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

#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
#531
Burton
5,251 in the 1920s
#532
Pat Pat is one of the most evenly divided names on this site — about 60 percent of recorded births are female, because it shortens both Patricia and Patrick and neither side ever won.
5,241 in the 1920s
#533
Bernadine
5,227 in the 1920s
#534
Darrell Darrell does not mean beloved.
5,186 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
#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
#541
Virgie
5,057 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
#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
#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
#549
Lynn Lynn is a name from a Welsh and Gaelic word for a lake or a pool below a waterfall.
4,992 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
#551
Amos
4,923 in the 1920s
#552
Frieda
4,917 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
#554
Harley Harley is a name of Old English origin meaning "hare's meadow."
4,890 in the 1920s
#555
Carlos Carlos is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "free man."
4,850 in the 1920s
#556
Mario Mario is a boy's name from a Roman family name of uncertain meaning, and the video game character was named after a real landlord — Mario Segale, who owned the warehouse Nintendo rented in Seattle.
4,822 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
#559
Aubrey Aubrey is a name of Germanic origin meaning "elf ruler."
4,779 in the 1920s
#560
Carmella
4,761 in the 1920s
#561
Rhoda
4,761 in the 1920s
#562
Rena
4,752 in the 1920s
#563
Deloris
4,748 in the 1920s
#564
Carlton Carlton means the settlement of the free peasants, and the word for those peasants became an insult — ceorl gave English churl and churlish, so the name preserves a class that the language later turned against.
4,746 in the 1920s
#565
Margery
4,722 in the 1920s
#566
Aileen Aileen means hazel, most likely, and the shining gloss usually given for it comes from confusion with Helen — the Norman Aveline is the likelier parent, and it has nothing to do with light.
4,648 in the 1920s
#567
Flossie
4,640 in the 1920s
#568
Bettye
4,629 in the 1920s
#569
Louie Louie is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior."
4,618 in the 1920s
#570
Harriett
4,602 in the 1920s
#571
Boyd
4,595 in the 1920s
#572
Dwight Dwight descends from Dionysus, the Greek god of wine — through the medieval woman's name Diot, a pet form of Dionysia, which is an unusually indirect route for a masculine surname.
4,579 in the 1920s
#573
Woodrow
4,572 in the 1920s
#574
Paula Paula is a girl's name from the Latin for small or humble, the feminine of Paul.
4,564 in the 1920s
#575
Rodney Rodney is a boy's name from an English place name, and its rise as a given name follows a single admiral — George Rodney, who broke the French line at the Saintes in 1782.
4,555 in the 1920s
#576
Maude Maude belonged to the woman who nearly became England's first ruling queen — the Empress Matilda fought her cousin for the throne through nineteen years of civil war the chroniclers called the Anarchy.
4,546 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.