What a popularity score does, and doesn’t, tell you
Every profile shows a number from 0 to 100. Here’s how it’s made, why it’s on a curve, and why it never says whether a name is good.
On every name’s profile there’s a gauge with a number from 0 to 100. It answers one narrow question: how often was this name given to babies in the U.S. last year? It doesn’t answer the question parents often really mean, which is will my child be one of several in class?, and it has nothing to say about whether a name is beautiful, meaningful or right for you.
How it’s made
The score starts with how many babies per million born in 2025 were given the name, counting boys and girls together. Because a handful of names are given to tens of thousands of children while most are given to a few dozen, the score is on a logarithmic curve. Each step up the scale represents a multiple, not a fixed number.
So:
- Theodore, fourth for boys in 2025, scores 95.
- Clara, around 60th for girls, scores 80.
- Mercy, given to a few hundred girls, scores 53.
- Aoife (88 babies) scores 38, and Niamh (43) scores 30.
A name with a score of 50 is far from “half as common” as one at 100. It’s given to a much smaller slice of children than the number suggests, which is why we pair the score with plain-language labels like familiar, uncommon and rare.
Theodore
“God” · “gift”
>99% boys
Clara
>99% girls
Mercy
“one who shows compassion and pity”
5% boys · 95% girls
Aoife
>99% girls
What it leaves out
- Anything outside U.S. records. Niamh is common in Ireland and rare in the U.S. Its score describes only the U.S.
- Very rare names. Birth records list a name only when at least five babies of a sex receive it in a year, so many beautiful names have no score at all.
- Where you live. A name can be common in one state and rare in another; every profile’s state map shows where it’s given.
- Direction. A score of 70 on the way up feels different from 70 on the way down. The trend arrow shows which it is.
Interest on PerfectNameFinder
You’ll also see a second number on some names: Interest on PerfectNameFinder. It measures how visitors here engage with a name (reading, saving, clicking through), counted anonymously. It’s a glimpse of what families are exploring now, which can run ahead of birth records by a year or two.
Popularity describes a name. It never ranks one.