The Most Common Passwords And Why You Should Stop Using Them

Think about the last password you created. Was it clever, or did you pick something easy to remember so you could get on with your day? If it was the second one, you’re in good company. Year after year, studies of leaked password databases show the same thing: millions of people choose passwords that a computer can guess in less than a second.

This post looks at the most common passwords, why people keep choosing them, and what you can do instead. No technical background needed.

List of Most Common Passwords

Security companies regularly analyze passwords exposed in data breaches and publish lists of the most common ones. The names at the top barely change from year to year. Here are the ones that show up again and again:

If your password is on this list, don’t feel bad, but do change it today. Attackers know these passwords as well as you do, and they try them first.

Why Are These Passwords So Popular?

The reason is simple: people are busy, and passwords are annoying.

The average person has dozens, sometimes hundreds, of online accounts: email, banking, shopping, streaming, social media, work tools, food delivery apps, and more. Creating a strong, unique password for each one feels like a huge chore. So people take shortcuts.

1. Convenience beats security. A short, simple password is easy to type, especially on a phone. “123456” takes two seconds to enter. A random 16-character string does not.

2. Memory is limited. Our brains aren’t built to remember dozens of random strings. We lean on patterns, like numbers in order, keyboard rows, or familiar words.

3. “It won’t happen to me.” Many people assume hackers only go after celebrities, businesses, or governments. They imagine nobody would bother with their little account. But most attacks are automated. Software tries millions of passwords against millions of accounts, and it doesn’t care who you are.

4. Websites often allow weak passwords. Some sites set a very low bar, accepting anything with six characters or so. If a site lets you use “password1,” plenty of people will.

The Different Types of Weak Passwords

Not all bad passwords look like “123456.” They come in several flavors.

Number sequences

“123456,” “111111,” “000000,” and “654321” are the classics. They’re easy to type and just as easy to guess.

Keyboard patterns

“qwerty,” “asdfgh,” and “1qaz2wsx” all follow the layout of your keyboard. They might look random, but they’re really just a finger sliding across keys, and attackers have these patterns built into their guessing tools.

The word “password” and its cousins

“password,” “Password1,” “passw0rd,” and “p@ssword” all appear on lists of common choices. Swapping an “a” for an “@” or an “o” for a “0” fools nobody. Attackers know all the usual substitutions.

Names and love

“iloveyou,” “sunshine,” “princess,” “football,” and “superman” are popular because they’re personal and emotional. Names of pets, children, partners, and favorite sports teams also turn up constantly.

Default and generic words

“admin,” “welcome,” “login,” and “letmein” are often left over from default settings or chosen by people who just want in quickly.

Years and dates

Birthdays and years like “1990” or “2024” are common add-ons. People tack them onto a word to meet a “must include a number” rule. Attackers know that trick, too.

How Fast Can These Passwords Be Cracked?

This is where it gets uncomfortable. Many common passwords can be cracked instantly, often in under a second.

Hackers rarely sit and type guesses by hand. They use software that tests huge lists of likely passwords at astonishing speed. These “dictionary attacks” start with the most common passwords and the most predictable variations. They also use “brute force” methods that try every possible combination of characters, which works fast against short passwords.

The math is on the attacker’s side when your password is short. Every extra character multiplies the number of possible combinations. A six-character password has far fewer possibilities than a twelve-character one, and a sixteen-character one is far harder still.

There’s another danger: password reuse. If you use the same password on several sites and one of them gets breached, attackers will try that email and password combination on other popular sites. This is called “credential stuffing,” and it works because so many people reuse passwords. One weak or leaked password can unlock your email, your shopping accounts, and more.

What Makes a Password Strong?

The good news is that building a strong password isn’t complicated. These principles matter most.

Length is king. Aim for at least 12 characters, and more is better. Length does more for security than adding a random symbol.

Make it unique. Every account should have its own password. Then a breach at one company doesn’t put your other accounts at risk.

Avoid anything personal or predictable. Skip names, birthdays, pet names, and favorite teams. Anyone who knows you, or who can look at your social media, could guess them.

Avoid common patterns. Number sequences, keyboard walks, and “password” with a few swapped letters are all fair game for attackers.

The Easy Way: Use a Passphrase

Here’s a trick that makes strong passwords much easier to live with: use a passphrase. A passphrase is a string of several random, unrelated words, like:

purple-bicycle-ocean-lantern

It’s long, which makes it hard to crack, but it’s also easier to remember than something like “x7$Kq!9z.” Picture a silly image in your head (a purple bicycle riding across the ocean, holding a lantern) and the phrase sticks.

The key word is random. Don’t use a famous quote, song lyric, or a phrase from your own life. Pick unrelated words, and the more of them, the better.

Let a Password Manager Do the Work

Even with passphrases, you can’t realistically memorize a unique strong password for every account. That’s what password managers are for.

A password manager is an app that creates, stores, and fills in your passwords. You remember one strong master password, and the app takes care of the rest. Most can generate long random passwords on demand, warn you if a password has appeared in a known breach, and sync across your phone and computer.

Many good options exist, including built-in managers on phones and browsers and dedicated apps. Any reputable one is dramatically better than reusing “123456” everywhere.

Add a Second Lock: Two-Factor Authentication

Even a strong password can sometimes be stolen through phishing emails or malware. That’s why you should also turn on two-factor authentication (2FA) wherever it’s offered.

With 2FA, logging in requires something more than your password, such as a code from an authenticator app, a text message, or a physical security key. Even if someone gets your password, they still can’t get in without that second piece.

Start with your most important accounts: email, banking, and anything that stores payment details. Your email matters most of all, because most “forgot password” links get sent there.

A Quick Password Checkup

Here’s a simple routine you can do in about 15 minutes:

1. Check your most important accounts first, starting with email and banking.

2. Change any password that’s short, common, or reused.

3. Set up a password manager and let it generate new passwords for you.

4. Turn on two-factor authentication for key accounts.

5. Check whether your email has appeared in a breach using a trusted breach-notification service, and change passwords for anything affected.

You don’t have to fix everything in one sitting. Start with the accounts that would hurt most to lose, and work outward from there.

Common Myths About Passwords

“I have nothing worth stealing.” Your accounts hold more value than you think: personal information, saved payment methods, contacts, and a way to impersonate you to friends and family.

“Changing my password every month keeps me safe.” Frequent forced changes often lead people to pick weaker, predictable passwords, like adding a number to the end of the old one. Current advice from many security experts is to use a strong, unique password and change it when there’s a reason to, such as a breach.

“Adding a symbol makes any password strong.” “Password!” is still a weak password. Length and unpredictability matter far more than one clever character.

Final Thoughts

The most common passwords stay common because they’re easy, not because people don’t care about security. But “easy” works for attackers, too. The same short, predictable passwords that are simple for you to remember are simple for software to guess.

The fix doesn’t require becoming a tech expert. Use long, unique passwords or passphrases, let a password manager handle the hard part, and switch on two-factor authentication. Those three habits protect you better than almost anything else you can do online.

So take a few minutes today. If “123456,” “password,” or “qwerty” is protecting anything important, it’s time to retire it. Your future self will thank you.