Some baby names are cyclical and some have topped the lists for 100 years. While you’ll recognize all the names in this list of the most popular baby names from 100 years ago, your top choices today are likley very different from then. However, if you’re looking for dependable, yet unique, looking to the past may be a better strategy than looking at what was popular last year.
The Social Security Administration keeps lists of all of the names for every year and decade since the 1880s.
Here are the 50 most popular names for boys and girls born in the U.S. from 1910 to 1919. Hiding along with Mary, Anna, and John may be the perfect name for your new baby.
Most popular baby names for girls
Some of these have made a comeback recently though modern sensibilities do not favor names that seem locked in another time, such as Bertha and Gertrude. On the other hand, Elsie and Clara are uncommon now, and might seem modern if attached to a baby born in 2010’s.
- Mary
- Helen
- Dorothy
- Margaret
- Ruth
- Mildred
- Anna
- Elizabeth
- Frances
- Virginia
- Marie
- Evelyn
- Alice
- Florence
- Lillian
- Rose
- Irene
- Louise
- Edna
- Catherine
- Gladys
- Ethel
- Josephine
- Ruby
- Martha
- Grace
- Hazel
- Thelma
- Lucille
- Edith
- Eleanor
- Doris
- Annie
- Pauline
- Gertrude
- Esther
- Betty
- Beatrice
- Marjorie
- Clara
- Emma
- Bernice
- Bertha
- Ann
- Jean
- Elsie
- Julia
- Agnes
- Lois
- Sarah
Most popular baby names for boys
Here again, we find classics at the top of the list. It isn’t until halfway down do we start to find more unique, but decidely Anglo-Saxon, names on the list.
- John
- William
- James
- Robert
- Joseph
- George
- Charles
- Edward
- Frank
- Thomas
- Walter
- Harold
- Henry
- Paul
- Richard
- Raymond
- Albert
- Arthur
- Harry
- Donald
- Ralph
- Louis
- Jack
- Clarence
- Carl
- Willie
- Howard
- Fred
- David
- Kenneth
- Francis
- Roy
- Earl
- Joe
- Ernest
- Lawrence
- Stanley
- Anthony
- Eugene
- Samuel
- Herbert
- Alfred
- Leonard
- Michael
- Elmer
- Andrew
- Leo
- Bernard
- Norman
- Peter
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