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

#458
Cecilia Cecilia is a girl's name of Latin origin from the Roman family name Caecilius, which derives from caecus, meaning blind.
6,912 in the 1920s
#461
Selma Selma may have been invented by a forger — the name appears in Macpherson's Ossian poems of the 1760s, which he presented as ancient Gaelic epic and largely wrote himself.
6,851 in the 1920s
#463
Ina
6,795 in the 1920s
#465
Natalie Natalie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "birthday of the Lord," from natalis.
6,744 in the 1920s
#466
Ola
6,646 in the 1920s
#470
Elva
6,531 in the 1920s
#472
Celia Celia is a girl's name of Latin origin from the Roman family name Caelius, whose meaning is disputed between "heaven" and a much older Etruscan word.
6,370 in the 1920s
#473
Angela Angela is a girl's name from the Greek for messenger, the word that also gives us angel.
6,341 in the 1920s
#475
Eleanore
6,319 in the 1920s
#478
Alta
6,228 in the 1920s
#482
Lenora
6,100 in the 1920s
#483
Colleen Colleen means girl in Irish, and it is barely used in Ireland — it is an Irish-American name rather than an Irish one.
6,086 in the 1920s
#486
Nell Nell is a girl's name that reached its modern form through a medieval habit of mishearing, from "mine Ellen" run together.
6,063 in the 1920s
#487
Lizzie Lizzie means my God is an oath, and the oath is the point — Elisheva names a covenant rather than a feeling, which is why the name belonged to the wife of a priest in Exodus.
6,015 in the 1920s
#493
Annabelle Annabelle is a girl's name of disputed origin.
5,890 in the 1920s
#496
Arline
5,843 in the 1920s
#500
Estella Estella means star, and Dickens chose the name deliberately — Great Expectations gives it to a girl raised to be beautiful and unreachable, which is what a star is.
5,797 in the 1920s
#502
Dorthy
5,768 in the 1920s
#503
Elinor
5,761 in the 1920s
#507
Clarice
5,641 in the 1920s
#510
Mavis
5,597 in the 1920s
#512
Joann Joann is a girl's name meaning God is gracious, a simplified spelling of Joanna.
5,583 in the 1920s
#514
Charlene Charlene is a girl's name meaning free man, a feminine of Charles.
5,570 in the 1920s
#515
Ila
5,550 in the 1920s
#522
Elvira
5,455 in the 1920s
#524
Carmela
5,430 in the 1920s
#525
Elnora
5,422 in the 1920s
#529
Amy Amy is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "beloved," and unusually the name is a past participle — someone who has been loved rather than someone lovable.
5,275 in the 1920s
#530
Nannie
5,253 in the 1920s
#533
Bernadine
5,227 in the 1920s
#535
Gracie Gracie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "grace."
5,172 in the 1920s
#536
Judith Judith is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "woman of Judea," borne by the heroine who beheads Holofernes in the deuterocanonical book named for her.
5,172 in the 1920s
#537
Elma
5,161 in the 1920s
#538
Corinne Corinne is a girl's name from the Greek for a maiden, and it was borne by a poet said to have beaten Pindar five times in competition.
5,158 in the 1920s
#541
Virgie
5,057 in the 1920s
#543
Eugenia
5,052 in the 1920s
#544
Rosemarie Rosemarie looks like Rose plus Marie, and as a name it is — but the herb rosemary has nothing to do with either, and the resemblance is one of the neatest coincidences in naming.
5,032 in the 1920s
#545
Matilda Matilda is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "mighty in battle."
5,021 in the 1920s
#546
Olivia Olivia is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "olive tree," used as the feminine form of Oliver.
5,007 in the 1920s
#550
Myra Myra was invented by a poet — Fulke Greville coined it around 1580, probably by rearranging Mary, and every later meaning attached to it was supplied after the fact.
4,986 in the 1920s
#552
Frieda
4,917 in the 1920s
#557
Willa Willa is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "resolute" or "will".
4,799 in the 1920s
#558
Marcia Marcia means dedicated to Mars, and that god's name is also where the month of March comes from — the Roman year began in March, because that was when the campaigning season opened up again after the winter.
4,795 in the 1920s
#560
Rhoda
4,761 in the 1920s
#561
Carmella
4,761 in the 1920s
#562
Rena
4,752 in the 1920s
#563
Deloris
4,748 in the 1920s
#565
Margery
4,722 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.