1890s Baby Names

2,477 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

#67
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
#68
Josephine Josephine is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he will add," the French feminine form of Joseph.
12,500 in the 1890s
#70
Jennie Jennie began as a Scottish pet form of Jean and only later attached to Jennifer, which is a Cornish name with no connection to it.
11,915 in the 1890s
#71
Maude Maude belonged to the woman who nearly became England's first ruling queen — the Empress Matilda fought her cousin for the throne through nineteen years of civil war the chroniclers called the Anarchy.
11,354 in the 1890s
#72
Alma Alma is a girl's name with several competing origins: "nourishing" in Latin, "soul" in Spanish, and "young woman" in Hebrew.
11,295 in the 1890s
#73
Mae Mae is a girl's name in France, generally read as a form of Mae or as a feminine of the Breton Mahé.
10,948 in the 1890s
#74
Blanche Blanche means white, and its revival is entirely French — 252nd in France on 220 births against 6,874th in the United States.
10,888 in the 1890s
#75
Dorothy Dorothy is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "gift of God."
10,872 in the 1890s
#76
Ada Ada is a girl's name with two origins. In Germanic it is a short form of names beginning with adal, noble; in Hebrew, Adah means "adornment" and belongs to two women in Genesis.
10,422 in the 1890s
#77
Lucy Lucy is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "light," from lux.
10,365 in the 1890s
#78
Lula Lula has no single parent — it shortens Louise, Lucille and Tallulah alike, and it is reviving, ranking 1,306th in England and Wales against 1,938th in the United States.
10,266 in the 1890s
#79
Mamie Mamie has no single parent — it shortens Mary, Margaret and Miriam alike, and Mary's own meaning has never been established, so the name inherits an unresolved question three ways.
10,112 in the 1890s
#80
Fannie Fannie means Frenchwoman, shortened from Frances, and it left English-speaking use for reasons of slang rather than fashion — the word acquired a sense the name could not survive.
9,919 in the 1890s
#82
Stella Stella is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "star."
9,833 in the 1890s
#83
Katherine Katherine is a girl's name whose meaning is not settled.
9,413 in the 1890s
#84
Viola Viola means violet, and it names the flower, the instrument and a Shakespeare heroine from the same Latin root.
9,398 in the 1890s
#85
Ruby Ruby is a girl's name of Latin origin naming the red gemstone, from ruber, meaning red.
8,819 in the 1890s
#87
Dora Dora means gift, and it is the end of several names rather than a name in its own right — Theodora, Isidora and Dorothea all supply it, and Dorothy means the same thing with the halves reversed.
8,731 in the 1890s
#88
Maggie Maggie is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "pearl."
8,637 in the 1890s
#91
Nora Nora is a girl's name that developed as a short form of longer names, chiefly Honora and Eleanor, and is now used independently.
8,336 in the 1890s
#95
Rosa Rosa is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "rose."
7,904 in the 1890s
#100
Beatrice Beatrice is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "she who brings happiness."
7,516 in the 1890s
#101
Ellen Ellen is a girl's name of Greek origin, a medieval English form of Helen whose meaning has never been settled.
7,457 in the 1890s
#103
Sadie Sadie is a girl's name that began as a pet form of Sarah, the Hebrew name meaning "princess" or "noblewoman."
7,403 in the 1890s
#106
Effie Effie is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "well-spoken."
7,000 in the 1890s
#108
May May has three separate sources that English cannot tell apart — the month, the hawthorn blossom that opens in it, and a short form of Mary and Margaret.
6,922 in the 1890s
#109
Beulah Beulah means married, and it is a place before it is a person — Isaiah calls the restored land Beulah, and Bunyan turned it into the country just short of heaven in Pilgrim's Progress.
6,797 in the 1890s
#110
Pauline Pauline is a girl's name from the Latin for small or humble, the feminine of Paul.
6,652 in the 1890s
#111
Susie Susie means lily, shortened from Susan, and the Hebrew word was borrowed from Egyptian — where it may have named a lotus rather than a lily, which changes the flower entirely.
6,548 in the 1890s
#112
Nettie Nettie is a suffix that became a name — it is the tail end of Antoinette, Jeanette and Annette, cut loose and used on its own, so it began as the part of a name that carried no meaning at all.
6,543 in the 1890s
#113
Della Della has no single parent — it shortens Adela, Delia and Adelaide alike, and it is reviving, at 563rd in the United States and 1,010th in Scotland.
6,420 in the 1890s
#114
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.
6,383 in the 1890s
#115
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.
6,376 in the 1890s
#116
Daisy Daisy is a girl's name of English origin naming the flower, and its meaning is unusually literal: daisy comes from the Old English dægesege, "day's eye," because the flower opens its petals at dawn and closes them at dusk.
6,266 in the 1890s
#118
Lydia Lydia is a girl's name meaning "woman from Lydia," an ancient kingdom in what is now western Turkey.
5,942 in the 1890s
#119
Virginia Virginia is a girl's name from a Roman family name, and the American state was named before the name became common in America — both honoring Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen.
5,875 in the 1890s
#121
Olive Olive is a girl's name of Latin origin taken from the tree, whose name comes from oliva.
5,731 in the 1890s
#124
Kathryn Kathryn is a girl's name, the y-spelling of Katherine, and it inherits that name's unknown meaning.
5,660 in the 1890s
#125
Evelyn Evelyn is a girl's name of English and French origin meaning "desired" or "wished for".
5,648 in the 1890s
#128
Sallie Sallie means princess, and it reached English through a sound swap — Sarah became Sally the way Mary became Molly, with the r softening to an l in ordinary speech.
5,591 in the 1890s
#129
Lizzie Lizzie means my God is an oath, and the oath is the point — Elisheva names a covenant rather than a feeling, which is why the name belonged to the wife of a priest in Exodus.
5,562 in the 1890s
#131
Lottie Lottie is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "free man."
5,504 in the 1890s
#132
Emily Emily is a girl's name of Latin origin, from the Roman family name Aemilius.
5,481 in the 1890s
#133
Georgia Georgia is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "farmer" or "worker of the earth," the feminine of George, from ge, earth, and ergon, work.
5,476 in the 1890s
#134
Flora Flora is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "flower," the Roman goddess whose festival was among the least decorous in the calendar.
5,442 in the 1890s
#136
Nancy Nancy is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "grace."
5,346 in the 1890s
#141
Katie Katie is a girl's name of Greek origin, a diminutive of Katherine whose meaning has never been settled.
5,183 in the 1890s
#142
Lucille Lucille is a girl's name from the Latin for light, given to children born at daybreak.
5,105 in the 1890s

What Made a 1890s Name

Children in the United States were registered with it between 1890 and 1899. A name's position here is how many of them were.

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.