Most Popular Baby Names of the 1990s

Across the 1990s, Jessica was the most popular girls' name, given to 303,136 babies, and Michael led the boys with 462,466.

That's out of 18,005,347 girls and 19,479,791 boys counted between 1990 and 1999, under 30,842 different girls' names and 19,606 boys' names.

Number one, year by year

Most popular names each year, 1990 to 1999
Year	Girls	Boys
1990	Jessica	Michael
1991	Ashley	Michael
1992	Ashley	Michael
1993	Jessica	Michael
1994	Jessica	Michael
1995	Jessica	Michael
1996	Emily	Michael
1997	Emily	Michael
1998	Emily	Michael
1999	Emily	Jacob

Top 100 names of the 1990s

Top girls' names, 1990–1999
Rank	Name	Babies	vs 1980s
1	Jessica	303,136	same
2	Ashley	301,820	up 2
3	Emily	237,262	up 22
4	Sarah	224,423	up 1
5	Samantha	224,023	up 21
6	Amanda	191,132	down 3
7	Brittany	190,826	up 14
8	Elizabeth	172,693	up 1
9	Taylor	169,040	not top 100 in 1980s
10	Megan	160,375	up 4
11	Hannah	158,818	up 80
12	Kayla	155,893	up 42
13	Lauren	153,590	up 6
14	Stephanie	149,836	down 8
15	Rachel	149,167	up 1
16	Jennifer	148,041	down 14
17	Nicole	136,103	down 9
18	Alexis	131,199	not top 100 in 1980s
19	Victoria	117,475	up 37
20	Amber	115,605	down 7
21	Alyssa	115,255	up 68
22	Courtney	113,290	up 15
23	Rebecca	109,721	down 1
24	Danielle	109,597	same
25	Jasmine	105,322	up 65
26	Brianna	99,108	not top 100 in 1980s
27	Katherine	96,885	up 5
28	Alexandra	94,806	up 57
29	Madison	91,907	not top 100 in 1980s
30	Morgan	91,196	not top 100 in 1980s
31	Melissa	89,990	down 24
32	Michelle	86,532	down 20
33	Kelsey	85,134	not top 100 in 1980s
34	Chelsea	84,805	up 31
35	Anna	78,595	up 17
36	Kimberly	77,879	down 19
37	Tiffany	77,534	down 26
38	Olivia	75,913	not top 100 in 1980s
39	Mary	75,723	down 4
40	Christina	74,660	down 22
41	Allison	74,433	up 9
42	Abigail	72,779	not top 100 in 1980s
43	Sara	72,170	down 13
44	Shelby	71,995	not top 100 in 1980s
45	Heather	71,626	down 35
46	Haley	71,197	not top 100 in 1980s
47	Maria	70,911	same
48	Kaitlyn	67,567	not top 100 in 1980s
49	Laura	67,253	down 26
50	Erin	65,335	down 22
51	Andrea	65,246	down 18
52	Natalie	63,382	up 3
53	Jordan	61,757	not top 100 in 1980s
54	Brooke	60,630	up 29
55	Julia	59,954	up 33
56	Emma	58,252	not top 100 in 1980s
57	Vanessa	57,920	down 9
58	Erica	55,762	down 22
59	Sydney	55,756	not top 100 in 1980s
60	Kelly	55,724	down 31
61	Kristen	53,075	down 23
62	Katelyn	52,811	not top 100 in 1980s
63	Marissa	51,214	not top 100 in 1980s
64	Amy	51,167	down 49
65	Crystal	51,098	down 45
66	Paige	50,552	not top 100 in 1980s
67	Cassandra	50,364	down 5
68	Gabrielle	49,818	not top 100 in 1980s
69	Katie	49,468	down 28
70	Caitlin	49,033	up 17
71	Lindsey	48,975	down 29
72	Destiny	48,238	not top 100 in 1980s
73	Kathryn	47,179	down 24
74	Jacqueline	45,948	down 16
75	Shannon	45,912	down 36
76	Jenna	45,856	up 2
77	Angela	45,171	down 50
78	Savannah	44,716	not top 100 in 1980s
79	Mariah	44,603	not top 100 in 1980s
80	Alexandria	44,095	not top 100 in 1980s
81	Sierra	43,638	not top 100 in 1980s
82	Alicia	43,488	down 36
83	Briana	42,801	not top 100 in 1980s
84	Miranda	42,225	not top 100 in 1980s
85	Jamie	41,441	down 51
86	Catherine	40,763	down 19
87	Brittney	40,030	up 6
88	Breanna	40,026	not top 100 in 1980s
89	Grace	39,872	not top 100 in 1980s
90	Monica	38,895	down 33
91	Sabrina	38,664	not top 100 in 1980s
92	Madeline	36,967	not top 100 in 1980s
93	Caroline	36,827	not top 100 in 1980s
94	Molly	36,567	not top 100 in 1980s
95	Erika	35,076	down 19
96	Mackenzie	34,778	not top 100 in 1980s
97	Leah	34,099	down 16
98	Diana	33,784	down 23
99	Whitney	32,886	down 35
100	Cheyenne	31,849	not top 100 in 1980s

Top boys' names, 1990–1999
Rank	Name	Babies	vs 1980s
1	Michael	462,466	same
2	Christopher	360,287	same
3	Matthew	351,682	same
4	Joshua	329,192	same
5	Jacob	298,415	up 30
6	Nicholas	275,329	up 13
7	Andrew	272,941	up 6
8	Daniel	272,360	down 1
9	Tyler	262,320	up 39
10	Joseph	260,751	same
11	Brandon	259,420	up 6
12	David	253,711	down 7
13	James	244,980	down 7
14	Ryan	241,248	same
15	John	240,151	down 6
16	Zachary	225,290	up 27
17	Justin	220,135	down 5
18	William	217,822	down 3
19	Anthony	216,231	up 1
20	Robert	205,459	down 12
21	Jonathan	197,503	down 3
22	Austin	190,140	up 71
23	Alexander	183,952	up 27
24	Kyle	180,218	up 6
25	Kevin	165,232	down 2
26	Thomas	146,638	down 2
27	Cody	146,486	up 32
28	Jordan	144,756	up 32
29	Eric	135,244	down 8
30	Benjamin	133,939	up 1
31	Aaron	128,377	up 1
32	Christian	126,065	up 68
33	Samuel	125,597	up 19
34	Dylan	122,074	not top 100 in 1980s
35	Steven	121,110	down 10
36	Brian	119,309	down 20
37	Jose	119,042	up 10
38	Timothy	107,772	down 12
39	Nathan	107,332	same
40	Adam	106,909	down 18
41	Richard	94,876	down 14
42	Patrick	92,931	down 5
43	Charles	92,434	down 10
44	Sean	92,003	down 3
45	Jason	91,731	down 34
46	Cameron	81,131	not top 100 in 1980s
47	Jeremy	77,794	down 19
48	Mark	75,816	down 14
49	Stephen	75,160	down 13
50	Jesse	73,791	down 1
51	Juan	70,919	up 14
52	Alex	70,830	up 27
53	Travis	68,208	down 11
54	Jeffrey	66,987	down 25
55	Ethan	66,930	not top 100 in 1980s
56	Caleb	66,298	not top 100 in 1980s
57	Luis	64,761	up 26
58	Jared	63,792	same
59	Logan	63,577	not top 100 in 1980s
60	Hunter	60,524	not top 100 in 1980s
61	Trevor	59,943	not top 100 in 1980s
62	Bryan	59,751	down 11
63	Evan	59,396	up 26
64	Paul	58,931	down 24
65	Taylor	58,408	not top 100 in 1980s
66	Kenneth	58,254	down 20
67	Connor	57,391	not top 100 in 1980s
68	Dustin	56,768	down 24
69	Noah	56,269	not top 100 in 1980s
70	Carlos	55,185	up 5
71	Devin	55,072	not top 100 in 1980s
72	Gabriel	54,819	up 18
73	Ian	54,007	up 9
74	Nathaniel	52,577	up 6
75	Gregory	52,090	down 30
76	Derek	50,756	down 23
77	Corey	50,223	down 15
78	Jesus	49,129	not top 100 in 1980s
79	Scott	49,019	down 41
80	Bradley	48,086	down 26
81	Dakota	46,649	not top 100 in 1980s
82	Antonio	46,546	down 8
83	Marcus	46,497	down 19
84	Blake	45,873	not top 100 in 1980s
85	Garrett	45,326	not top 100 in 1980s
86	Edward	45,164	down 29
87	Luke	44,434	not top 100 in 1980s
88	Shawn	42,483	down 32
89	Peter	42,394	down 28
90	Seth	42,213	up 6
91	Mitchell	42,015	not top 100 in 1980s
92	Adrian	41,982	not top 100 in 1980s
93	Victor	41,072	down 2
94	Miguel	41,009	not top 100 in 1980s
95	Shane	40,598	down 23
96	Chase	40,311	not top 100 in 1980s
97	Isaac	40,271	not top 100 in 1980s
98	Spencer	38,182	not top 100 in 1980s
99	Lucas	38,178	not top 100 in 1980s
100	Jack	37,501	not top 100 in 1980s

Names that peaked in the 1990s

These were among the decade's top 1,000 and reached their highest share of babies in a year between 1990 and 1999. The year each one peaked is in brackets.

Girls

Emily (1999)
Samantha (1991)
Taylor (1993)
Kayla (1991)
Alexis (1998)
Victoria (1993)
Alyssa (1999)
Courtney (1990)
Jasmine (1993)
Alexandra (1993)

Boys

Jacob (1998)
Nicholas (1995)
Tyler (1994)
Zachary (1993)
Austin (1995)
Alexander (1993)
Kyle (1990)
Cody (1992)
Jordan (1991)
Christian (1996)

Source: Social Security Administration, national baby name data, data through 2025. Names given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year aren't published, so totals are a little lower than actual births.