If you were alive in the 1980s, it shouldn’t surprise you to hear that the hottest baby names during that decade included Jessica, Jennifer, Joshua and Ashley. But do you know what the most popular baby names were 100 years before that?
The Social Security Administration’s website offers lists of the top baby names of every decade going back to the 1880s. Looking at the earliest list, it’s clear that times have changed. Names like Minnie, Ida, Bertha and Clarence ― which have fallen into relative obscurity today ― were quite popular between 1880 and 1889. Still, there are a number of top names that remain popular today, like Emma, James and William.
Keep scrolling to see the 50 most popular names for boys and girls born in the U.S. in the 1880s.
Girls
- Mary
- Anna
- Emma
- Elizabeth
- Margaret
- Minnie
- Ida
- Bertha
- Clara
- Alice
- Annie
- Florence
- Bessie
- Grace
- Ethel
- Sarah
- Ella
- Martha
- Nellie
- Mabel
- Laura
- Carrie
- Cora
- Helen
- Maude
- Lillian
- Gertrude
- Rose
- Edna
- Pearl
- Edith
- Jennie
- Hattie
- Mattie
- Eva
- Julia
- Myrtle
- Louise
- Lillie
- Jessie
- Frances
- Catherine
- Lula
- Lena
- Marie
- Ada
- Josephine
- Fannie
- Lucy
- Dora
Boys
- John
- William
- James
- George
- Charles
- Frank
- Joseph
- Henry
- Robert
- Thomas
- Edward
- Harry
- Walter
- Arthur
- Fred
- Albert
- Samuel
- Clarence
- Louis
- David
- Joe
- Charlie
- Richard
- Ernest
- Roy
- Will
- Andrew
- Jesse
- Oscar
- Willie
- Daniel
- Benjamin
- Carl
- Sam
- Alfred
- Earl
- Peter
- Elmer
- Frederick
- Howard
- Lewis
- Ralph
- Herbert
- Paul
- Lee
- Tom
- Herman
- Martin
- Jacob
- Michael
