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.

All Girls Boys Unisex

Rankings for

#117
Marvin Marvin is a boy's name from the Welsh Merfyn, and the sea friend reading usually given for it is not supported — the Welsh elements point to marrow and eminent instead.
39,898 in the 1920s
#121
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.
39,025 in the 1920s
#124
Michael Michael is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "who is like God?" — a rhetorical question expecting the answer that no one is.
38,196 in the 1920s
#126
Leroy Leroy is a boy's name that is simply the French for the king, taken as one word.
38,114 in the 1920s
#127
Russell Russell is a boy's name from a Norman nickname meaning little red, given to someone red-haired or ruddy.
37,472 in the 1920s
#128
Leo Leo is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "lion."
37,456 in the 1920s
#131
Andrew Andrew is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "manly" or "brave," from andreios, from aner, a man.
36,204 in the 1920s
#136
Edwin Edwin is a boy's name from Old English meaning rich friend, borne by a Northumbrian king whose fortress may have given Edinburgh its name.
35,483 in the 1920s
#137
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.
35,449 in the 1920s
#141
Peter Peter is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "rock."
34,270 in the 1920s
#146
Floyd Floyd is the same name as Lloyd, and the F is a mistake that stuck — English had no way to say the Welsh double L, so it substituted the closest sound it had, and the substitution became a separate name.
33,490 in the 1920s
#148
Lloyd Lloyd is a boy's name from the Welsh word for gray, and the double L is a genuine Welsh consonant that English has no letter for.
33,380 in the 1920s
#149
Ray Ray is a boy's name that serves as a short form of Raymond and as the English word for a beam of light.
33,190 in the 1920s
#152
Clifford Clifford is a boy's name from an English place name meaning a ford by a cliff — a river crossing below a steep bank.
31,688 in the 1920s
#153
Frederick Frederick is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "peaceful ruler."
31,679 in the 1920s
#154
Theodore Theodore is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "gift of God," formed from theos, meaning god, and doron, meaning gift.
31,469 in the 1920s
#159
Vernon Vernon is a Norman place name meaning a place of alders, from a Gaulish word — so a French town gave England a surname that America turned into a first name, three languages deep.
29,944 in the 1920s
#161
Clyde Clyde took nothing from Bonnie and Clyde.
29,791 in the 1920s
#164
Herman Herman means army man, and the German national hero Hermann is a Latin scribe's version of a Cheruscan name we cannot now recover — Arminius, the chief who destroyed three Roman legions in AD 9.
29,205 in the 1920s
#166
Chester Chester is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "fortress" or "walled camp."
28,675 in the 1920s
#172
Philip Philip is a boy's name from Greek elements meaning lover of horses.
27,426 in the 1920s
#174
Alvin Alvin means elf-friend, from an Old English name that treats elves as beings whose favor was worth having.
27,090 in the 1920s
#178
Lester Lester means from Leicester, and the spelling is the honest one — Leicester has been pronounced LES-ter for centuries, so the surname simply wrote down what people had actually been saying to each other all along.
26,842 in the 1920s
#179
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.
26,634 in the 1920s
#180
Vincent Vincent is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "conquering," from vincere, to conquer.
26,373 in the 1920s
#185
Leon Leon is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "lion."
25,891 in the 1920s
#186
Gordon Gordon is a Scottish surname turned given name, from a place in Berwickshire whose meaning is not settled — spacious fort is the usual gloss but it is a guess.
25,829 in the 1920s
#189
Lewis Lewis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior," the English form of Louis.
25,491 in the 1920s
#190
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.
25,482 in the 1920s
#191
Calvin Calvin is a boy's name of French origin meaning "little bald one," from the Latin calvus, bald.
24,948 in the 1920s
#195
Martin Martin is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "of Mars," borne by Saint Martin of Tours, whose cloak gave Europe the word chapel.
24,406 in the 1920s
#196
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.
24,357 in the 1920s
#198
Cecil Cecil means blind, from a Roman family name, and the saint who made it famous is patron of music on the strength of one ambiguous line in her own account of her wedding day.
24,003 in the 1920s
#200
Jesse Jesse is a name of Hebrew origin whose meaning is debated.
23,610 in the 1920s
#201
Dale Dale is a name from the Old English word for a valley, and like Craig and Heather it is a plain landscape noun rather than a compound.
23,543 in the 1920s
#210
Bill Bill comes from William, and the B is the point — medieval English made pet names by rhyming, which is why Will became Bill, Rob became Bob and Rick became Dick.
22,495 in the 1920s
#213
Harvey Harvey is a boy's name of Breton origin meaning "battle worthy."
21,966 in the 1920s
#214
Roger Roger is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning famous spear.
21,928 in the 1920s
#218
Victor Victor is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "conqueror."
21,676 in the 1920s
#221
Benjamin Benjamin is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "son of the right hand," from Binyamin.
21,122 in the 1920s
#222
Sam Sam is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God has heard," a short form of Samuel.
21,107 in the 1920s
#223
Wallace Wallace means foreigner, and the irony is complete — it is the Anglo-Saxon word for the Britons who were there first, so Scotland's national hero carries a name meaning outsider in his own country.
21,055 in the 1920s
#224
Ronald Ronald is a boy's name from the Old Norse Rögnvaldr, meaning ruler's counsel, brought to Scotland by Norse settlement.
21,005 in the 1920s
#229
Eddie Eddie is a boy's name, the pet form of Edward or Edwin, meaning wealth.
20,442 in the 1920s
#230
Allen Allen is a boy's name whose meaning is genuinely unknown — rock, handsome and deer have all been proposed from an unidentified Breton source.
20,347 in the 1920s
#231
Gene Gene means well-born, shortened from Eugene — and it has nothing at all to do with genes in biology, which is a separate word coined in 1909 from a different Greek root entirely, by a Danish botanist.
19,936 in the 1920s
#233
Arnold Arnold means eagle power, and England and Wales ranks it 631st on 59 births — well above the United States at 1478th, which is not what the name's twentieth-century American associations would predict.
19,693 in the 1920s
#235
Jerry Jerry is a name that serves as the short form of at least three unrelated names — Jeremiah from Hebrew, Gerald and Gerard from Germanic — so its meaning depends entirely on which one a family had in mind.
19,626 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.