1890s Baby Names

4,411 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

#241
Guy Guy is a boy's name from a Germanic word probably meaning wood or wide, and one of very few names to have become an ordinary English noun — through Guy Fawkes, whose effigies gave the word its modern sense.
2,498 in the 1890s
#242
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.
2,480 in the 1890s
#243
Victoria Victoria is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "victory."
2,479 in the 1890s
#244
Anthony Anthony is a boy's name from the Roman family name Antonius, whose meaning is unknown — it is probably Etruscan rather than Latin.
2,458 in the 1890s
#245
Sophie Sophie is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "wisdom," the French form of Sophia.
2,424 in the 1890s
#246
Lucile Lucile means light, and France ranks it 467th while the United States has it at 5,006th — a French name that America had and lost, having peaked there in 1917.
2,412 in the 1890s
#247
Irma Irma means whole or complete, and it is the surviving fragment of much longer Germanic names — Irmgard and Irmintrud both begin with it, and only the first element outlasted them.
2,407 in the 1890s
#248
Hugh Hugh is a boy's name from a Germanic word for mind or spirit, brought to Britain by the Normans.
2,405 in the 1890s
#249
Ina
2,397 in the 1890s
#250
Thelma Thelma is a girl's name invented for a novel in 1887, and the Greek word it was probably built from means "will" or "volition."
2,396 in the 1890s
#251
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.
2,373 in the 1890s
#252
Doris Doris is a girl's name from Greek mythology, where she is a sea nymph and the mother of the fifty Nereids.
2,363 in the 1890s
#253
Ed
2,356 in the 1890s
#254
Josie Josie is a girl's name that began as a pet form of Josephine, and so means "he will add," inherited from the Hebrew Yosef.
2,334 in the 1890s
#255
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.
2,327 in the 1890s
#256
Bernard Bernard is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning brave as a bear.
2,320 in the 1890s
#257
Leslie Leslie is a Scottish place name turned surname turned given name, and it has crossed sexes: about 71 percent of recorded births are female, though the name began firmly male and remains so in Britain.
2,320 in the 1890s
#258
Theodore Theodore is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "gift of God," formed from theos, meaning god, and doron, meaning gift.
2,300 in the 1890s
#259
Stanley Stanley is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "stony clearing."
2,297 in the 1890s
#260
Winifred Winifred is two names that English collapsed into one — the Welsh Gwenfrewi and the Anglo-Saxon Winfrid, unrelated in every element, and birth records mark the result reviving with England setting its peak this year.
2,293 in the 1890s
#261
Freda Freda means peace, and it is a fragment of several longer names — Winifred, Frederica and Alfreda all shorten to it, so which one a Freda descends from usually cannot be recovered.
2,289 in the 1890s
#262
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.
2,272 in the 1890s
#263
Madeline Madeline is a girl's name meaning "of Magdala," a fishing town on the Sea of Galilee whose name comes from the Hebrew migdal, a tower.
2,242 in the 1890s
#264
Patrick Patrick is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "nobleman."
2,233 in the 1890s
#265
Marian Marian is a girl's name that either joins Mary and Ann or diminutives Mary alone — the sources disagree.
2,194 in the 1890s
#266
Ira Ira means watchful, and it is 12 percent female on record despite being a man's name in the Hebrew Bible — one of David's priests carries it in Samuel.
2,171 in the 1890s
#267
Callie Callie is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "beautiful."
2,162 in the 1890s
#268
Philip Philip is a boy's name from Greek elements meaning lover of horses.
2,153 in the 1890s
#269
Luella
2,151 in the 1890s
#270
Winnie Winnie is a girl's name of Welsh origin meaning "blessed reconciliation."
2,150 in the 1890s
#271
Leon Leon is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "lion."
2,149 in the 1890s
#272
Nell Nell is a girl's name that reached its modern form through a medieval habit of mishearing, from "mine Ellen" run together.
2,138 in the 1890s
#273
Vivian Vivian is a name of Latin origin meaning "alive" or "lively," from vivus.
2,123 in the 1890s
#274
Archie Archie is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "genuine and bold."
2,116 in the 1890s
#275
Velma Velma is an invented name with no root at all — it appears in nineteenth-century America built on the pattern of Selma and Thelma, and the Germanic derivations offered for it were attached afterwards.
2,099 in the 1890s
#276
Mayme
2,098 in the 1890s
#277
Naomi Naomi is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "pleasantness," from No'omi.
2,074 in the 1890s
#278
Selma Selma may have been invented by a forger — the name appears in Macpherson's Ossian poems of the 1760s, which he presented as ancient Gaelic epic and largely wrote himself.
2,067 in the 1890s
#279
Dewey
2,062 in the 1890s
#280
Isabel Isabel is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath."
2,047 in the 1890s
#281
Oliver Oliver is a boy's name that entered England with the Normans and has a disputed origin.
2,035 in the 1890s
#282
Allen Allen is a boy's name whose meaning is unknown — rock, handsome and deer have all been proposed from an unidentified Breton source.
2,013 in the 1890s
#283
Tillie
2,009 in the 1890s
#284
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.
1,959 in the 1890s
#285
Fern Fern seed was believed to make you invisible, and Shakespeare has a character say so — ferns produce spores rather than visible seeds, so the seed itself was thought to be unseeable.
1,957 in the 1890s
#286
Alexander Alexander is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "defender of men," from alexein, to defend, and aner, man.
1,954 in the 1890s
#287
Rena
1,945 in the 1890s
#288
Kathleen Kathleen is a girl's name anglicizing the Irish Caitlín, a form of Catherine, and it inherits that name's unknown meaning.
1,942 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.