The Most Popular And Unique Baby Names In New Jersey Over The Past 5 Decades

Baby names are such a personal, meaningful, and emotional decision for any parent, and some names have completely dominated over the years here in New Jersey.

We thought it would be fun to look over the past half century to find out how the most popular names have changed over those years in the Garden State, as well as look at some of America's most unique names over the last fifty years.

One of the most striking discoveries is how long one name in particular dominated here in New Jersey for a very, very long time.

The most recent year with complete data, according to the U.S Social Security is 2022, so we started our research in 1972 and jumped a decade at a time to detect a name's change in popularity.

The boy's name Michael was the top baby name in New Jersey in 1972, and it stayed at the top in our state until 2014, only to be taken over by Liam in 2015.

In the Garden State, the name Jennifer was tops in the girls' category in 1972 and 1982, but there was a different name at the top of that list in 1992, 2002, 2012, and 2022.

Stacker also looked at unique baby names across the country for each year as well and we want to show those names some love as well.

So, here's a look at the top boys' and girls' names in New Jersey in 10-year increments over the past half century, and next to them one of America's most unique names for that particular year.

1972  Michael, Jennifer, Nema

1982  Michael, Jennifer, Chen

1992 Micael, Jessica, Tyshonda

2002 Michael, Emily, Garhett

2012 Michael, Sophia, Franciszek

2022 Liam, Emma, Caprice