The 100 most popular saints

No one keeps a worldwide register of baptismal names, so this list uses the best public record there is: the U.S. Social Security Administration’s count of every name given to babies born in the United States. Most Catholics are baptized with their given name, and it is traditional to choose a saint’s name, so the number of children who bear each saint’s name is a good measure of how often that saint is chosen as a patron.

Each saint’s total adds up the forms of the name in other languages (John, Juan, Seán, Giovanni…), for births from 1950 to 2025. Nicknames are not counted, and where several saints share a name it is listed under the best-known one. Some names are also popular for their own sake, and Old Testament names such as Jacob and David are left out. Pictures of saints without their own page link to their source on Wikimedia Commons.