1900s Baby Names

5,549 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

#97
Eleanor Eleanor is a girl's name that traces back to Eleanor of Aquitaine, the twelfth-century queen of France and later England, whose own name, Aliénor, is widely explained as "the other Aenor," distinguishing her from her mother, also named Aenor.
10,044 in the 1900s
#98
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.
10,033 in the 1900s
#99
Ann Ann is a girl's name from the Hebrew Hannah, meaning grace or favor, and the spelling without the final e.
9,959 in the 1900s
#100
Carl Carl is a boy's name from the Germanic word for a free man, the same root as Charles.
9,951 in the 1900s
#101
Leona Leona means lioness, and our data marks it reviving across six markets — the United States 429th, France 556th, Scotland 631st, Ireland 705th and England and Wales 716th, all within 290 places.
9,879 in the 1900s
#102
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.
9,733 in the 1900s
#103
Lula Lula has no single parent — it shortens Louise, Lucille and Tallulah alike, and our data marks it reviving, ranking 1306th in England and Wales against 1938th in the United States.
9,544 in the 1900s
#104
Earl Earl is a boy's name taken from the English noble title, and it is the only rank in the British peerage with a native English name rather than a French one.
9,387 in the 1900s
#105
Ralph Ralph is a boy's name of Norse origin meaning "wolf counsel."
9,331 in the 1900s
#106
Rosa Rosa is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "rose."
9,318 in the 1900s
#107
Jack Jack is a boy's name of English origin that began as a pet form of John, by way of the medieval nickname Jankin.
9,269 in the 1900s
#108
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.
9,129 in the 1900s
#109
Ernest Ernest is a boy's name from a Germanic word meaning serious or resolute, and it is far stronger in Europe than in America — 252nd in England and Wales and 276th in France against 1042nd in the United States.
8,715 in the 1900s
#110
David David is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "beloved," from Dawid.
8,661 in the 1900s
#111
Francis Francis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "Frenchman" or "free man."
8,450 in the 1900s
#112
Ellen Ellen is a girl's name of Greek origin, a medieval English form of Helen whose meaning has never been settled.
8,344 in the 1900s
#113
Kathryn Kathryn is a girl's name, the y-spelling of Katherine, and it inherits that name's genuinely unknown meaning.
8,333 in the 1900s
#114
Doris Doris is a girl's name from Greek mythology, where she is a sea nymph and the mother of the fifty Nereids.
8,319 in the 1900s
#115
Maggie Maggie is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "pearl."
8,310 in the 1900s
#116
Charlie Charlie is a name of Germanic origin meaning "free man."
8,275 in the 1900s
#117
Samuel Samuel is a boy's name of Hebrew origin usually translated as "God has heard," from Shemu'el.
8,173 in the 1900s
#118
Howard Howard is a boy's name whose origin is genuinely contested — high guardian, brave heart and even a keeper of pigs have all been proposed.
8,061 in the 1900s
#119
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.
8,046 in the 1900s
#120
Betty Betty is a girl's name that began as a short form of Elizabeth and is now used in its own right.
7,951 in the 1900s
#121
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.
7,918 in the 1900s
#122
Violet Violet is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "purple," taken from viola, the Latin word for the purple flower.
7,849 in the 1900s
#123
Lois Lois is a girl's name that appears once in the New Testament, in a letter naming Timothy's grandmother, and its meaning has never been established.
7,805 in the 1900s
#124
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.
7,711 in the 1900s
#125
Anne Anne is a girl's name from the Hebrew Hannah, meaning favor or grace.
7,631 in the 1900s
#126
Sadie Sadie is a girl's name that began as a pet form of Sarah, the Hebrew name meaning "princess" or "noblewoman."
7,471 in the 1900s
#127
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.
7,338 in the 1900s
#128
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.
7,236 in the 1900s
#129
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.
7,174 in the 1900s
#130
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.
7,154 in the 1900s
#131
Marjorie Marjorie is a girl's name meaning pearl, an English form of Margaret whose modern spelling was pulled toward the herb marjoram by nothing more than a coincidence of sound.
7,033 in the 1900s
#132
Herbert Herbert is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning bright army.
6,975 in the 1900s
#133
Lawrence Lawrence is a boy's name meaning from Laurentum, an ancient Italian town linked to the laurel.
6,895 in the 1900s
#134
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.
6,856 in the 1900s
#135
Hilda Hilda means battle, and it is the surviving fragment of longer Germanic names — Hildegard, Brunhild and Matilda all contain it, and the element outlived most of the compounds it belonged to.
6,790 in the 1900s
#136
Lee Lee is a name from the Old English word for a woodland clearing, and it is one of the most productive elements in English place names — the ending of Ashley, Bradley, Shirley and Beverly.
6,674 in the 1900s
#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
#138
Theodore Theodore is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "gift of God," formed from theos, meaning god, and doron, meaning gift.
6,519 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
#141
Alfred Alfred is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "elf counsel."
6,380 in the 1900s
#142
Elmer Elmer means noble and famous, and its American popularity is traceable to two brothers — the Ebenezer and Jonathan Elmer who signed early revolutionary documents, after whom patriotic families went on to name sons.
6,309 in the 1900s
#143
Andrew Andrew is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "manly" or "brave," from andreios, from aner, a man.
6,277 in the 1900s
#144
Sam Sam is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God has heard," a short form of Samuel.
6,226 in the 1900s

What made a 1900s name

Nothing about the sound of it. A name is on this page because children in the United States were registered with it between 1900 and 1909, and its position is simply how many. Every list of "1900s 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.