1920s Baby Names

6,994 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

#171
Lucy Lucy is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "light," from lux.
27,599 in the 1920s
#175
Minnie Minnie Mouse did not make Minnie popular.
27,050 in the 1920s
#177
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.
26,965 in the 1920s
#181
Donna Donna is a girl's name from the Italian word for a lady, a title used as a name.
26,223 in the 1920s
#182
Leona Leona means lioness, and it is reviving across six markets — the United States 429th, France 556th, Scotland 631st, Ireland 705th and England and Wales 716th, all within 290 places.
26,133 in the 1920s
#183
Rosemary Rosemary is not Rose and Mary joined together — it is the herb, from a Latin phrase meaning dew of the sea.
26,020 in the 1920s
#184
Stella Stella is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "star."
25,993 in the 1920s
#187
Mattie Mattie serves two entirely unrelated names — Martha, which is Aramaic for a lady, and Matilda, which is Germanic for might in battle.
25,708 in the 1920s
#188
Margie Margie means pearl, carried from Margaret — and the Greek behind it may be a loan from an Indo-Iranian source, so the word for the gem traveled a long way before it became a name.
25,606 in the 1920s
#192
Genevieve Genevieve is a girl's name of Gaulish origin whose meaning is not settled.
24,849 in the 1920s
#193
Mabel Mabel is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "lovable."
24,591 in the 1920s
#194
Carol Carol is a girl's name with two independent sources: a short form of Caroline, and the word for a joyful song.
24,528 in the 1920s
#197
Janet Janet is a girl's name, a Scottish diminutive of Jane meaning God is gracious.
24,020 in the 1920s
#199
Bonnie Bonnie is a girl's name of Scots origin meaning "pretty" or "fine."
23,885 in the 1920s
#202
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.
23,403 in the 1920s
#203
Geneva Geneva is not named after the Swiss city — it is a form of Genevieve, whose own meaning is unsettled, and the city's name comes from a Celtic word for a bend or estuary entirely separately.
23,383 in the 1920s
#204
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.
23,020 in the 1920s
#205
Lena Lena is a girl's name used as a short form of Helena, Magdalena and Elena, so it usually carries the sense "light" or "torch."
22,931 in the 1920s
#206
Mae Mae is a girl's name in France, generally read as a form of Mae or as a feminine of the Breton Mahé.
22,906 in the 1920s
#207
Maria Maria is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, the Latin and Greek form of Miryam.
22,895 in the 1920s
#208
Carolyn Carolyn is a girl's name, an English elaboration of Caroline meaning free man through Charles.
22,824 in the 1920s
#209
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.
22,711 in the 1920s
#211
Christine Christine is a girl's name from the Latin for a follower of Christ, the French form of Christina.
22,439 in the 1920s
#212
Arlene Arlene has no established origin at all — it appears in the nineteenth century with no traceable parent name, and the Irish pledge reading usually given for it belongs to a different name entirely.
22,017 in the 1920s
#215
Peggy Peggy is a girl's name meaning pearl, a pet form of Margaret by way of Meg.
21,928 in the 1920s
#216
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.
21,820 in the 1920s
#217
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.
21,797 in the 1920s
#219
Sara Sara is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "princess" or "noblewoman."
21,165 in the 1920s
#220
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.
21,133 in the 1920s
#225
Rosa Rosa is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "rose."
20,957 in the 1920s
#226
Harriet Harriet is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "home ruler."
20,927 in the 1920s
#227
Muriel Muriel means bright sea, from Gaelic, and it reached English twice — once through Irish and Scottish settlement and once through Breton, carried back across the Channel by the Normans.
20,749 in the 1920s
#228
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.
20,485 in the 1920s
#232
Jeanette Jeanette means God is gracious, a French double diminutive of Jeanne.
19,833 in the 1920s
#234
Blanche Blanche means white, and its revival is entirely French — 252nd in France on 220 births against 6,874th in the United States.
19,669 in the 1920s
#236
Carrie Carrie is a girl's name, a pet form of Caroline meaning free man through Charles.
19,279 in the 1920s
#238
Emily Emily is a girl's name of Latin origin, from the Roman family name Aemilius.
18,807 in the 1920s
#240
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.
18,685 in the 1920s
#241
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.
18,441 in the 1920s
#243
Roberta Roberta is a girl's name meaning bright fame, the feminine of Robert.
18,325 in the 1920s
#244
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.
18,251 in the 1920s
#245
Naomi Naomi is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "pleasantness," from No'omi.
18,242 in the 1920s
#247
Anita Anita is a girl's name, the Spanish diminutive of Ana, meaning grace.
18,114 in the 1920s
#248
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.
17,975 in the 1920s
#249
Jacqueline Jacqueline is a girl's name, the French feminine of Jacques, and it inherits the meaning supplanter from Jacob.
17,927 in the 1920s
#251
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.
17,820 in the 1920s
#259
Fannie Fannie means Frenchwoman, shortened from Frances, and it left English-speaking use for reasons of slang rather than fashion — the word acquired a sense the name could not survive.
16,549 in the 1920s
#260
Delores Delores means sorrows, and it is a Marian title rather than a wish — Our Lady of Sorrows, named for the seven griefs of the Virgin, which is why a name meaning pain was ever given.
16,523 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.