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.
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#1,107Yvette Yvette is a girl's name from a Germanic word for the yew tree, by way of Breton.1,426 in the 1920s
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#1,112Valentine Valentine is a unisex name of Latin origin meaning "strong" or "healthy."1,407 in the 1920s
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#1,122Anderson Anderson is a boy's name of Scottish and Scandinavian origin meaning "son of Andrew".1,369 in the 1920s
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#1,139Emilie Emilie is a girl's name, the French and Danish form of Latin Aemilia, usually given as rival.1,329 in the 1920s
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#1,143Shelby Shelby is a girl's name from an English place name of Norse formation meaning a willow farm.1,320 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 The statistics offices do not publish names given to very few children in a year, so a gap can also mean the count dropped below the threshold rather than to nothing.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.