A Century of the Most Popular Baby Names

Names are a fun way to gain insight into a time and culture. Kremp’s infographic gives us some fascinating insight with a list of the ten most popular baby names every decade for the past century. Popular names are often attributed to the Bible, historical figures, family traditions, and fictional characters. Can you identify where some of the most popular names came from.

Here’s a look at trending changes in boy names. In 1920, these were the most popular boy names:

1. John
2. William
3. Robert
4. James
5. Charles
6. George
7. Joseph
8. Edward
9. Frank
10. Richard

Compare these to the most popular names in 2023:

1. Liam
2. Noah
3. Oliver
4. James
5. Elijah
6. Mateo
7. Theodore
8. Henry
9. Lucas
10. William

In the realm of boy names, we can see that John was a chart topper for years, before disappearing from the top 10 list in the 80s. James seems like an evergreen name though, it only dropped off the list briefly before returning as the fourth most popular name in 2023. Other names like Aiden and Jayden seemed to be a passing trend, only charting in the 2010s.

As for girl names, these were the most popular in the 1920s:

1. Mary
2. Dorothy
3. Helen
4. Margaret
5. Ruth
6. Mildred
7. Virginia
8. Elizabeth
9. Frances
10. Anna

These girl names were the most popular in 2023:

1. Olivia
2. Emma
3. Charlotte
4. Amelia
5. Sophia
6. Mia
7. Isabella
8. Ava
9. Evelyn
10. Luna

Girl names appear to have a lot more trends and variance. Mary was the most popular for a few decades as a famously biblical and classic name, but Mary hasn’t been in the top 10 for the past several decades. Olivia is a classic name but a newcomer to chart-topping popularity. What other trends do you notice on the chart?