1900s Baby Names

1,819 names were given to children in the United States between 1900 and 1909, 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

#443
Emil
1,319 in the 1900s
#444
Roland Roland is a boy's name meaning famous land, and its bearer is the hero of France's national epic — a knight who dies at Roncevaux because he is too proud to blow his horn for help.
1,316 in the 1900s
#446
Steve Steve is a boy's name, the short form of Steven or Stephen, meaning crown or garland.
1,307 in the 1900s
#448
Calvin Calvin is a boy's name of French origin meaning "little bald one," from the Latin calvus, bald.
1,291 in the 1900s
#450
Mike Mike is a boy's name, the short form of Michael, from a Hebrew question meaning who is like God.
1,281 in the 1900s
#456
August August is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "venerable" or "majestic," from augustus.
1,245 in the 1900s
#461
Clifton Clifton means the settlement by the cliff, and it is the same first element as Clifford — one describes a ford below the cliff and the other the farm on top of it.
1,202 in the 1900s
#465
Franklin Franklin means a freeholder — a man who owned his land but held no noble rank, a specific medieval class.
1,196 in the 1900s
#466
Matthew Matthew is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "gift of Yahweh," from Mattityahu.
1,188 in the 1900s
#468
Emmett Emmett is a boy's name of English origin derived from Emma — it is a matronymic surname, formed from a woman's name rather than a man's, which was unusual in medieval England.
1,187 in the 1900s
#473
Phillip Phillip is a boy's name meaning lover of horses, the doubled-l spelling of Philip.
1,161 in the 1900s
#474
Wayne Wayne is an occupational surname meaning a wagon maker, and its life as a given name follows one man — John Wayne, who was born Marion Robert Morrison and renamed by a studio.
1,158 in the 1900s
#475
Edmund Edmund was England's patron saint before George — Edmund the Martyr, king of East Anglia, was killed by a Viking army in 869 and held that position for some three hundred years before a crusader saint displaced him.
1,151 in the 1900s
#476
Abraham Abraham is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "father of many."
1,145 in the 1900s
#478
Nathaniel Nathaniel is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "gift of God."
1,143 in the 1900s
#481
Marshall Marshall began as a stable hand — the word meant a horse servant, and it climbed to become the highest rank in several armies.
1,135 in the 1900s
#482
Dave Dave ranks 2,217th in England and Wales and 2,469th in the United States, so the short form outranks its American peak market in a country that never recorded more than fifteen in a year.
1,133 in the 1900s
#483
Elbert
1,131 in the 1900s
#485
Clinton Clinton means the settlement on the hill, from an English place name — and the two American presidents who carried it did so by adoption and by surname, not by descent from the place.
1,122 in the 1900s
#488
Alton Alton means the settlement at the river's source, and that is more specific than the old town reading usually given — the Old English element is a spring or wellhead, not age.
1,114 in the 1900s
#489
Felix Felix is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "lucky" or "fortunate."
1,108 in the 1900s
#493
Nelson Nelson means son of Neil, and the admiral made it a given name — it was a surname until Trafalgar, after which parents across the English-speaking world started using it as a first name outright.
1,064 in the 1900s
#494
Amos
1,062 in the 1900s
#495
Clayton Clayton means the settlement on clay, from an English place name that describes the ground it stood on.
1,057 in the 1900s
#498
Aaron Aaron is a boy's name of Hebrew origin whose meaning is not established.
1,050 in the 1900s
#504
Tony Tony is a boy's name from the Roman family name Antonius, whose meaning has never been established.
1,034 in the 1900s
#509
Adam Adam is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "earth" or "ground," from adamah.
1,021 in the 1900s
#510
Irvin Irvin names a Scottish river valley, and the green water reading describes the water rather than the banks — Brittonic river names usually record color or behavior, not the land beside them.
1,007 in the 1900s
#511
Mark Mark is a boy's name of Latin origin, most likely meaning "of Mars," borne by the evangelist who wrote the earliest gospel.
1,001 in the 1900s
#515
Cornelius
991 in the 1900s
#516
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.
989 in the 1900s
#517
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.
988 in the 1900s
#522
Jerome Jerome is a boy's name meaning sacred name, and it belongs to the scholar who translated the Bible into Latin — the version Western Europe read for over a thousand years.
972 in the 1900s
#526
Douglas Douglas is a boy's name from the Scottish Gaelic for dark water, originally a river and then a powerful border family.
960 in the 1900s
#528
Forrest Forrest is one of only two names in this group birth records mark as rising, and it is on its second life — American births ran 490 in 2018 and 862 in 2025, having collapsed from a 1994 peak twenty years before.
954 in the 1900s
#530
Pete Pete means rock, and it began as a joke about a man's character — Jesus renames Simon as Cephas, the Aramaic for a stone, and the pun works in Greek but not in English.
949 in the 1900s
#531
Ted Ted is a boy's name that serves two unrelated names at once, and it exists because medieval English moved the n from "mine Edward."
947 in the 1900s
#532
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.
942 in the 1900s
#534
Adolph
941 in the 1900s
#537
Artie
930 in the 1900s
#538
Roger Roger is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning famous spear.
928 in the 1900s
#541
Roscoe
916 in the 1900s
#543
Juan Juan is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious."
912 in the 1900s
#549
Ervin
895 in the 1900s
#559
Gus
862 in the 1900s
#560
Antonio Antonio is a boy's name of Etruscan origin whose meaning is unknown.
860 in the 1900s
#561
Owen Owen is a boy's name of Welsh origin, the anglicized form of Owain.
860 in the 1900s
#563
Moses Moses is explained in Exodus as drawn out of the water, but the name is more likely Egyptian — mose means born of, and it is the second half of Thutmose and Ramose, where the god's name sits in front.
847 in the 1900s

What Made a 1900s Name

Children in the United States were registered with it between 1900 and 1909. 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.