Baby names of 1888

Mary and John topped the lists in 1888, out of 299,474 births recorded across 2,454 different names. That is 21.1% more than the 1887 files hold.

← 1887 All years 1889 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Mary	11,754
2	Anna	4,982
3	Elizabeth	3,224
4	Emma	3,087
5	Margaret	2,904
6	Minnie	2,654
7	Bertha	2,450
8	Florence	2,444
9	Ethel	2,374
10	Bessie	2,278
11	Clara	2,230
12	Ida	2,229
13	Alice	2,202
14	Annie	2,188
15	Grace	2,090
16	Helen	1,847
17	Mabel	1,830
18	Ella	1,774
19	Martha	1,769
20	Sarah	1,755
21	Nellie	1,736
22	Edna	1,687
23	Lillian	1,656
24	Carrie	1,647
25	Laura	1,624

All 200 girls’ names of 1888 (1,474 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	John	9,247
2	William	8,705
3	James	5,562
4	George	4,912
5	Charles	4,591
6	Frank	3,459
7	Joseph	2,993
8	Robert	2,814
9	Harry	2,759
10	Henry	2,596
11	Edward	2,470
12	Thomas	2,449
13	Walter	2,040
14	Arthur	1,710
15	Fred	1,665
16	Albert	1,569
17	Clarence	1,022
18	Samuel	931
19	Louis	884
20	Roy	856
21	David	801
22	Charlie	796
23	Joe	789
24	Willie	786
25	Benjamin	781

All 200 boys’ names of 1888 (1,177 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1887:

Zilpha #1,147 → #612 +535
Eudora #1,147 → #636 +511
Lorraine #1,036 → #558 +478
Manie #1,147 → #690 +457
Tinnie #1,147 → #690 +457
Dillie #1,147 → #690 +457
Leanna #1,147 → #690 +457
Nelia #1,036 → #612 +424

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1887:

Reed #921 → #505 +416
Dell #921 → #505 +416
Simeon #819 → #442 +377
Hardy #752 → #377 +375
Hazel #921 → #554 +367
Noel #921 → #554 +367
Walton #921 → #580 +341
Bessie #921 → #580 +341

Hazel and Bessie are here because the boys’ file records them: the SSA publishes every name given to five or more babies of one sex, and a rank is a position within that list. It is not a claim about whose name it is.

First recorded in 1888, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1888:

Ebba 18
Arlene 9
Dellia 9
Milda 8
Zennie 8
Neola 8
Allena 7
Lurena 7
Chrissie 7
Carie 7

First recorded in 1888, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1888:

Orvel 9
Hughie 9
Carlisle 9
Angel 8
Waymon 8
Horton 8
Burnie 7
Sonny 7
Arno 7
Nils 7

Try it on yourself

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby-name files. Names given to fewer than five babies in a year are not published, so the totals here run below the true number of births. How far below is not the same in every year: the files hold 201,484 births for 1880 and 3,315,343 for 2025, so a change from one year to the next in the early decades is partly a change in what the record covers.