1880s Baby Names

3,546 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

#241
Millie Millie is a girl's name that began as a pet form of longer names — chiefly Millicent, Mildred, Amelia and Camilla — and is now given in its own right.
1,527 in the 1880s
#242
Betty Betty is a girl's name that began as a short form of Elizabeth and is now used in its own right.
1,519 in the 1880s
#243
Janie Janie means God is gracious, shortened from Jane — and Jane is the English feminine of John, which makes it part of the largest name family in Europe by a considerable margin.
1,491 in the 1880s
#244
Rosie Rosie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "rose."
1,485 in the 1880s
#245
Lou Lou is a girl's name in France, a short form of Louise and Louis meaning "famous warrior."
1,483 in the 1880s
#246
Milton Milton means the mill settlement, and there is a second and quite separate source meaning the middle settlement — two entirely different Old English place names that ended up producing exactly the same modern spelling.
1,479 in the 1880s
#247
Leon Leon is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "lion."
1,475 in the 1880s
#248
Ola
1,467 in the 1880s
#249
Lester Lester means from Leicester, and the spelling is the honest one — Leicester has been pronounced LES-ter for centuries, so the surname simply wrote down what people had actually been saying to each other all along.
1,451 in the 1880s
#250
Alex Alex is a name of Greek origin meaning "defender of mankind."
1,451 in the 1880s
#251
Victoria Victoria is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "victory."
1,440 in the 1880s
#252
Emil
1,434 in the 1880s
#253
Gladys Gladys is a girl's name from Welsh, usually taken as a form of Claudia — which would give it the meaning lame.
1,420 in the 1880s
#254
Louisa Louisa is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior," a Latinate form of Louise.
1,420 in the 1880s
#255
Leslie Leslie is a Scottish place name turned surname turned given name, and it has crossed sexes: about 71 percent of the births in our records are female, though the name began firmly male and remains so in Britain.
1,418 in the 1880s
#256
Ina
1,406 in the 1880s
#257
Dan Dan means he judged, and it is a full Hebrew name in its own right before it is short for Daniel — one of Jacob's twelve sons, and the tribe that gave its name to the northern border of Israel.
1,402 in the 1880s
#258
Eula Eula means well-spoken, and the Greek behind it is precise — eu plus lalein, to speak well, so the name praises how someone talks rather than what they say or think.
1,396 in the 1880s
#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
#260
Luella
1,384 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
#262
Vera Vera is a girl's name with two origins that both work. In Russian it means "faith"; in Latin vera means "true" — and unusually for such a pair, the two senses reinforce rather than contradict each other.
1,365 in the 1880s
#263
Celia Celia is a girl's name of Latin origin from the Roman family name Caelius, whose meaning is disputed between "heaven" and a much older Etruscan word.
1,363 in the 1880s
#264
Nell Nell is a girl's name that reached its modern form through a medieval habit of mishearing, from "mine Ellen" run together.
1,345 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
#266
Goldie
1,327 in the 1880s
#267
Winifred Winifred is two names that English collapsed into one — the Welsh Gwenfrewi and the Anglo-Saxon Winfrid, unrelated in every element, and our data marks the result reviving with England setting its peak this year.
1,314 in the 1880s
#268
Bettie
1,298 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
#270
Hilda Hilda means battle, and it is the surviving fragment of longer Germanic names — Hildegard, Brunhild and Matilda all contain it, and the element outlived most of the compounds it belonged to.
1,280 in the 1880s
#271
Sophie Sophie is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "wisdom," the French form of Sophia.
1,267 in the 1880s
#272
Christine Christine is a girl's name from the Latin for a follower of Christ, the French form of Christina.
1,266 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
#274
Bertie
1,256 in the 1880s
#275
Marguerite Marguerite is a girl's name meaning pearl, and it is also the French word for the daisy — so the name carries a flower and a gemstone at once.
1,256 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
#278
Tillie
1,254 in the 1880s
#279
Victor Victor is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "conqueror."
1,242 in the 1880s
#280
Birdie
1,237 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
#284
Rena
1,219 in the 1880s
#285
Eunice Eunice means good victory, and she is named in the New Testament as Timothy's mother — one of very few women whose faith Paul credits by name, alongside her own mother Lois.
1,216 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

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.