How the most popular baby name changed, decade by decade.

Every strip on this page is a real Baby Names strip from the Huezle app, drawn by the app’s own code. More about Baby Names.

How to read the strips

Each strip is one name over 146 years. Each band is one year, from 1880 on the left to 2024 on the right, one band for every third year. The colour is the share of babies of that sex given the name that year: pale blush for rare, rose for common, deep plum for everywhere. A long reign at the top shows up as a long dark stretch.

Mary’s eighty years

18802024

• Rare
• Common
• Everywhere

Mary was the top girls’ name in every sampled year from 1880 to 1946, and the top name of every decade from the 1880s to the 1950s. In 1880 it was given to about 1 girl in 13. Linda edged past it in 1949 and 1952, and Mary’s last year on top in this data is 1961. By 2024 it was about 1 girl in 730.

The boys’ list had its own long reign at the start. John was the top boys’ name in every sampled year from 1880 to 1922, fifteen in a row, at about 1 boy in 11 in 1880. Then the lead passed between a few old names for thirty years before one new one took it.

18802024

• Rare
• Common
• Everywhere

Michael’s forty years

18802024

• Rare
• Common
• Everywhere

Michael is a different shape from John. It was in use from the start but never common: rarer than 1 boy in 150 in every sampled year before 1937. Then it rose fast, and it was the top boys’ name in every sampled year from 1955 to 1997, fifteen in a row, matching John’s run. At its 1967 peak it was given to about 1 boy in 21.

The short reigns

On the girls’ side the long reigns ended with Mary. After her the top name changes every decade or so, and each winner draws as a short dark patch rather than a long one. Jennifer is the clearest example: it was barely recorded before the 1930s, led every sampled year from 1970 to 1982, and had faded to about 1 girl in 2,900 by 2024.

• Jennifer
• Emma
• Liam

18802024

• Rare
• Common
• Everywhere

Since 2000 the turnover has been faster still. The number one in the sampled years passes through five different girls’ names and three boys’ names in 25 years, and each decade has a different leader. Emma is the odd one out among recent winners: its strip is dark at the left too, because it was a top name in the 1880s before it nearly vanished, a round trip that names that came back follows. Liam is the opposite: blank, meaning fewer than five babies a year, until the 1950s, and the top boys’ name in 2018, 2021 and 2024.

What the data is

The numbers come from the US Social Security Administration’s national baby-name records, counted separately for girls and boys. The strips sample every third year, so a decade is judged on the three or four years it contains, and a close race can depend on which years those are. For the names that belong to one age group, see baby names by generation; for names that never faded, see timeless baby names.

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