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

#289
Johnnie Johnnie means God is gracious, a pet form of John.
1,939 in the 1890s
#290
Elva
1,932 in the 1890s
#291
Everett Everett is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "brave as a wild boar," from eber, boar, and hard, brave or hardy.
1,902 in the 1890s
#292
Norman Norman means a Northman — a Viking.
1,902 in the 1890s
#293
Erma Erma is the only name in this group recorded in a single market across its whole history — every one of its 55,187 births is American, and it charts nowhere else in any year we hold.
1,895 in the 1890s
#294
Isabelle Isabelle is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath."
1,890 in the 1890s
#295
Norma Norma is a girl's name that appears to have been invented for an opera — Bellini's Norma of 1831 — and it was the birth name of Marilyn Monroe, who appears elsewhere in these pages under the name that replaced it.
1,885 in the 1890s
#296
Delia Delia means of Delos, and it is a title for Artemis rather than a name in itself — she was born on that island, so calling her Delia is like calling someone the Nazarene.
1,871 in the 1890s
#297
Virgie
1,817 in the 1890s
#298
Horace Horace has no reliable meaning — the Roman family name Horatius resists derivation, and France ranks it 2765th against the United States at 6218th, so the poet's name is now used more readily in French than in English.
1,814 in the 1890s
#299
Victor Victor is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "conqueror."
1,811 in the 1890s
#300
Donald Donald is a boy's name from the Scottish Gaelic Dòmhnall, meaning world ruler.
1,791 in the 1890s
#301
Cecelia Cecelia means blind, and the saint who carries it became the patron of music through what looks like a misreading — a line in her acta about music playing at her wedding was later taken to mean she made it.
1,784 in the 1890s
#302
Sidney Sidney is a name of Old English origin meaning "wide meadow."
1,782 in the 1890s
#303
Bertie
1,758 in the 1890s
#304
Charley Charley means free man, and it is one of the few genuinely mixed names on this site — 39 percent of the births in our records are female, and our data marks it rising.
1,755 in the 1890s
#305
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.
1,745 in the 1890s
#306
Isaac Isaac is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he laughs," from Yitzhak.
1,735 in the 1890s
#307
Stephen Stephen is a boy's name from the Greek for crown or garland, borne by the first Christian martyr.
1,733 in the 1890s
#308
Bert
1,721 in the 1890s
#309
Julius Julius means downy-bearded, and the family claimed descent from Venus — the Julii traced themselves to Iulus, son of Aeneas, which is the genealogy Virgil wrote the Aeneid to dignify.
1,717 in the 1890s
#310
August August is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "venerable" or "majestic," from augustus.
1,703 in the 1890s
#311
Adeline Adeline is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble," from the element adal.
1,697 in the 1890s
#312
Opal Opal means the gem, and it is the only major stone whose name may come from Sanskrit — upala, a precious stone, reaching Greek and Latin through the trade routes rather than from a European root.
1,678 in the 1890s
#313
Lila Lila is a girl's name with two unrelated origins: the Arabic layla, meaning "night," and the Sanskrit līlā, meaning "divine play" — a concept in Hindu philosophy for creation as a form of play.
1,673 in the 1890s
#314
Leah Leah is a girl's name of Hebrew origin whose meaning is disputed, most often given as "weary" but also linked to a word for wild cow.
1,671 in the 1890s
#315
Geneva Geneva is not named after the Swiss city — it is a form of Genevieve, whose own meaning is unsettled, and the city's name comes from a Celtic word for a bend or estuary entirely separately.
1,669 in the 1890s
#316
Sally Sally is a girl's name meaning princess, a pet form of Sarah reached by medieval rhyming.
1,668 in the 1890s
#317
Alvin Alvin means elf-friend, from an Old English name that treats elves as beings whose favor was worth having.
1,667 in the 1890s
#318
Birdie
1,620 in the 1890s
#319
Glenn Glenn is a boy's name from the Gaelic word for a narrow valley, and like Craig and Dale it is a plain landscape noun.
1,618 in the 1890s
#320
Percy
1,593 in the 1890s
#321
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.
1,588 in the 1890s
#322
Teresa Teresa is a girl's name whose meaning is genuinely uncertain, though harvester is the usual reading.
1,587 in the 1890s
#323
Lora Lora means from Laurentum, and the laurel is one step removed — the Roman town was named for its bay trees, and the personal name says which town you came from rather than which plant crowned you.
1,567 in the 1890s
#324
Gussie
1,558 in the 1890s
#325
Dollie
1,546 in the 1890s
#326
Bess
1,531 in the 1890s
#327
Cecilia Cecilia is a girl's name of Latin origin from the Roman family name Caecilius, which derives from caecus, meaning blind.
1,504 in the 1890s
#328
Jeanette Jeanette means God is gracious, a French double diminutive of Jeanne.
1,503 in the 1890s
#329
Grover
1,503 in the 1890s
#330
Lelia
1,487 in the 1890s
#331
Warren Warren is a boy's name from a Norman place name, and it is the second-strongest revival we hold — it peaked in 1921 and now ranks 240th in the United States on 1,493 births, a century later.
1,480 in the 1890s
#332
Alex Alex is a name of Greek origin meaning "defender of mankind."
1,448 in the 1890s
#333
Bonnie Bonnie is a girl's name of Scots origin meaning "pretty" or "fine."
1,445 in the 1890s
#334
Emil
1,443 in the 1890s
#335
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.
1,442 in the 1890s
#336
Virgil Virgil is misspelled and always has been — the poet's name was Vergilius, and medieval scribes changed the e to an i by association with virgo, which is how a Roman family name acquired a meaning it never had.
1,439 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.