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

#289
Amos
1,161 in the 1880s
#290
Jean Jean is a unisex name in our data: the French form of John, meaning "God is gracious," and separately a Scottish feminine form of Jane.
1,152 in the 1880s
#291
Olga Olga is a Norse name in Russian dress — Helga traveled east with the Varangians and became Olga, so the patron saint of Kyiv and Moscow carries a Scandinavian word meaning holy.
1,116 in the 1880s
#292
Sylvia Sylvia is a girl's name from the Latin for a forest, and the mother of Rome's founders bore it — Rhea Silvia, who was made a Vestal Virgin so she could not produce heirs.
1,109 in the 1880s
#293
Lucille Lucille is a girl's name from the Latin for light, given to children born at daybreak.
1,108 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
#297
Bess
1,099 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
#299
Isabelle Isabelle is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath."
1,092 in the 1880s
#300
Genevieve Genevieve is a girl's name of Gaulish origin whose meaning is not settled.
1,088 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
#302
Leila Leila means night, from Arabic, and it is one of the most evenly spread names on this site — France 211th, the United States 259th, England and Wales 269th, Scotland 282nd and Ireland 339th, a spread of just 128 places.
1,079 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
#304
Mathilda
1,065 in the 1880s
#305
Dollie
1,063 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
#307
Verna Verna means springtime, from the Latin for spring — and our data marks it reviving, though from a low base at 3464th in the United States on a 1918 peak of 1,885.
1,057 in the 1880s
#308
Bernice Bernice is a girl's name meaning bringer of victory, and it is the same name as Veronica — both descend from the Greek Berenike by different routes.
1,056 in the 1880s
#309
Isabel Isabel is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath."
1,053 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
#311
Loretta Loretta comes from an Italian shrine, not from the laurel — Loreto is the town where the Holy House of Nazareth was said to have been carried by angels.
1,036 in the 1880s
#312
Gus
1,029 in the 1880s
#313
Rhoda
1,024 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
#316
Cornelia
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
#319
Sally Sally is a girl's name meaning princess, a pet form of Sarah reached by medieval rhyming.
1,010 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
#321
Winnie Winnie is a girl's name of Welsh origin meaning "blessed reconciliation."
1,006 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
#325
Alberta Alberta means noble and bright, and a Canadian province carries it — Alberta was named for Queen Victoria's fourth daughter, whose full name was Louise Caroline Alberta.
992 in the 1880s
#326
Lelia
987 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
#333
Lois Lois is a girl's name that appears once in the New Testament, in a letter naming Timothy's grandmother, and its meaning has never been established.
954 in the 1880s
#334
Myra Myra was invented by a poet — Fulke Greville coined it around 1580, probably by rearranging Mary, and every later meaning attached to it was supplied after the fact.
953 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

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.