Religious Naming Trends — How Hebrew, Islamic, Hindu, and Christian Names Evolved in the US
A 145-year analysis of religious-tradition naming in the US, drawn from US Social Security Administration data crossed with our editorial origin tagging. Hebrew/Biblical naming peaked in the 1990s and has been gently declining since. Arabic/Islamic naming has grown 232× since 1900. Hindu/Sanskrit naming has grown 7.4×. Free to cite with attribution.
Key Findings
Tradition Volumes by Decade
Total US births per decade by religious-tradition origin tag.
Top Names per Tradition — 2020s
Hebrew / Biblical (Old Testament tradition)
Hebrew-origin names dominate the modern boys' top 10. Noah, Elijah, Benjamin, Levi, Daniel — the Biblical canon has held primary place in American naming for over 145 years.
Arabic / Islamic tradition
Arabic-origin names span Islamic religious naming (Aaliyah, Amir, Omar, Zara, Leila), Quranic and Arabic-language traditional names. The category's growth from under 30,000 births in 1900 to over 350,000 in the 2020s reflects both immigration and broader cultural diffusion.
Hindu / Sanskrit tradition
Sanskrit and Indian-origin names — many with religious or philosophical roots in Hindu / Buddhist / Sikh / Jain traditions. Arya (which surged through the 2010s on Game of Thrones) and Milan (which doubles as both Indian and Italian) are the volume leaders.
Greek / Greco-Christian Orthodox tradition
Greek-origin names overlap heavily with the Eastern Orthodox saint canon and the broader Christian / Western classical tradition. Sophia, Alexander, Athena, Penelope, Theodora — these names sit at the intersection of religious tradition and classical heritage.
Gender Lean by Religious Tradition (2020s)
Each tradition pushes US parents toward different gender outcomes — a structural feature of which names survived as religious markers. Hebrew/Biblical naming favors boys (more male prophets and patriarchs in the canon); Greek and Hindu favor girls.
Hebrew / Biblical
Greek / Christian-Orthodox
Arabic / Islamic
Hindu / Sanskrit
Tradition Share of All US Births by Decade
Each tradition's contribution to total SSA-tracked births in five anchor decades. Numbers are percentages — Hebrew dominance is visible, Arabic's quiet rise from negligible to ~2% is the largest sustained shift.
| Decade | Hebrew | Greek | Arabic | Hindu/Sanskrit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1900s | 14.35% | 7.45% | 0.05% | 0.18% |
| 1950s | 22.20% | 6.27% | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| 1980s | 26.17% | 6.26% | 0.48% | 0.00% |
| 2000s | 20.52% | 5.06% | 1.81% | 0.13% |
| 2020s | 17.61% | 5.84% | 2.19% | 0.26% |
Percentages are share of tagged US births in our editorial-origin database (~60-75% coverage); gaps in tagging mean these are conservative lower bounds, not absolute totals.
Generational Turnover Within Each Tradition
The same religious tradition produces dramatically different name choices three generations apart. The 1950s Hebrew top 5 had John, David, Thomas; the 2020s Hebrew top 5 has Noah, Elijah, Levi. Same tradition, completely different shortlist.
Hebrew / Biblical tradition
Greek / Christian-Orthodox tradition
Important Caveats
Origin tagging is etymological, not perceptual. Many "Hebrew" names (Noah, Daniel, Benjamin) are indistinguishable from English to modern American parents — they have been part of the American naming tradition for so long that the religious origin no longer drives parents' choice. Calling these "religiously-rooted" is technically true but parents picking Noah today may be picking it for sound and cultural feel, not Biblical reference.
Religious tradition is approximated by language origin. The tradition tags here are proxies — Hebrew origin ≈ Biblical, Arabic origin ≈ Islamic, Sanskrit/Indian ≈ Hindu/Buddhist. But there's overlap (a Christian Arab parent may pick an Arabic name; a secular Indian American parent may pick a Sanskrit name). The data signals the cultural-linguistic source, not the practitioner's religion.
Coverage is partial. Editorial origin tagging covers about 60-75% of names in our database; the rest are unmatched and excluded. Coverage rates vary by origin (English: 67%, Hebrew: 68%, Arabic: 62%, Indian/Sanskrit: lower). See methodology for details.
Methodology
Source: US Social Security Administration Beyond the Top 1000 Names dataset (1880-2025), public domain (CC0), joined with 9BabyNames editorial origin tagging on the baby_names.origin field. Religious-tradition mapping: Hebrew ≈ Biblical/Jewish; Arabic ≈ Islamic; Sanskrit + Indian ≈ Hindu/Buddhist; Greek ≈ Greco-Christian Orthodox / classical. SSA records that don't appear in our editorial database are excluded.
Citation: Tang, M. (2026). Religious Naming Trends in the US. 9BabyNames. https://9babynames.com/reports/religious-naming-trends
Related Resources
- Origins of American Baby Naming — full 145-year tradition atlas
- The State of Baby Naming 2026 — flagship retrospective
- Browse names by origin — A-Z directory
- All reports & research