1920s Baby Names

6,902 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 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.
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 6874th 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

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.