliver	14,792	same
4	James	11,739	same
5	Elijah	11,523	same
6	Mateo	11,293	up 5
7	Theodore	11,093	up 3
8	Henry	10,996	down 1
9	Lucas	10,890	down 1
10	William	10,673	down 4

What these lists leave out

These are exact spellings, not totals for related forms. Birth counts are raw published SSA observations and are not adjusted for total births or historical coverage. The same spelling may appear in both recorded-sex fields. Published national files omit rows below the SSA disclosure threshold; absence is never proof of zero births.

*Positions are calculated from the pinned published file and are not official SSA ranks. Changes compare calculated positions in the two adjacent files.

Explore the name profiles or look up a different spelling in the annual popularity tool.

Sources: SSA national data and suppression rules · our data method. Data reviewed 1 November 2026.