The US Social Security Administration has an online tool to check the popularity of names based on United States births. The first thing I checked was how popular my name was the year I was born. It was 10th. Here’s the list of popular boy’s names from that year in the mid-1960s:
1 Michael
2 John
3 David
4 James
5 Robert
6 William
7 Mark
8 Richard
9 Thomas
10 Jeffrey
Over the years, it has declined in popularity. It peaked at 9 in 1966 and dropped to 11 in 1970. By 1980 it was down to 27, and 43 by 1990. The downward slide in popularity picked up the pace through the 90s and into the new century at 104 in 2000 and finally at 180 in 2006.
Here’s the list of popular boy’s names in 2006. They are mostly still traditional names, but they are just a little different selection from 40 years ago:
1 Jacob
2 Michael
3 Joshua
4 Ethan
5 Matthew
6 Daniel
7 Christopher
8 Andrew
9 Anthony
10 William
