1920s Baby Names

13,525 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

#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, 1333rd in England and Wales and 1629th in France, and climbing in our data rather than falling.
6,113 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
#484
Felix Felix is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "lucky" or "fortunate."
6,082 in the 1920s
#485
Perry Perry means at the pear tree, from an English place name — and our data marks it reviving, at 1373rd in the United States and 1681st in England and Wales.
6,068 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
#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
#490
Guadalupe Guadalupe is half Arabic and half Latin — wadi, a valley or river, joined to a word for a wolf.
5,910 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
#493
Annabelle Annabelle is a girl's name of disputed origin.
5,890 in the 1920s
#494
Loren Loren means from Laurentum, a town rather than a plant — the laurel reading came second, and the town itself was probably named for its laurels, so the connection is real but runs the long way round.
5,886 in the 1920s
#495
Jackie Jackie is the third most evenly divided name on this site — 48.9 percent of the births in our records are female, behind only Emerson and Riley among names with more than 50,000 births.
5,881 in the 1920s
#496
Arline
5,843 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
#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
#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
#502
Dorthy
5,768 in the 1920s
#503
Elinor
5,761 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 1730th, which reverses the usual direction for a respelling.
5,646 in the 1920s
#507
Clarice
5,641 in the 1920s
#508
Grover
5,638 in the 1920s
#509
Murray Murray is a boy's name of Scottish origin from Moray, the northern province, whose name means "sea settlement."
5,617 in the 1920s
#510
Mavis
5,597 in the 1920s
#511
Otto Otto is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "wealth" or "fortune."
5,585 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
#513
Percy
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
#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
#522
Elvira
5,455 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
#524
Carmela
5,430 in the 1920s
#525
Elnora
5,422 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 1465th.
5,293 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.