The Most Popular Names Over Time

By Kelli Brady, NameFreak!

Ever wonder which name has been given the most overall? Of course I have! To satisfy my curiosity on the matter, I totaled the raw numbers of all names ever recorded by the SSA since the data has been collected (1880). I must say the results are very interesting!

Since more than 38,000 names have been given to boys and 64,000 names have been given to girls over the years, it is not possible for me to include all of them here. What I did include are the top 25 names as well as any of the #1 names not included in the top 25 and those that have been in the Top 100 every year since 1880.

Symbols:
* Has been #1
+ Has been in Top 100 every year since 1880

GIRLS

Mary at #1 is no surprise, but the amount of Marys in comparison to the rest of the names might be. Elizabeth is #2, even though she has never ranked #1. She is, however, the only girl name that has been in the Top 100 every year since 1880. But what about Patricia!? She never ranked higher than #3 in the SSA rankings and hasn’t been consistently near the top the entire 134 years, but still comes in at #3. Jennifer at #4 is pretty astounding considering the name wasn’t even used until 1916. Ashley also wasn’t consistently given until the 1940s. The numbers of recent #1s Sophia and Isabella show that while they may seem to be everywhere now, they are definitely the new kids on the block.

BOYS

I was shocked to see James ahead of John! They have both been at the top pretty consistently, but I guess John has fallen slightly harder than James. Quite frankly, this entire list is a bit astonishing. The boys have a lot of names that have been in the Top 100 every year since 1880, but you see Richard well ahead several of those names (Richard was firmly in the Top 100 until it fell out after 2007). Brian is relatively high considering it wasn’t even given in the United States until 1900, and Samuel is another constant name that just never spiked. The most recent #1, Noah, is a relative newby.

All of this is also more proof that parents are choosing more of a variety of names nowadays; #1 names are not as widely used currently as they were in the past. And if you compare the girl numbers with the boy numbers, it also shows that parents are much more willing to go with a less common name for their daughter than for their son.

What do you think? Anything particular surprise you?

Originally posted at NameFreak! on May 14, 2014 and revised for Nameberry.