Baby
Diminutive of babe, referring to a very young child.
Name Census estimates that about 11,363 living Americans carry the first name Baby. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 51.0% of registrations being male. The average person named Baby today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Baby births was 1994 (672 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Baby. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Baby with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Baby sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
11K
~ 1 in 30,164 Americans
Peak year
1994
672 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,272
Tracked since 1912
Census
Baby in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 15,302 people with the first name Baby, which placed it at #1,876 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,876
National first-name rank
People counted
15K
15,302 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
46.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Baby
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Baby is White at 46.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.9%) and Black (16.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Baby described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Baby at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White46.6% · 7,129
- Hispanic or Latino21.9% · 3,348
- Black or African American16.7% · 2,557
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.7% · 1,337
- Two or more races5.0% · 762
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 169
Gender
Gender distribution for Baby
Baby is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 12,403 total registrations, 6,325 (51.0%) were male and 6,078 (49.0%) were female.
Baby as a male name
- Ranked #11,064 in 2024
- 6 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1994 (373 births)
Baby as a female name
- Ranked #7,272 in 2024
- 15 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1995 (308 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Baby on both sides of the split. Of the 15,306 people counted with this name, 7,158 were male (46.8%) and 8,148 were female (53.2%).
Popularity
Baby: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Baby from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 5,568 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Baby by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Baby during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Babys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 37 states and territories. Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia recorded the most babies named Baby, while Utah, South Dakota, Colorado recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 241 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Baby
The name Baby is a modern English word derived from the Middle English babi, which itself came from the Old French babe, meaning "infant" or "toddler." The word's origins can be traced back to the Latin word babatus, meaning "to stammer" or "to babble," reflecting the babbling sounds made by young children.
While the name Baby is not commonly found in historical records or ancient texts, it has been used as a nickname or pet name for infants and young children throughout history. One of the earliest recorded uses of the term "baby" dates back to the 16th century, when it appeared in William Tyndale's English translation of the Bible.
In more recent times, the name Baby has been used as a given name, although it remains relatively uncommon. One notable example is Baby Sandz, a Jamaican dancehall artist born in 1980, whose real name is Tanesha Beckford. Another is Baby Bash, an American rapper and record producer born in 1975, whose real name is Ronnie Ray Bryant.
Other individuals who have borne the name Baby include Baby Woolmore, a British actress born in 1899 who appeared in several films in the 1920s and 1930s. Baby Esther, born in 1914, was a famous American child singer and actress during the 1920s, appearing in several films and on Broadway.
In the realm of sports, Baby Arizmendi was a Mexican boxer who competed in the 1960s and 1970s, winning the WBC and WBA bantamweight titles. Baby Joe Townsend, born in 1925, was an American professional boxer who held the NBA featherweight title in the late 1940s.
While the name Baby may seem unusual as a given name, its origins reflect the endearing nature of childhood and the universal love and affection bestowed upon infants and young children throughout human history.
People
Baby + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Baby as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Baby: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Baby?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 11,363 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Baby going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 30,164 US residents.
Is Baby a common name?
We classify Baby as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 12,403 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Baby most popular?
The single biggest year for Baby was 1994, when 672 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Baby is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Baby in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 15,302 people with the name Baby, or 5.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,876 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Baby in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Baby?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Baby on both sides of the split. Of the 15,306 people counted with this name, 7,158 were male (46.8%) and 8,148 were female (53.2%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Baby?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Baby is White at 46.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.9%) and Black (16.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Baby most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Baby in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.6% (7,129 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Baby in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Baby a male name?
Yes, 51.0% of people registered as Baby in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Baby still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Baby in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Baby can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Baby?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.