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

#145
Pearl Pearl is a girl's name taken from the gem, and it charts in all seven markets.
33,570 in the 1920s
#146
Floyd Floyd is the same name as Lloyd, and the F is a mistake that stuck — English had no way to say the Welsh double L, so it substituted the closest sound it had, and the substitution became a separate name.
33,490 in the 1920s
#147
Viola Viola means violet, and it names the flower, the instrument and a Shakespeare heroine from the same Latin root.
33,396 in the 1920s
#148
Lloyd Lloyd is a boy's name from the Welsh word for gray, and the double L is a genuine Welsh consonant that English has no letter for.
33,380 in the 1920s
#149
Ray Ray is a boy's name that serves as a short form of Raymond and as the English word for a beam of light.
33,190 in the 1920s
#150
Vera Vera is a girl's name with two origins that both work. In Russian it means "faith"; in Latin vera means "true" — and unusually for such a pair, the two senses reinforce rather than contradict each other.
32,662 in the 1920s
#151
Bessie Bessie is a girl's name meaning God is my oath, a pet form of Elizabeth.
32,347 in the 1920s
#152
Clifford Clifford is a boy's name from an English place name meaning a ford by a cliff — a river crossing below a steep bank.
31,688 in the 1920s
#153
Frederick Frederick is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "peaceful ruler."
31,679 in the 1920s
#154
Theodore Theodore is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "gift of God," formed from theos, meaning god, and doron, meaning gift.
31,469 in the 1920s
#155
Beverly Beverly is a name from an English town meaning beaver stream, and it began as a boys' name before crossing decisively to girls.
31,265 in the 1920s
#156
Alma Alma is a girl's name with several competing origins: "nourishing" in Latin, "soul" in Spanish, and "young woman" in Hebrew.
30,759 in the 1920s
#157
Myrtle Myrtle means the evergreen shrub, and it was the plant of Aphrodite — carried by Greek and Roman brides long before the Victorians made it a name.
30,671 in the 1920s
#158
Violet Violet is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "purple," taken from viola, the Latin word for the purple flower.
30,121 in the 1920s
#159
Vernon Vernon is a Norman place name meaning a place of alders, from a Gaulish word — so a French town gave England a surname that America turned into a first name, three languages deep.
29,944 in the 1920s
#160
Nellie Nellie is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "shining light."
29,817 in the 1920s
#161
Clyde Clyde took nothing from Bonnie and Clyde.
29,791 in the 1920s
#162
Ella Ella is a girl's name with two distinct origins. The Norman French line derives from the Germanic element ali, meaning other or foreign, while a Hebrew line gives Ella as a word for a terebinth tree.
29,684 in the 1920s
#163
Lillie Lillie is a girl's name from the flower, which has stood for purity in Christian art for so long that the association predates the name.
29,587 in the 1920s
#164
Herman Herman means army man, and the German national hero Hermann is a Latin scribe's version of a Cheruscan name we cannot now recover — Arminius, the chief who destroyed three Roman legions in AD 9.
29,205 in the 1920s
#165
Jeanne Jeanne is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious," the French feminine of Jean.
29,190 in the 1920s
#166
Chester Chester is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "fortress" or "walled camp."
28,675 in the 1920s
#167
Eileen Eileen is a girl's name anglicizing the Irish Eibhlín, and its meaning is unsettled — it may render Helen, or Evelyn, or a native Irish name.
28,623 in the 1920s
#168
Lee Lee is a name from the Old English word for a woodland clearing, and it is one of the most productive elements in English place names — the ending of Ashley, Bradley, Shirley and Beverly.
28,586 in the 1920s
#169
Ellen Ellen is a girl's name of Greek origin, a medieval English form of Helen whose meaning has never been settled.
28,491 in the 1920s
#170
Billie Billie is a name of Germanic origin meaning "resolute protector."
28,019 in the 1920s
#171
Lucy Lucy is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "light," from lux.
27,599 in the 1920s
#172
Philip Philip is a boy's name from Greek elements meaning lover of horses.
27,426 in the 1920s
#173
Johnnie Johnnie means God is gracious, a pet form of John.
27,361 in the 1920s
#174
Alvin Alvin means elf-friend, from an Old English name that treats elves as beings whose favor was worth having.
27,090 in the 1920s
#175
Minnie Minnie Mouse did not make Minnie popular.
27,050 in the 1920s
#176
Charlie Charlie is a name of Germanic origin meaning "free man."
27,007 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
#178
Lester Lester means from Leicester, and the spelling is the honest one — Leicester has been pronounced LES-ter for centuries, so the surname simply wrote down what people had been saying to each other all along.
26,842 in the 1920s
#179
Wayne Wayne is an occupational surname meaning a wagon maker, and its life as a given name follows one man — John Wayne, who was born Marion Robert Morrison and renamed by a studio.
26,634 in the 1920s
#180
Vincent Vincent is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "conquering," from vincere, to conquer.
26,373 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 it is 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
#185
Leon Leon is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "lion."
25,891 in the 1920s
#186
Gordon Gordon is a Scottish surname turned given name, from a place in Berwickshire whose meaning is not settled — spacious fort is the usual gloss but it is a guess.
25,829 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
#189
Lewis Lewis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior," the English form of Louis.
25,491 in the 1920s
#190
Glenn Glenn is a boy's name from the Gaelic word for a narrow valley, and like Craig and Dale it is a plain landscape noun.
25,482 in the 1920s
#191
Calvin Calvin is a boy's name of French origin meaning "little bald one," from the Latin calvus, bald.
24,948 in the 1920s
#192
Genevieve Genevieve is a girl's name of Gaulish origin whose meaning is not settled.
24,849 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.