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Names Most Commonly Used in Song Titles?

Steve Artressia

Names have been used in song titles since the beginning of time. And certainly Classic Rock is no exception! You’ve got “Jack and Diane”, “Layla”, and “Hey Jude” just to name a few. That got me thinking, which names are most commonly used in song titles? A study from 2023 looked at more than 2 MILLION song titles on Spotify, and determined that the name that appears in the most song titles is . . . JOHN. Here’s the Top 5 most commonly used name in song titles . . .

  1. John. . . 2,040 song titles (like “Not Now John”, by Pink Floyd)
  2. Mary. . . 1,803 song titles (like “Proud Mary”, by CCR)
  3. Maria. . . 1,714 song titles (like “Maria Maria”, by Santana)
  4. Johnny. . . 1,071 song titles (like “Johnny B. Goode”, by Chuck Berry)
  5. David. . . 876 song titles (like “David Watts” by the Kinks)

They excluded song titles where it wasn’t clear that the “name” was a proper noun (Madonna’s “Ray of Light” didn’t count as a “Ray” title, since it’s not a reference to someone’s name). They also just used songs on Spotify, so if a track isn’t available for streaming, it wasn’t included.