1900s Baby Names

3,187 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

#137
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.
6,589 in the 1900s
#139
Emily Emily is a girl's name of Latin origin, from the Roman family name Aemilius.
6,423 in the 1900s
#140
Theresa Theresa is a girl's name of uncertain meaning, the German and English spelling of Teresa.
6,406 in the 1900s
#145
Charlotte Charlotte is a girl's name of French origin meaning "free man," the feminine form of Charles, itself from the Germanic name Karl.
6,199 in the 1900s
#147
Inez Inez means chaste, and the Spanish spelling hides a Greek original — Agnes became Inés because Spanish dropped the initial vowel sound, so the two look unrelated and are the same name.
6,126 in the 1900s
#148
Olive Olive is a girl's name of Latin origin taken from the tree, whose name comes from oliva.
6,058 in the 1900s
#149
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.
6,038 in the 1900s
#151
Lola Lola is a girl's name of Spanish origin meaning "sorrows."
5,964 in the 1900s
#152
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.
5,964 in the 1900s
#153
Effie Effie is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "well-spoken."
5,902 in the 1900s
#155
Nancy Nancy is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "grace."
5,738 in the 1900s
#156
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.
5,680 in the 1900s
#158
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.
5,593 in the 1900s
#159
Sylvia Sylvia is a girl's name from the Latin for a forest, and the mother of Rome's founders bore it — Rhea Silvia, who was made a Vestal Virgin so she could not produce heirs.
5,570 in the 1900s
#160
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.
5,508 in the 1900s
#161
Lottie Lottie is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "free man."
5,492 in the 1900s
#162
Eunice Eunice means good victory, and she is named in the New Testament as Timothy's mother — one of very few women whose faith Paul credits by name, alongside her own mother Lois.
5,454 in the 1900s
#163
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.
5,311 in the 1900s
#164
Katie Katie is a girl's name of Greek origin, a diminutive of Katherine whose meaning has never been settled.
5,309 in the 1900s
#165
Genevieve Genevieve is a girl's name of Gaulish origin whose meaning is not settled.
5,292 in the 1900s
#166
Estelle Estelle means star, and France and the United States rank it within 55 places of each other — 518th and 573rd — which is unusually close for a French name in an English-speaking market.
5,264 in the 1900s
#167
Lydia Lydia is a girl's name meaning "woman from Lydia," an ancient kingdom in what is now western Turkey.
5,247 in the 1900s
#169
Mable Mable means lovable, and the name lost its front end — it began as Amabel, and English wore the initial A away entirely, which is the same process that turned an ewt into a newt.
5,158 in the 1900s
#170
Loretta Loretta comes from an Italian shrine, not from the laurel — Loreto is the town where the Holy House of Nazareth was said to have been carried by angels.
5,151 in the 1900s
#177
Goldie
5,009 in the 1900s
#178
Vivian Vivian is a name of Latin origin meaning "alive" or "lively," from vivus.
4,973 in the 1900s
#179
Eula Eula means well-spoken, and the Greek behind it is precise — eu plus lalein, to speak well, so the name praises how someone talks rather than what they say or think.
4,897 in the 1900s
#180
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.
4,836 in the 1900s
#181
Rosie Rosie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "rose."
4,833 in the 1900s
#183
Verna Verna means springtime, from the Latin for spring — and it is reviving, though from a low base at 3,464th in the United States on a 1918 peak of 1,885.
4,783 in the 1900s
#185
Ora Ora has three unrelated sources — the Latin imperative meaning pray, the Hebrew for light, and an Albanian word for hour — and it is reviving across three markets.
4,642 in the 1900s
#188
Addie Addie shortens Adelaide and Adeline alike, and both descend from the Germanic word for noble — the same adal that sits inside Alice, Allison and Albert.
4,619 in the 1900s
#189
Harriet Harriet is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "home ruler."
4,610 in the 1900s
#193
Marian Marian is a girl's name that either joins Mary and Ann or diminutives Mary alone — the sources disagree.
4,588 in the 1900s
#194
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.
4,571 in the 1900s
#195
Essie Essie shortens two names with nothing in common — Esther, whose root is probably Babylonian, and Estelle, which is the Latin for a star.
4,549 in the 1900s
#197
Henrietta Henrietta named a American state — Maryland was chartered for Henrietta Maria, queen to Charles I, so a French princess's middle name sits on the map of the United States.
4,514 in the 1900s
#198
Jane Jane is a girl's name from the Hebrew for God is gracious, the English feminine of John.
4,508 in the 1900s
#200
Lela Lela means night on the Arabic reading, and that connects it to one of the oldest love stories in the world — Layla and Majnun, retold in Persian verse eight centuries ago.
4,473 in the 1900s
#204
Caroline Caroline is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "free man," the French feminine of Charles by way of the Latin Carolus.
4,276 in the 1900s
#205
Iva
4,257 in the 1900s
#206
Sara Sara is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "princess" or "noblewoman."
4,215 in the 1900s
#209
Maria Maria is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, the Latin and Greek form of Miryam.
4,174 in the 1900s
#210
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.
4,080 in the 1900s
#212
Rebecca Rebecca is a girl's name of Hebrew origin whose meaning is unsettled, and the standard gloss involves a rope for tying cattle.
4,059 in the 1900s
#213
Wilma Wilma means resolute protection, and The Flintstones did nothing for it.
4,022 in the 1900s
#215
Etta Etta is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "home ruler."
4,003 in the 1900s
#216
Barbara Barbara is a girl's name from the Greek for foreign or strange, the feminine of the word that gives us barbarian.
3,999 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.