As organizations take the next two weeks to make a final fundraising push before packing the Bryce Jordan Center, THON released the names of the 708 dancers who will stand in the 46-hour dance marathon beginning Friday, February 16.

The total of 708 dancers is just one more than last year’s 707-dancer total, giving a strong signal that THON is recovering quite well from pandemic numbers.

THON 2023 saw a traditionally male name, Michael, take the prize for the most common dancer name, the first time that had happened since Onward State began reporting on dancer name statistics. This year, though, the torch has been handed back to the ladies.

Emily comes in first place with a landslide 15 dancers, and maybe even 16 if you count the alternative spelling of Emilie. This shouldn’t come as a shock, as Emily had led THON for seven straight years before the surge of Michaels in 2023.

While it’s hard to show in graph form, it’s important to note that Madison and its variations, including Madee and Maddie, have a total of 10 dancers.

There are only six Michaels dancing in THON 2024, barely making the top 25, compared to the 12 from 2023. Ryan and Julia, last year’s other top names, remained popular, with seven and eight dancers, respectively.

Some newcomers to the list include Justin (nine), which didn’t feature on the top 25 lists from 2023 or 2022. After temporarily falling out of favor last year, Lauren also made a resurgence.

THON 2024 will feature a whopping 395 unique names, way up from the previous year’s 356 despite the near-identical number of dancers.

Good luck to all Emilys, Olivias, Justins, and anyone in between who will take the floor of the Bryce Jordan Center in two weeks. We dance in 14!