Every May the US Social Security Administration releases the prior year’s baby name data: how many babies got each name, ranked by total count. The May 2026 release covers all of 2025. It is the freshest snapshot of American naming, with one year of new signal and a hundred and forty-five years of historical context behind it.
The 2025 release surfaced six biblical and church-heritage names that hit their all-time SSA rank highs this year. None of them sit at the top of the chart. None of them are household-conversation names yet. But the data shows them moving with real momentum, and several entered new tiers of the Top 1000 for the first time. Two more names, Ezra and Naomi, hit their peaks in the past two years and held near those peaks in 2025.
Here are the eight biblical and church-heritage names showing the strongest momentum in the 2025 data, what each one’s record looks like, and one observation about what they signal collectively.
Silas (Greek Silas, traditionally connected with the Aramaic root behind Saul, “asked for”). Paul’s chief companion on the second missionary journey, imprisoned with Paul at Philippi (Acts 16) and named with him as co-author of 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Hit #71 in 2025, the name’s all-time SSA peak, and rising over the past five years. Silas has been quietly climbing for two decades; the 2025 peak puts it inside the Top 75 for the first time in the dataset.
Lucia (Latin Lucia, from lux, “light”). Named for the 4th-century Sicilian martyr whose feast day became a winter-light celebration across Northern Europe. Hit #83 in 2025, the name’s all-time SSA peak, and rising over the past five years. One of the most consistent recent climbers among Catholic saints’ names, with a sound that reads short, bright, and easy across English and Romance pronunciation.
Phoebe (Greek Phoibē, “bright” or “radiant”). The deacon of the church at Cenchreae and the carrier of Paul’s letter to Rome itself (Romans 16:1-2), functionally the woman who delivered the most theologically important text in the New Testament to its first audience. Hit #157 in 2025, the name’s all-time SSA peak, and rising over the past five years. Phoebe has been quietly climbing since the 1990s; 2025 marks its highest position in the dataset’s 145-year run.
Malachi (Hebrew Mal’akhi, “my messenger”). The last prophet of the Old Testament canon, writing in the fifth century BC after the return from exile. His short book closes the Old Testament with the promise that God will send Elijah back before the great day of the LORD (Malachi 4:5). Hit #134 in 2025, the name’s all-time SSA peak. The name has been climbing steadily through the 2010s and 2020s.
Matthias (Hebrew Mattityahu, “gift of YHWH”; the same name as Matthew with a slightly different transliteration into Greek). Chosen by lot to replace Judas Iscariot as the twelfth apostle (Acts 1:15-26). The qualification was that he had to have been with Jesus from the baptism of John through the Ascension. Hit #372 in 2025, the name’s all-time SSA peak and the first year the name has cracked the Top 500. Older datasets show Matthias used only sparsely outside ethnic-German and Scandinavian Catholic communities; the 2025 break into the broader American mainstream is genuinely new.
Boaz (Hebrew, often translated “strength” or “in him is strength”). The wealthy Bethlehem landowner who married Ruth the Moabite under the kinsman-redeemer law and became the grandfather of David through their son Obed. Hit #891 in 2025, the first year the name has cracked the SSA Top 1000 in modern American naming. Boaz is the most recent entrant in this group, and its arrival inside the Top 1000 is a milestone in the broader rising-Hebrew-name pattern.
Ezra (Hebrew, “help”). The post-exilic scribe who taught the Law to the returning Jewish community in Jerusalem (Ezra 7:10). Ezra peaked at #13 in 2024 and ranked #20 in 2025, near its all-time SSA peak; rising over the past five years. Ezra has been one of the most prominent climbers among Hebrew Bible boy names, breaking into the Top 25 for the first time in the dataset’s 145-year span.
Naomi (Hebrew Naomi, “pleasant” or “delight”). The mother-in-law of Ruth whose decision to return from Moab to Bethlehem set up the entire arc of the book of Ruth and the eventual lineage of David. Naomi peaked at #44 in 2023 and ranked #47 in 2025, near her all-time SSA peak; rising over the past five years. Among the most consistent recent climbers in the biblical girls’ names section of the catalog.
What the 2025 cohort signals
Six all-time peaks and two near-peaks in a single year is unusual. Of the 90 biblical and church-heritage names in this site’s catalog, fully one in ten hit their best position ever in 2025 or the two years before. The names span categories: Old Testament prophets and patriarchs, New Testament apostles and deacons, early-church saints. They span genders: four boys, three girls, one cross-tradition saint name. They span eras of the underlying figures, from the ninth century BC through the fourth century AD.
What unites them is what they share with the rising names from the past two decades: substantive meanings, soft consonants, two or three syllables, biblical or early-church provenance. The mid-century alternative names that they have been quietly displacing, Linda, Karen, Brian, Wayne, Gary, were chosen mostly for sound. The names rising through 2025 carry meanings their parents may or may not look up. The meanings are always there waiting.
One more observation worth naming: the next SSA release, in May 2027, will tell us whether the 2025 peaks held. Some of these names will hold their levels; some will start to slip; one or two will keep climbing into higher tiers. The 2025 cohort is a snapshot, not a forecast. It is the freshest data on what American parents are actually doing right now, and what they are doing is choosing biblical names with substantive meanings at rising rates.
The 2025 cohort is a snapshot, not a forecast.
Boaz. Hit #891 in 2025, the first year the name has cracked the SSA Top 1000 in modern American naming.
Each of these names appears in its respective cluster article in more depth alongside the figure behind it. The Old Testament prophets article covers Malachi. The Old Testament kings and judges article covers Boaz. The Old Testament patriarchs article includes the family-tree context for Ezra. The New Testament apostles article covers Matthias. The other notable New Testament boy names article covers Silas. The New Testament women article covers Phoebe. The Old Testament women beyond the matriarchs article covers Naomi. The companion piece Old Testament boy names making a comeback explores the broader rising-name pattern from a different angle. For the complete list, see Biblical boy names or Biblical girl names.
Sources
- US Social Security Administration. Popular Baby Names: National Data, 1880-2025. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/
- Bauer, Danker, Arndt, and Gingrich. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. University of Chicago Press.
- Brown, Driver, and Briggs. A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Oxford University Press.
- Hanks, Hardcastle, and Hodges. A Dictionary of First Names. Oxford University Press.
- Farmer, David Hugh. The Oxford Dictionary of Saints. Oxford University Press.
- Bible Hub. https://biblehub.com/