Data story · Baby Names
Timeless baby names that never went out of style.
Most popular names have a moment and then fade. A few never do. Over 146 years of American births, a handful stayed in steady use through every fashion, and on a strip of colour they are the ones with no pale gaps.
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. Each band is one year, running 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, and deep plum for everywhere. A timeless name is coloured from end to end. A fashionable one has a dark patch and pale on either side.
How “timeless” was measured
For each of the 200 names in the data, compare its best sampled year with its worst. The typical boys’ name was about 90 times as common in its best year as in its worst, and the typical girls’ name about 430 times; a third of the girls’ names drop to nothing at some point. The steadiest names are the ones where that ratio is small.
Elizabeth: the timeless girls’ name
- Rare
- Common
- Everywhere
Elizabeth’s best year was 1880, at about 1 girl in 47, and its worst is the most recent, 2024, at about 1 in 234: a ratio of five. It is the only girls’ name in the data that was given to at least 1 girl in 500 in every sampled year. Compare the most popular girls’ name of all, which went from about 1 girl in 13 in 1880 to about 1 in 730 in 2024.
- Rare
- Common
- Everywhere
Samuel: the steadiest name of all
- Rare
- Common
- Everywhere
By this measure Samuel is the steadiest name of either sex, with a ratio of 4.2. It was about 1 boy in 108 in 1880 and about 1 in 206 in 2024, and even in its worst year, 1961, it was still about 1 boy in 455. It never had a moment at the top, which is exactly why it never had one to lose.
The giants that never left
- James
- John
- Rare
- Common
- Everywhere
Some names were too big to be steady. John was given to about 1 boy in 11 in 1880, and no name is that common now. But it never went away: its worst sampled year was still about 1 boy in 214. Only five boys’ names in the data were given to at least 1 boy in 250 in every sampled year, and James is the strongest of them today, at about 1 boy in 145 in 2024, down from about 1 in 18 at its 1943 peak.
Why are the timeless names mostly boys’ names? Eighteen of the 22 names whose best year was no more than twenty times their worst are boys’ names. The data shows the pattern but not the reason. One common explanation is that boys are more often named after a father or grandfather, which keeps the same names in use across generations.
What the data is
Shares come from the US Social Security Administration’s national baby-name records, counted separately for girls and boys, and sampled every third year from 1880 to 2024. Names that faded and then returned are on names that came back; names that did the opposite of timeless are on one-hit wonder names; and the names that ruled one age group are on baby names by generation.
Huezle shows you a strip like Samuel’s and asks for the name. A steady strip is the hardest kind to place.
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What baby names never go out of style?
Measured over 146 years of US births, the steadiest are Samuel for boys and Elizabeth for girls. Samuel was at most 4.2 times as common in its best sampled year as in its worst, and Elizabeth five times.
What is the most timeless girls’ name?
Elizabeth. It was given to at least 1 girl in 500 in every sampled year from 1880 to 2024, the only girls’ name in the data that was.
Is James still a popular name?
Yes. James was given to about 1 boy in 18 at its peak in 1943 and about 1 in 145 in 2024, and it never dropped below 1 boy in 250 in any sampled year.
More guides
- Old-fashioned baby names that came back.Emma, Ella, Henry and Sophia: Victorian baby names that nearly vanished in the 1970s and 1980s and returned, drawn from 146 years of US births.
- One-hit wonder baby names.Dewey, Debra, Brittany, Jayden: US baby names that shot up and fell away within a few years, drawn as 146 years of births, one band per third year.
- How the most popular baby name changed, decade by decade.Mary led the girls for eight decades and Michael the boys for four. Since 2000 no name has held on. How America’s number one baby name changed, in strips of colour.
- Baby names by generation.The names that belong to one generation more than any other, from Debra to Brittany to Liam, measured over 146 years of US births and drawn as strips of colour.
Now try naming one yourself.
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