US Baby Name Popularity (1880–2008)

Top 1,000 boy and girl names per year with popularity percentages from the Social Security Administration, spanning 128 years.
# year
name
percent
sex
1 1880 John 0.081541 boy
2 1880 William 0.080511 boy
3 1880 James 0.050057 boy
4 1880 Charles 0.045167 boy
5 1880 George 0.043292 boy
6 1880 Frank 0.02738 boy
7 1880 Joseph 0.022229 boy
8 1880 Thomas 0.021401 boy
9 1880 Henry 0.020641 boy
10 1880 Robert 0.020404 boy
11 1880 Edward 0.019965 boy
12 1880 Harry 0.018175 boy
13 1880 Walter 0.014822 boy
14 1880 Arthur 0.013504 boy
15 1880 Fred 0.013251 boy
16 1880 Albert 0.012609 boy
17 1880 Samuel 0.008648 boy
18 1880 David 0.007339 boy
19 1880 Louis 0.006993 boy
20 1880 Joe 0.006174 boy
21 1880 Charlie 0.006165 boy
22 1880 Clarence 0.006165 boy
23 1880 Richard 0.006148 boy
24 1880 Andrew 0.005439 boy
25 1880 Daniel 0.00543 boy
26 1880 Ernest 0.005194 boy
27 1880 Will 0.004966 boy
28 1880 Jesse 0.004805 boy
29 1880 Oscar 0.004594 boy
30 1880 Lewis 0.004366 boy
31 1880 Peter 0.004189 boy
32 1880 Benjamin 0.004138 boy
33 1880 Frederick 0.004079 boy
34 1880 Willie 0.00402 boy
35 1880 Alfred 0.003961 boy
36 1880 Sam 0.00386 boy
37 1880 Roy 0.003716 boy
38 1880 Herbert 0.003581 boy
39 1880 Jacob 0.003412 boy
40 1880 Tom 0.00337 boy
41 1880 Elmer 0.00315 boy
42 1880 Carl 0.003142 boy
43 1880 Lee 0.003049 boy
44 1880 Howard 0.003015 boy
45 1880 Martin 0.003015 boy
46 1880 Michael 0.00299 boy
47 1880 Bert 0.002939 boy
48 1880 Herman 0.002931 boy
49 1880 Jim 0.002914 boy
50 1880 Francis 0.002905 boy
51 1880 Harvey 0.002905 boy
52 1880 Earl 0.002829 boy
53 1880 Eugene 0.00277 boy
54 1880 Ralph 0.002677 boy
55 1880 Ed 0.002618 boy
56 1880 Claude 0.00261 boy
57 1880 Edwin 0.00261 boy
58 1880 Ben 0.002576 boy
59 1880 Charley 0.002576 boy
60 1880 Paul 0.002542 boy
61 1880 Edgar 0.00239 boy
62 1880 Isaac 0.002314 boy
63 1880 Otto 0.002289 boy
64 1880 Luther 0.002196 boy
65 1880 Lawrence 0.00217 boy
66 1880 Ira 0.002103 boy
67 1880 Patrick 0.002094 boy
68 1880 Guy 0.002018 boy
69 1880 Oliver 0.001976 boy
70 1880 Theodore 0.001959 boy
71 1880 Hugh 0.001892 boy
72 1880 Clyde 0.001866 boy
73 1880 Alexander 0.001782 boy
74 1880 August 0.001774 boy
75 1880 Floyd 0.00174 boy
76 1880 Homer 0.001731 boy
77 1880 Jack 0.001723 boy
78 1880 Leonard 0.001689 boy
79 1880 Horace 0.001681 boy
80 1880 Marion 0.001596 boy
81 1880 Philip 0.001571 boy
82 1880 Allen 0.001554 boy
83 1880 Archie 0.001546 boy
84 1880 Stephen 0.001486 boy
85 1880 Chester 0.001419 boy
86 1880 Willis 0.001402 boy
87 1880 Raymond 0.001394 boy
88 1880 Rufus 0.001377 boy
89 1880 Warren 0.001334 boy
90 1880 Jessie 0.001301 boy
91 1880 Milton 0.001258 boy
92 1880 Alex 0.001241 boy
93 1880 Leo 0.001241 boy
94 1880 Julius 0.001208 boy
95 1880 Ray 0.001199 boy
96 1880 Sidney 0.001199 boy
97 1880 Bernard 0.001182 boy
98 1880 Dan 0.001182 boy
99 1880 Jerry 0.001149 boy
100 1880 Calvin 0.001132 boy

US Baby Name Popularity (1880–2008) — Analysis

In 1880, the top 10 boy names claimed 41% of all boys — by 2008, that collapsed to just 9%

Mary went from 7.2% of all girls in 1880 to 0.17% in 2008, replaced by a rotating cast of trending names

The Great Name Fragmentation

  • Name diversity exploded over 128 years: top-10 concentration dropped from 41% to 9% for boys and 23% to 8% for girls
  • John dominated for decades (8.2% in 1880) but fell to 0.6% by 2008 — an 8x decline in share
  • Michael had the sharpest spike of any name, rocketing from obscurity to 4.6% of boys in the 1960s-80s before fading
  • Jennifer appeared from nowhere to claim 4% of all girls in 1970-72, then vanished almost as quickly
  • Emma completed a U-shaped century: 2.1% in 1880, bottoming at 0.03% in the 1970s, then surging back to 0.9% by 2008

Visualizations

Top 10 Boy Names in 2008
Mary, Jennifer, and Emma's Girl Name Eras
The Reign of John, James, and Michael
Top-10 Name Concentration (1880–2008)

Story Visualization

Premium
America's Most Popular Boy Name, 1880-2008
America most popular boy name 1880-2008
America's Most Popular Girl Name, 1880-2008
America most popular girl name 1880-2008

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