The story in the numbers

1,004,171 girls have been named Nancy in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1947, with 32,445 births — 1.8% of all girls recorded that year.

The name has all but left use: 288 births in 2024, against 32,445 at the peak.

Half of everyone given the name was born by 1951, and the 1950s alone account for 29%. It has spent 145 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 80 of them in the top 100 and 22 in the top 10.

It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 2,945 boys have also been given it, 0.29% of the total.

Rank among girls, year by year

By decade

Decade

girls named Nancy

4,792

5,346

5,733

17,283

43,807

142,486

252,058

286,812

142,723

41,849

25,493

19,495

10,958

3,927

1,409

In 1947, its biggest year

Nancy was the 7th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1947 were Linda, Mary, Patricia, Barbara and Sandra. See all of 1947.

Names that rose and fell with Nancy

Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.

Other spellings in the data

What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.