Baby names of 1893

Mary and John topped the lists in 1893, out of 325,223 births recorded across 2,622 different names. That is 2.7% fewer than the 1892 files hold.

← 1892 All years 1894 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Mary	12,784
2	Anna	5,695
3	Ruth	3,658
4	Margaret	3,565
5	Elizabeth	3,360
6	Helen	3,249
7	Florence	3,231
8	Ethel	3,119
9	Emma	2,968
10	Bertha	2,623
11	Clara	2,532
12	Minnie	2,510
13	Alice	2,434
14	Edna	2,378
15	Bessie	2,352
16	Grace	2,308
17	Annie	2,251
18	Ida	2,247
19	Marie	2,212
20	Lillian	2,193
21	Mabel	2,191
22	Hazel	2,052
23	Rose	2,012
24	Gertrude	1,811
25	Martha	1,805

All 200 girls’ names of 1893 (1,652 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	John	8,049
2	William	7,223
3	James	5,030
4	George	4,320
5	Charles	3,723
6	Joseph	2,997
7	Frank	2,917
8	Robert	2,563
9	Edward	2,309
10	Harry	2,245
11	Henry	2,162
12	Thomas	2,157
13	Walter	2,004
14	Arthur	1,635
15	Fred	1,493
16	Albert	1,353
17	Clarence	1,169
18	Roy	919
19	Willie	882
20	Samuel	851
21	Earl	819
22	Louis	816
23	Ernest	796
24	Carl	786
25	Paul	743

All 200 boys’ names of 1893 (1,179 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1892:

Annabell #1,450 → #713 +737
Helma #1,450 → #794 +656
Claribel #1,278 → #644 +634
Jemima #1,450 → #826 +624
Buena #1,278 → #662 +616
Luetta #1,278 → #687 +591
Gunda #1,450 → #865 +585
Shellie #1,450 → #901 +549

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1892:

Lindsay #1,066 → #391 +675
Carrie #1,066 → #538 +528
Jule #1,066 → #538 +528
Ansel #1,066 → #538 +528
Sanders #1,066 → #538 +528
Elie #1,066 → #572 +494
Cletus #1,066 → #572 +494
Thad #1,066 → #572 +494

Lindsay, Carrie and Jule 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 1893, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1893:

Elmyra 12
Omega 10
Elin 9
Lempi 9
Vanda 8
Loie 8
Catalina 8
Corena 8
Hedwige 7
Orba 7

Orba is here because the girls’ 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.

First recorded in 1893, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1893:

Mayo 8
Thorwald 8
Estel 8
Welton 6
Ferris 6
Link 6
Bolden 6
Avon 6
Welby 6
Roney 6

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.