1950s Baby Names
15,671 names were given to children in the United States between 1950 and 1959, 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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#1,346Bryce Bryce means speckled or freckled, from a Gaulish saint's name whose meaning is not certain.1,526 in the 1950s
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#1,351Otto Otto is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "wealth" or "fortune."1,514 in the 1950s
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#1,374Noah Noah is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "rest" or "comfort," from Noach.1,456 in the 1950s
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#1,380Hannah Hannah is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "grace" or "favor," from Channah.1,447 in the 1950s
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#1,383Louisa Louisa is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior," a Latinate form of Louise.1,442 in the 1950s
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#1,389Lily Lily is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "lily flower," from lilium.1,426 in the 1950s
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#1,391Lilly Lilly is a girl's name of Latin origin taken from the flower, from lilium.1,416 in the 1950s
What made a 1950s name
Nothing about the sound of it. A name is on this page because children in the United States were registered with it between 1950 and 1959, and its position is simply how many. Every list of "1950s 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 The statistics offices do not publish names given to very few children in a year, so a gap can also mean the count dropped below the threshold rather than to nothing.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.