If you’re dying to know how many pop stars, Olympic athletes, and Presidents you share a first name with, you’ve come to the right place. 

Use our How Famous is Your Name? name tool to see for yourself.  

Methodology 

How’d we figure it all out? We collected a list of famous first names and divided them into five different categories: musicians, athletes, politicians, authors, and actors and actresses.

Famous Musician Names: All artists who had a song that made the #1 spot on the Billboard Top 100 between 1958 and 2019 made the list. Note: We included only solo artists (not bands). 

Famous Athlete Names: Any and all US Olympians who medaled in the Summer Olympics between 1896 and 2016.

Famous Politicians Names: All US Presidents, congressmen, and senators who are currently serving or who have served from 1789 to 2019.

Famous Authors Names: All authors who earned a #1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list at any point between 1940 and 2019.

Famous actors and actresses: Actors and actresses that were Oscar-nominated for “Best Actor or Best Actress” between 1927 and 2019. In addition to that, we looked at actors and actresses nominated for the “Outstanding Lead Actor/Actress in a Drama or Comedy Series” Emmy from 1954 to 2019. 

We calculated the percentage of names within each category for every option. For example, we looked at the percentage of actors named Mary, the percentage of politicians named Mary etc. 

We analyzed the highest percentage of every famous first name in each category to determine what you’re most likely to be famous for. First names that appeared in at least two of the five categories were included in our final list, as well. 

Interesting findings 

• The most popular famous name found in all five categories is—drumroll, please—John. (And no, that does not include the John Does of the world.) 

• The top 40 most famous names across all categories are all traditional male names,  which is surprising for some categories but not for politicians. The first woman in congress was sworn into office in 1917, leaving the category male-dominated for 128 years.  

• Only 59 first names out of 500 showed up in all five categories. It seems being a jack-of-all-trades is a rarity. 

• The names Jack and Jane dominate the actor and actress category, which is obviously a machine error—everyone knows that Hollywood’s power couple is Jack and Rose.

Is your name most famous for being an actor or actress? There are plenty of DIRECTV packages on USDirect that will help you track all the most famous names on screen. Select a package and watch your name-twin actors in a TV series. If you want to watch only movies, pop a bag of popcorn in the microwave and kick your feet back with a premium channel. 

Are you a reporter? Feel free to get in touch by emailing media@usdirect.com.