1890s Baby Names

2,430 names were given to children in the United States between 1890 and 1899, 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

#1
Mary Mary is a girl's name of Hebrew origin whose meaning has never been settled.
131,632 in the 1890s
#4
Anna Anna is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "grace" or "favor," the Greek and Latin form of Hannah.
55,461 in the 1890s
#7
Margaret Margaret is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "pearl," from margarites.
38,060 in the 1890s
#8
Helen Helen is a girl's name from Greek whose meaning is not settled, though torch and shining are the usual readings.
37,917 in the 1890s
#10
Elizabeth Elizabeth is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath," from Elisheva, the name of Aaron's wife in the Book of Exodus.
33,995 in the 1890s
#11
Ruth Ruth is a girl's name of Hebrew origin usually given as "companion" or "friend," though the derivation is not secure.
32,974 in the 1890s
#12
Florence Florence is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "blossoming" or "flourishing."
32,504 in the 1890s
#13
Ethel Ethel is a girl's name from an Old English word meaning noble, and it is not a name in its own right in that language — it is the first half of longer names like Ethelred, cut off and used alone.
31,593 in the 1890s
#16
Emma Emma is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "whole" or "universal," from the element ermen, found in older names such as Ermintrude.
28,763 in the 1890s
#18
Marie Marie is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, the French form of Mary, and the largest name in our entire dataset with more than 2.8 million births on record.
25,941 in the 1890s
#19
Clara Clara is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "bright" or "clear," from clarus.
25,545 in the 1890s
#20
Bertha Bertha is a girl's name from a Germanic word meaning bright, and it was Charlemagne's mother's name.
25,224 in the 1890s
#21
Minnie Minnie Mouse did not make Minnie popular.
24,732 in the 1890s
#22
Alice Alice is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble," arrived at by a long contraction of Adelaide.
24,515 in the 1890s
#23
Bessie Bessie is a girl's name meaning God is my oath, a pet form of Elizabeth.
24,491 in the 1890s
#24
Lillian Lillian is a girl's name usually explained as an elaboration of Lily, from the Latin lilium, and sometimes as a variant of Elizabeth by way of the medieval pet form Lilian.
24,210 in the 1890s
#25
Edna Edna is a girl's name from a Hebrew word meaning delight, and it shares its root with Eden.
24,144 in the 1890s
#26
Grace Grace is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "favor" or "blessing," from gratia.
23,909 in the 1890s
#27
Annie Annie is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "grace" or "favor."
23,211 in the 1890s
#29
Mabel Mabel is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "lovable."
22,046 in the 1890s
#32
Ida Ida is a girl's name from a Germanic word for work or labor, and it charts in all seven markets we track.
21,289 in the 1890s
#34
Rose Rose is a girl's name of Latin origin naming the flower, from rosa.
21,228 in the 1890s
#35
Hazel Hazel is a girl's name of English origin naming the hazel tree, from the Old English hæsel.
20,273 in the 1890s
#36
Gertrude Gertrude is a girl's name from Germanic elements meaning spear-strength, and its saint is patron of cats — a modern attribution that no medieval source supports.
19,980 in the 1890s
#38
Pearl Pearl is a girl's name taken from the gem, and it charts in all seven markets we track.
19,483 in the 1890s
#39
Martha Martha is a girl's name of Aramaic origin meaning "lady" or "mistress of the house."
19,474 in the 1890s
#40
Frances Frances is a girl's name meaning a Frank, or a free one, and the feminine of Francis.
18,245 in the 1890s
#41
Myrtle Myrtle means the evergreen shrub, and it was the plant of Aphrodite — carried by Greek and Roman brides long before the Victorians made it a name.
17,786 in the 1890s
#42
Edith Edith is a girl's name of Old English origin meaning "prosperous in war."
17,713 in the 1890s
#43
Nellie Nellie is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "shining light."
17,372 in the 1890s
#44
Sarah Sarah is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "princess" or "noblewoman."
17,219 in the 1890s
#45
Ella Ella is a girl's name with two distinct origins. The Norman French line derives from the Germanic element ali, meaning other or foreign, while a Hebrew line gives Ella as a word for a terebinth tree.
17,118 in the 1890s
#47
Eva Eva is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "life" or "living."
16,514 in the 1890s
#48
Laura Laura is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "laurel," the tree whose leaves crowned Roman victors and poets.
16,486 in the 1890s
#49
Elsie Elsie is a girl's name that began as a Scottish short form of Elspeth, itself a Scottish form of Elizabeth.
16,456 in the 1890s
#51
Louise Louise is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior," the French feminine form of Louis.
15,259 in the 1890s
#52
Esther Esther is a girl's name usually connected to the Persian word for star, and possibly to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar.
14,796 in the 1890s
#53
Catherine Catherine is a girl's name of Greek origin whose meaning is genuinely unknown — the familiar reading of pure is a later reshaping, not the original sense.
14,523 in the 1890s
#54
Agnes Agnes is a girl's name from the Greek for pure, and the reason its saint is shown with a lamb is a Latin pun — agnus, lamb, sounds like the Greek hagnos but is a completely different word.
14,468 in the 1890s
#56
Carrie Carrie is a girl's name, a pet form of Caroline meaning free man through Charles.
14,343 in the 1890s
#58
Lillie Lillie is a girl's name from the flower, which has stood for purity in Christian art for so long that the association predates the name.
14,168 in the 1890s
#60
Mildred Mildred is a girl's name from Old English elements meaning gentle strength, and it is among the least fashionable names of the twentieth century — yet our data marks it reviving, ninety years after its 1920 peak.
13,839 in the 1890s
#61
Irene Irene is a girl's name from the Greek word for peace, and the name of the goddess who personified it.
13,672 in the 1890s
#62
Gladys Gladys is a girl's name from Welsh, usually taken as a form of Claudia — which would give it the meaning lame.
13,659 in the 1890s
#63
Julia Julia is a girl's name of Latin origin, the feminine of the Roman family name Julius.
13,482 in the 1890s
#64
Hattie Hattie is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "home ruler."
12,981 in the 1890s
#65
Cora Cora is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "maiden," from kore.
12,916 in the 1890s
#66
Lena Lena is a girl's name used as a short form of Helena, Magdalena and Elena, so it usually carries the sense "light" or "torch."
12,511 in the 1890s

What made a 1890s name

Nothing about the sound of it. A name is on this page because children in the United States were registered with it between 1890 and 1899, and its position is simply how many. Every list of "1890s 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.