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Most Popular Baby Names of 2022 (SSA Official Data)

By NamingWonders Editorial Team · Published 2026-05-06 · SSA Source Data · 20 names profiled

Choosing a baby name is one of the most personal decisions a parent makes — yet name trends reveal something collective about a generation's values, pop culture, and aspirations. In 2022, Olivia topped the girls' chart and Liam led for boys, but the real story is in the names that climbed, fell, and surprised everyone. Let's look at the full picture.

Top 10 Girl Names of 2022

These are the ten most popular girl names registered with the Social Security Administration in 2022. Counts reflect the number of babies given each name that year.

RankNameBabies Named (2022)
#1Olivia16,654
#2Emma14,498
#3Charlotte12,944
#4Amelia12,409
#5Sophia12,375
#6Isabella11,747
#7Ava11,105
#8Mia11,068
#9Evelyn9,330
#10Luna8,967

Top 10 Boy Names of 2022

The ten most popular boy names of 2022, ranked by SSA registration count. Names like Liam and Noah have dominated the list for several consecutive years, reflecting a broader shift toward short, strong, classic-sounding names.

RankNameBabies Named (2022)
#1Liam20,563
#2Noah18,735
#3Oliver15,161
#4James12,109
#5Elijah12,075
#6William11,349
#7Henry11,270
#8Lucas10,962
#9Benjamin10,904
#10Theodore10,814

Year-over-Year Highlights

Compared to 2021, the top-10 rankings in 2022 were remarkably stable — a sign that the classic names at the top have genuine staying power. Olivia, Emma, and Amelia have collectively held the top three spots for girls across multiple years; Liam, Noah, and Oliver have done the same for boys. Stability at the top often signals that these names have crossed from "trending" to "timeless."

Just Outside the Top 10 in 2022

The names ranked #11 through #15 in 2022 are often where discerning parents find the sweet spot — familiar enough to feel established, but not as ubiquitous as the top-10 names. For girls, the 2022 next tier included Harper, Camila, Sofia, Scarlett, Elizabeth. For boys, positions 11–15 featured Mateo, Levi, Sebastian, Daniel, Jack.

In 2022, these mid-tier names were popular enough that teachers and grandparents would know how to spell them, yet uncommon enough that most children wouldn't share a name with multiple classmates. Many parents who carefully review the full 2022 top-50 list ultimately choose from this exact range — it offers the best of both worlds.

The Character of 2022 Baby Names

The 2022 SSA rankings reflect that year's particular cultural moment. The top girls' trio — Olivia, Emma, Charlotte — demonstrates the enduring preference for melodic, multi-syllable names with soft endings. The top boys' trio — Liam, Noah, Oliver — shows the opposite pull: short, strong names with decisive consonant sounds. This tension between flowing and crisp has defined the top 10 for much of the past decade.

The SSA publishes rankings for every name given to at least five babies in a year, making the full 2022 dataset thousands of names deep. Parents who want something truly uncommon can find names that received only a handful of registrations in 2022 — genuinely rare choices that are still real, documented names rather than invented ones.

Using the 2022 Data to Choose Your Baby's Name

If you're drawn to a name from the 2022 top 10, popularity alone shouldn't discourage you. A name achieves a top-10 ranking in 2022 by demonstrating broad cross-demographic appeal — it works across regions, family styles, and cultural backgrounds. That breadth is a genuine quality. If you prefer something less common, use the 2022 rankings as a filter: names in the 100–500 range are widely recognizable without saturating any given classroom or neighborhood.

Explore These Names Further

Each name in the 2022 top 10 has its own detail page on NamingWonders, where you'll find meaning, origin, pronunciation, SSA ranking history, and curated middle name pairings:

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Source: U.S. Social Security Administration baby name data, 2022. All rankings reflect official SSA records.