By: Jake | July 28, 2008 | Category: Fun

The other day as I was walking down the street, someone called "Jacob," and I turned to see a little boy running to the person who said my name. This happens to me a lot since Jacob is no longer a rare name—it has been the most popular male baby name for almost a decade.

RolodexEver year the Social Security Administration tallies up the Social Security card applications from the previous year and releases the most popular baby names list around Mother's Day. Though there are some limitations to their method, the most popular boy name since 1999 has been Jacob. Baby Jacob, along with most popular female name (11 years running) Baby Emily, are currently promoting SSA's retirement calculator and other SSA programs on their webpage.

If you've never checked out SSA's most popular baby name website, take a gander. You can search your own name and see how popular it has been over the years. You can search popular baby names for each year back to 1880, find popular names by state, popular twin names and look at what cities parents have named their children after. You can also find information about children's benefits and other programs benefiting children.

If you are expecting a baby, it's a great resource to consider various names. When you search on a name, SSA also shows you the popularity of spelling variations of that name (e.g., Rachel vs Raechel, Jeffrey vs Jeffery). While you are picking out a baby name, you can also check out other parenting resources available from the government.

And after all this talk of names, if you feel like changing yours, Nancy has that covered for you.

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