1920s Baby Names
5,260 names were given to children in the United States between 1920 and 1929, 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.
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#1,287Santiago Santiago is a boy's name of Spanish origin meaning "Saint James."1,060 in the 1920s
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#1,305Carson Carson is a name of Scottish and Irish origin meaning "son of Carr."1,050 in the 1920s
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#1,328King King is a boy's name taken from the English title, from the Old English cyning.1,003 in the 1920s
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#1,371Dexter Dexter is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "right-handed" or "skilful."923 in the 1920s
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#1,383Carter Carter is a name of English origin meaning "one who transports goods by cart."901 in the 1920s
What made a 1920s name
Nothing about the sound of it. A name is on this page because children in the United States were registered with it between 1920 and 1929, and its position is simply how many. Every list of "1920s 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 The statistics offices do not publish names given to very few children in a year, so a gap can also mean the count dropped below the threshold rather than to nothing.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.