Fading Names

Names on the way down. Not a warning: a falling name is a name fewer children in the class will share, and roughly half of the vintage list spent decades here first.

Every name here is placed by how its recent years in the birth records compare with its earlier ones — so the list moves as the records do.

Rankings for

13,013 names, most popular first in United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Isabella Isabella is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath," a Spanish and Italian form of Elizabeth that developed through Occitan and Old Spanish in the medieval period.
Hebrew #7 in US
Chloe Chloe is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "green shoot" or "young growth," referring to the first green of new crops.
Greek #23 in US
Emily Emily is a girl's name of Latin origin, from the Roman family name Aemilius.
Latin #34 in US
Madison Madison is a name of English origin meaning "son of Maud," a medieval surname formed from the woman's name Maud plus -son.
English #40 in US
Abigail Abigail is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "my father's joy," from Avigayil.
Hebrew #41 in US
Hannah Hannah is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "grace" or "favor," from Channah.
Hebrew #56 in US
Addison Addison is a name of English origin meaning "son of Adam."
English #84 in US
Natalie Natalie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "birthday of the Lord," from natalis.
Latin #89 in US
Allison Allison is a girl's name of Norman French origin, from Alis — the medieval form of Alice — plus a diminutive ending.
Germanic #103 in US
Hailey Hailey is a girl's name of English origin meaning "hay clearing," from the Old English heg, hay, and leah, a woodland clearing.
English #104 in US
Gabriella Gabriella is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my strength," the Italian feminine of Gabriel.
Hebrew #105 in US
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a girl's name taken from the New York borough, whose name comes from the Dutch village of Breukelen.
Dutch #118 in US
Julia Julia is a girl's name of Latin origin, the feminine of the Roman family name Julius.
Latin #131 in US
Savannah Savannah is a girl's name of Taino origin meaning "treeless plain."
Taino #135 in US
Samantha Samantha is a girl's name of uncertain origin, first recorded in America in the eighteenth century.
Disputed #151 in US
Valeria Valeria is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "strong" or "healthy."
Latin #162 in US
Nevaeh Nevaeh is a girl's name coined in the United States, and it is "heaven" spelled backwards.
American coinage #165 in US
Isabel Isabel is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath."
Hebrew #176 in US
Molly Molly is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, a pet form of Mary whose meaning has never been settled — the candidates are "bitter" and "beloved."
Hebrew #196 in US
Kylie Kylie is a girl's name usually said to mean "boomerang" in an Australian Aboriginal language.
Disputed #204 in US
Jasmine Jasmine is a girl's name of Persian origin taken from the flower, whose name comes from yasmin.
Persian #206 in US
Brianna Brianna is a girl's name, the feminine of Brian, whose Irish meaning has never been securely established.
Irish #222 in US
Elise Elise is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath," a short form of Elizabeth.
French #223 in US
Gracie Gracie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "grace."
Latin #227 in US
Mackenzie Mackenzie means son of Coinneach, and the missing sound is the point — the Gaelic ends in a soft ch that English cannot spell, so the anglicized ending was written as a z that was never pronounced as one.
Scottish #228 in US
Arianna Arianna is a girl's name, the Italian form of Ariadne, from a Greek name meaning most holy.
Greek #234 in US
Alexandra Alexandra is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "defender of men," and it appears as a title of the goddess Hera before it was ever a personal name.
Greek #238 in US
Rachel Rachel is a girl's name from Hebrew meaning ewe, borne by Jacob's wife in Genesis.
Hebrew #250 in US
Lilly Lilly is a girl's name of Latin origin taken from the flower, from lilium.
Latin #252 in US
Faith Faith is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "trust" or "belief," one of the virtue names the Puritans put into use in the sixteenth century.
English #254 in US
Kaylee Kaylee is an invented name with no single source — it fuses the Kay and Lee sounds that were already everywhere, and the meanings assigned to it afterwards were reverse-engineered.
American #255 in US
Evie Evie is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "life."
Hebrew #271 in US
Khloe Khloe means green shoot, and the K is doing no work etymologically — it respells Chloe, whose Greek khloe names the first growth of a crop rather than a color or a plant.
American #272 in US
Daniela Daniela means God is my judge, and its bearer survives a lions' den by that logic — the Book of Daniel turns on God judging rather than the king, which is what the name asserts.
Spanish #303 in US
Brooke Brooke is a girl's name from the English word for a small stream.
English #313 in US
Gabriela Gabriela means God is my strength, and the archangel behind it is the one who announces rather than fights — Gabriel delivers the message in both Daniel and Luke, and in Islamic tradition brings the Qur'an.
Spanish #317 in US
Sabrina Sabrina is the Latin name of the River Severn, and the legend behind it is a drowning — a princess thrown into the river became its spirit.
Latin #321 in US
Miley Miley is a girl's name best known from Miley Cyrus, whose own was a nickname from smiley.
English #338 in US
Annabelle Annabelle is a girl's name of disputed origin.
Latin #344 in US
Paige Paige is a girl's name from a medieval job title meaning a young male servant, and it reached women by way of a surname.
English #346 in US
Angelina Angelina means little angel, and the Greek root behind it means a messenger — the winged being is a later idea layered onto a word for someone carrying news.
Italian #347 in US
Sydney Sydney is a name from a French place name — Saint-Denis, contracted by English speakers — and the Australian city was named after a man who bore it.
English #348 in US
Kayla Kayla is a girl's name with no established etymology, an American coinage of the 1950s that a soap opera turned into a top-name.
uncertain #365 in US
Adriana Adriana means from Hadria, a small town in northern Italy that also named the Adriatic Sea — so both the name and the sea are called after a settlement most people have never heard of.
Italian #366 in US
Jordyn Jordyn respells Jordan, and the river came first — the name means flowing down, describing the Jordan's fall from the Galilee hills to the lowest exposed land on earth.
American #371 in US
Mallory Mallory means unlucky, and it is one of very few names built on an insult — the Norman malheuré described someone ill-fated, and it became a surname before anyone used it as a first name.
French #372 in US
Giselle Giselle means a pledge, and the pledge was a person — the Germanic gisil named a hostage given as security for a treaty.
French #383 in US
Julianna Julianna descends from a Roman family name whose meaning was never settled — downy-bearded and devoted to Jove are both proposed for Julius, and the family's own claim was descent from Venus.
Latin #399 in US

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A style is our reading of a name. A decade is the register — the names children were actually given, in order, with the counts.

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