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.

All Girls Boys Unisex

Rankings for

#259
Willis Willis means son of Will, and the Will behind it is William — a name so common in medieval England that its diminutives generated a whole family of surnames, of which this is one.
1,393 in the 1880s
#261
Everett Everett is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "brave as a wild boar," from eber, boar, and hard, brave or hardy.
1,374 in the 1880s
#265
Dave Dave ranks 2217th in England and Wales and 2469th in the United States, so the short form outranks its American peak market in a country that never recorded more than fifteen in a year.
1,344 in the 1880s
#269
Rufus Rufus means red-haired, and it named a king by his complexion — William II of England was called Rufus for his ruddy face, and he died with an arrow in him in the New Forest.
1,283 in the 1880s
#273
Perry Perry means at the pear tree, from an English place name — and our data marks it reviving, at 1373rd in the United States and 1681st in England and Wales.
1,261 in the 1880s
#276
Alvin Alvin means elf-friend, from an Old English name that treats elves as beings whose favor was worth having.
1,256 in the 1880s
#277
Lloyd Lloyd is a boy's name from the Welsh word for gray, and the double L is a genuine Welsh consonant that English has no letter for.
1,254 in the 1880s
#279
Victor Victor is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "conqueror."
1,242 in the 1880s
#281
Calvin Calvin is a boy's name of French origin meaning "little bald one," from the Latin calvus, bald.
1,236 in the 1880s
#282
Harrison Harrison is a boy's name of English origin meaning "son of Harry."
1,235 in the 1880s
#283
Norman Norman means a Northman — a Viking.
1,235 in the 1880s
#286
Jess
1,198 in the 1880s
#287
Wesley Wesley is a boy's name of English origin meaning "western meadow," from the Old English west and leah.
1,186 in the 1880s
#288
Percy
1,178 in the 1880s
#289
Amos
1,161 in the 1880s
#294
Dennis Dennis is a boy's name that traces back to Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and ecstatic release — one of the few widely used Christian names derived from a pagan deity.
1,107 in the 1880s
#295
Nathan Nathan is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he gave," from Natan.
1,106 in the 1880s
#296
Jerry Jerry is a name that serves as the short form of at least three unrelated names — Jeremiah from Hebrew, Gerald and Gerard from Germanic — so its meaning depends entirely on which one a family had in mind.
1,106 in the 1880s
#298
Franklin Franklin means a freeholder — a man who owned his land but held no noble rank, a specific medieval class.
1,098 in the 1880s
#301
Alonzo Alonzo is the Spanish descendant of a Visigothic name, and our data marks it rising — 511th in the United States, 1186th in Canada, 1324th in France and 1714th in England and Wales, having peaked as recently as 2022, which is unusual for a name our records carry from 1880.
1,088 in the 1880s
#303
Matthew Matthew is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "gift of Yahweh," from Mattityahu.
1,068 in the 1880s
#306
Mack Mack means son of, and on its own it is only half a name — the Gaelic mac is a prefix, so using it alone is like naming a child Junior with nothing in front of it.
1,062 in the 1880s
#310
Earnest Earnest respells Ernest, and the Germanic behind it is not mild — eornost meant vigor in battle, seriousness of the deadly kind, long before it settled into the sense of being sincere.
1,043 in the 1880s
#312
Gus
1,029 in the 1880s
#314
Russell Russell is a boy's name from a Norman nickname meaning little red, given to someone red-haired or ruddy.
1,023 in the 1880s
#315
Adam Adam is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "earth" or "ground," from adamah.
1,020 in the 1880s
#317
Jay Jay is a name serving as an initial-letter shortening for any J name, as a bird name, and as an Indian name meaning victory.
1,016 in the 1880s
#318
Otis Otis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "wealth" or "fortune."
1,011 in the 1880s
#320
Wallace Wallace means foreigner, and the irony is complete — it is the Anglo-Saxon word for the Britons who were there first, so Scotland's national hero carries a name meaning outsider in his own country.
1,009 in the 1880s
#322
Cecil Cecil means blind, from a Roman family name, and the saint who made it famous is patron of music on the strength of one ambiguous line in her own account of her wedding day.
1,000 in the 1880s
#323
Stanley Stanley is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "stony clearing."
997 in the 1880s
#324
Adolph
994 in the 1880s
#327
Jake Jake is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "supplanter," a short form of Jacob that became a name in its own right.
972 in the 1880s
#328
Roscoe
969 in the 1880s
#329
Maurice Maurice is a boy's name from a Latin word meaning a Moor, originally describing someone from Roman North Africa. Our data marks it reviving, and it peaked in 1920 — a century-long gap of the same kind we see in Walter and Frances.
961 in the 1880s
#330
Melvin Melvin is a boy's name from a Scottish place name, and the gentle chieftain reading usually given for it is an invention — the source is a Norman family who took their name from Malleville in France.
960 in the 1880s
#331
Gilbert Gilbert is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning bright pledge, and it founded the only medieval religious order native to England.
957 in the 1880s
#332
Lonnie Lonnie shortens Alonzo and Alphonso, meaning noble and ready — and the Germanic original reached Spain with the Visigoths, so a name that reads as American South is Gothic by descent.
957 in the 1880s
#335
Ross Ross means a headland or a promontory, from Gaelic, and Scotland ranks it 328th — its strongest market, ahead of Ireland at 347th and far ahead of the United States at 1465th.
951 in the 1880s
#336
Willard Willard means bold desire, and both halves are Germanic words about force of will — it is a surname from a personal name, and its American use is almost entirely nineteenth-century onward.
939 in the 1880s
#342
Mark Mark is a boy's name of Latin origin, most likely meaning "of Mars," borne by the evangelist who wrote the earliest gospel.
928 in the 1880s
#343
Levi Levi is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "joined" or "attached."
927 in the 1880s
#346
Cornelius
918 in the 1880s
#349
Wilbur Wilbur ranks 579th in England and Wales against 3956th in the United States, so a name most people think of as thoroughly American is now used more than six times more readily in England.
914 in the 1880s
#350
Aaron Aaron is a boy's name of Hebrew origin whose meaning is not established.
910 in the 1880s
#351
Jose Jose is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he will add," the Spanish and Portuguese form of Joseph.
910 in the 1880s
#352
Elbert
905 in the 1880s
#353
Emmett Emmett is a boy's name of English origin derived from Emma — it is a matronymic surname, formed from a woman's name rather than a man's, which was unusual in medieval England.
901 in the 1880s

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.