1920s Baby Names

5,242 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

#453
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.
6,980 in the 1920s
#457
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."
6,927 in the 1920s
#459
Nick Nick means victory of the people, and the compound is political rather than personal — the Greek joins victory to the citizen body, so it describes a public triumph and not an individual one.
6,881 in the 1920s
#460
Jesus Jesus is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "the Lord is salvation."
6,859 in the 1920s
#462
Rufus Rufus means red-haired, and it named a king by his complexion — William II of England was called Rufus for his ruddy face, and he died with an arrow in him in the New Forest.
6,807 in the 1920s
#464
Nathan Nathan is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he gave," from Natan.
6,748 in the 1920s
#467
Mark Mark is a boy's name of Latin origin, most likely meaning "of Mars," borne by the evangelist who wrote the earliest gospel.
6,621 in the 1920s
#468
Isaac Isaac is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he laughs," from Yitzhak.
6,569 in the 1920s
#469
Seymour
6,543 in the 1920s
#474
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.
6,332 in the 1920s
#477
Wendell Wendell names a people rather than a quality — the Wends were the Slavic populations of eastern Germany, so the name records who someone's neighbors thought they were rather than anything they did.
6,289 in the 1920s
#479
Aaron Aaron is a boy's name of Hebrew origin whose meaning is not established.
6,222 in the 1920s
#480
Myron Myron means myrrh, and the resin was worth its weight in gold — traded up the incense routes from southern Arabia, used for embalming, and one of the three gifts in Matthew.
6,200 in the 1920s
#481
Malcolm Malcolm means devotee of Columba, and it is one of only two rising names in this group — 168th in Canada, 272nd in the United States, 362nd in Scotland, 539th in Ireland, 1,333rd in England and Wales and 1,629th in France, and climbing on record rather than falling.
6,113 in the 1920s
#484
Felix Felix is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "lucky" or "fortunate."
6,082 in the 1920s
#488
Eldon
5,968 in the 1920s
#489
Norbert Norbert means bright north, and the north in it is the direction rather than a place — Germanic naming used compass points as elements, which is rare in any other European naming tradition.
5,939 in the 1920s
#491
Bert
5,893 in the 1920s
#492
Owen Owen is a boy's name of Welsh origin, the anglicized form of Owain.
5,892 in the 1920s
#497
Loyd
5,841 in the 1920s
#498
Laurence Laurence is the one name on this site that changes sex at the Channel: it is a man's name in English and a woman's name in French.
5,839 in the 1920s
#499
Karl Karl means free man, and it is the original German spelling behind Charles — the word named a free peasant, so it began at the bottom of the free classes and rose to name emperors.
5,836 in the 1920s
#501
Grady Grady means noble, and it comes from a byname rather than a rank — the Irish grádha describes someone held in esteem, which is a reputation earned rather than a title inherited.
5,771 in the 1920s
#504
Neil Neil means champion or cloud, from Irish, and it traveled to Iceland with the Vikings and back to England with the Normans — so the English Neil arrived by way of Scandinavia and France.
5,739 in the 1920s
#505
Rex Rex means king, and it is the plain Latin nominative — which makes it the pair to Regis, the genitive meaning of the king.
5,660 in the 1920s
#506
Fredrick Fredrick is an American respelling that ranks higher in England and Wales than in the United States — 934th against 1,730th, which reverses the usual direction for a respelling.
5,646 in the 1920s
#508
Grover
5,638 in the 1920s
#511
Otto Otto is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "wealth" or "fortune."
5,585 in the 1920s
#512
Percy
5,583 in the 1920s
#516
Elwood
5,534 in the 1920s
#517
Byron Byron means at the cattle sheds — a working place name that became shorthand for romantic poetry, which is a longer journey than most names make.
5,519 in the 1920s
#518
Dick
5,518 in the 1920s
#519
Mack Mack means son of, and on its own it is only half a name — the Gaelic mac is a prefix, so using it alone is like naming a child Junior with nothing in front of it.
5,512 in the 1920s
#520
Gerard Gerard is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning brave with the spear.
5,502 in the 1920s
#521
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.
5,473 in the 1920s
#523
Troy Troy is a boy's name with two independent sources — an Irish surname meaning foot soldier, and the ancient city.
5,443 in the 1920s
#526
August August is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "venerable" or "majestic," from augustus.
5,326 in the 1920s
#527
Dominick Dominick means of the Lord, and it was given to children born on a Sunday — dies dominica is the Lord's day, and the name records the day of birth rather than a hope for the child.
5,294 in the 1920s
#528
Ross Ross means a headland or a promontory, from Gaelic, and Scotland ranks it 328th — its strongest market, ahead of Ireland at 347th and far ahead of the United States at 1,465th.
5,293 in the 1920s
#531
Burton
5,251 in the 1920s
#534
Darrell Darrell does not mean beloved.
5,186 in the 1920s
#539
Abraham Abraham is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "father of many."
5,114 in the 1920s
#540
Sherman
5,081 in the 1920s
#542
Wilson Wilson rose and fell with a presidency, and birth records show it plainly — 129 American births in 1911, then 496 in 1912, climbing to 1,381 by 1918 and back to 590 by 1920.
5,056 in the 1920s
#547
Ramon Ramon means protecting counsel, and both halves are Germanic — the Visigoths brought it to Iberia, so a name that reads as thoroughly Spanish is Gothic underneath, like Fernando and Alonzo.
5,006 in the 1920s
#548
Doyle
5,002 in the 1920s
#551
Amos
4,923 in the 1920s
#553
Dominic Dominic is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "of the Lord," from dominus.
4,898 in the 1920s

What Made a 1920s Name

Children in the United States were registered with it between 1920 and 1929. 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.