1880s Baby Names
1,426 names were given to children in the United States between 1880 and 1889, ranked below by how many.
A name's place is its total across those ten years. Names that appear in only some of the decade say so, because a name recorded once is a different fact from one recorded every year.
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#1,772Colin Colin has two entirely separate origins — a French pet form of Nicolas, and the Scottish Gaelic Cailean.46 in the 1880s 8 of 10 years
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#1,779Mac Mac is a boy's name from the Gaelic word for son, which appears in every Mc- and Mac- surname there is.45 in the 1880s 7 of 10 years
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#1,828Winston Winston is a boy's name of English origin meaning "Wine's settlement", from an Old English personal name plus tun.42 in the 1880s 7 of 10 years
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#1,830Antoine Antoine is a boy's name from the Roman family name Antonius, the French form of Anthony.42 in the 1880s 6 of 10 years
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#1,831Bradley Bradley is a boy's name from an English place name meaning broad meadow.42 in the 1880s 6 of 10 years
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#1,839Lucas Lucas is a boy's name of Latin origin, the Latin form of Luke.41 in the 1880s 6 of 10 years
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#1,843Rome Rome is a boy's name taken from the city, whose own name has no agreed derivation.41 in the 1880s 6 of 10 years
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#1,869Gregory Gregory is a boy's name from the Greek for watchful or alert.39 in the 1880s 7 of 10 years
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#1,881Tobias Tobias is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is good."38 in the 1880s 5 of 10 years
What made a 1880s name
Nothing about the sound of it. A name is on this page because children in the United States were registered with it between 1880 and 1889, and its position is simply how many. Every list of "1880s names" you will find elsewhere is somebody's sense of the period; this one is the register.
Why Some Names Only Cover Part of the Decade
A name that appears in three of the ten years either arrived partway through or faded out — and either is more interesting than the total on its own. The statistics offices do not publish names given to very few children in a year, so a gap can also mean the count dropped below the threshold rather than to nothing.
Where to Go Next
Open any name to see its full curve — most of these have a hundred and forty years of it. Or compare the ends of the same measurement: the most popular names now and the rarest.