How many birthdays there are in September might surprise you

Popular birthdays and names

If you’ve been buying a lot of birthday presents lately, it’s probably because 9 of the 10 most popular days for birthdays are in September. If the presents were for an Olivia or Liam, it’s because those are to two most popular baby names in 2022.

The most popular day in the U.S. for birthdays is Sept. 9, where on average 12,301 babies were born. The least popular day for births is Jan. 1, with 7,792 babies born. September might have the most common days for birthdays, but August is the most common birth month. February is the least common birth month. The highest percentage of births occur from 8 a.m. to noon. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 3.66 million births in the U.S. in 2022, a slight drop from 2021. The current birth rate in the U.S. is about 12 births per 1,000 people, which is about half of what the birth rate was in 1950.

10 most popular birthdays

Sept. 9

Sept. 19

Sept. 12

Sept. 17

Sept. 10

July 7

Sept. 20

Sept. 15

Sept. 16

Sept. 18

Popular over the last 100 years

Here are the 20 most popular given names for male and female babies born during 1921-2022. For each rank and sex, the table shows the name and the number of occurrences of that name. These time-tested popular names include 177,999,594 male births and 172,616,756 female births.

The popular names listed below are not necessarily consistently popular in every year. For example, the name James, ranked as the most popular male name over the last 100 years, has been ranked as low as No. 19. Similarly, the most popular female name, Mary, ranked as low as 136.

1. James 4,625,363 | Mary 3,054,624
2. Robert 4,357,620 | Patricia 1,551,159
3. John 4,354,502 | Jennifer 1,469,664
4. Michael 4,345,849 | Linda 1,448,284
5. David 3,564,272 | Elizabeth 1,403,790
6. William 3,484,904 | Barbara 1,385,994
7. Richard 2,423,956 | Susan 1,102,248
8. Joseph 2,300,049 | Jessica 1,047,635
9. Thomas 2,134,536 | Sarah 987,732
10. Christopher 2,049,683 | Karen 986,072
11. Charles 2,037,956 | Lisa 965,306
12. Daniel 1,905,388 | Nancy 960,589
13. Matthew 1,620,154 | Betty 886,110
14. Anthony 1,409,172 | Sandra 873,576
15. Mark 1,349,030 | Margaret 867,664
16. Donald 1,308,961 | Ashley 852,892
17. Steven 1,284,623 | Kimberly 842,541
18. Andrew 1,257,112 | Emily 839,846
19. Paul 1,252,337 | Donna 819,879
20. Joshua 1,231,302 | Michelle 813,985

You can see the list of the top 100 most popular names in the U.S. here.

You can find the most popular name in each state by the year at the Social Security Administration here.

You can find the most popular names by decade at the Social Security Administration here.

Name regrets?

A 2019 survey of British parents found that 20% no longer liked the name they picked for their child, with one reason being they regretted picking a name that at the time seemed “cool or clever.”

Sources: Social Security Administration, U.S. Census Bureau, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Zippia.com, Huffington Post

Source: Orange County Register