Gallery I · 1880 to today
The Modern Age
The age of birth records. Every name given to at least five American babies in a year since 1880 is counted here, so each name's rise and fall can be seen year by year.
For most of history, a small set of names served everyone. In the twentieth century that changed: parents began choosing names to sound fresh, and fashions started to sweep through a generation and fade within twenty years. In 1950 the ten most popular names went to about one American boy in three; by 2020 the top ten went to fewer than one in twelve.
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Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.