About Name Wave

Name Wave is a free daily guessing game about first names. Every day, it shows the popularity curve of one name in the United States since 1880, and you try to guess the name in 6 tries.

Name Wave is an independent project made by Nico. It started from a simple observation: every name has a shape. Some names rise and fall within a single decade, others stay popular for a century, and some come back after their great-grandparents have gone.

Where the data comes from

All numbers come from the US Social Security Administration's baby names data, which lists every first name given to at least 5 babies of one sex in a year, from 1880 to 2025. The data is public domain. Name Wave is not affiliated with or endorsed by the SSA.

The curves show each name's share of all babies of the same sex born that year (per million births), rather than raw counts, so years with more births don't distort the shape. Names given to fewer than 2,000 babies in total are left out.

Explore

• The most popular names of every decade, from the 1880s to today
• Past answers, each with its full popularity story

Contact

Questions, ideas, a name you'd love to see, or a mistake in the data? Email [email protected].