Baby names of 1891

Mary and John topped the lists in 1891, out of 286,673 births recorded across 2,454 different names. That is 4.9% fewer than the 1890 files hold.

← 1890 All years 1892 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Mary	11,704
2	Anna	5,099
3	Margaret	3,065
4	Elizabeth	3,059
5	Emma	2,884
6	Florence	2,716
7	Ethel	2,689
8	Minnie	2,428
9	Helen	2,417
10	Bertha	2,372
11	Clara	2,360
12	Bessie	2,323
13	Annie	2,096
14	Grace	2,088
15	Mabel	2,029
16	Alice	2,015
17	Ida	2,002
18	Edna	1,963
19	Ruth	1,857
20	Lillian	1,812
21	Martha	1,744
22	Rose	1,696
23	Ella	1,685
24	Sarah	1,669
25	Nellie	1,647

All 200 girls’ names of 1891 (1,533 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	John	7,680
2	William	6,763
3	James	4,516
4	George	3,931
5	Charles	3,640
6	Frank	2,652
7	Joseph	2,572
8	Robert	2,240
9	Harry	2,132
10	Henry	2,049
11	Edward	1,989
12	Thomas	1,982
13	Walter	1,668
14	Arthur	1,514
15	Fred	1,362
16	Albert	1,207
17	Clarence	1,007
18	Roy	838
19	Louis	786
20	Samuel	753
21	Willie	739
22	Ernest	715
23	Charlie	707
24	Carl	675
25	Earl	674

All 200 boys’ names of 1891 (1,127 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1890:

Aurore #1,338 → #750 +588
Zelpha #1,338 → #750 +588
Leva #1,338 → #839 +499
Vira #1,338 → #839 +499
Sister #1,210 → #727 +483
Ardella #1,210 → #750 +460
Elba #1,210 → #750 +460
Sylva #1,338 → #893 +445

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1890:

Colonel #884 → #397 +487
Mahlon #994 → #524 +470
Hezekiah #884 → #427 +457
Ruby #994 → #564 +430
Alfonso #994 → #597 +397
Essie #994 → #597 +397
Elwin #994 → #597 +397
Hector #884 → #497 +387

Ruby and Essie 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 1891, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1891:

First recorded in 1891, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1891:

Sheridan 14
Carmine 7
Job 6
Vick 6
Buddie 6
Burk 6
Hurbert 6
Adlai 6
Iverson 6
Gifford 6

Sheridan is here because the boys’ file records it: 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.

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.