Baby names of 1894

Mary and John topped the lists in 1894, out of 338,690 births recorded across 2,705 different names. That is 4.1% more than the 1893 files hold.

← 1893 All years 1895 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Mary	13,151
2	Anna	5,565
3	Margaret	3,700
4	Helen	3,676
5	Elizabeth	3,425
6	Ruth	3,372
7	Ethel	3,287
8	Florence	3,233
9	Emma	2,937
10	Marie	2,649
11	Clara	2,603
12	Minnie	2,592
13	Bessie	2,520
14	Bertha	2,496
15	Edna	2,458
16	Lillian	2,441
17	Alice	2,414
18	Annie	2,393
19	Grace	2,361
20	Mabel	2,221
21	Ida	2,195
22	Rose	2,126
23	Hazel	2,103
24	Martha	1,968
25	Gertrude	1,908

All 200 girls’ names of 1894 (1,702 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	John	8,237
2	William	7,274
3	James	5,110
4	George	4,365
5	Charles	3,788
6	Joseph	2,977
7	Frank	2,863
8	Robert	2,497
9	Henry	2,278
10	Harry	2,189
11	Edward	2,179
12	Thomas	2,170
13	Walter	2,010
14	Arthur	1,712
15	Fred	1,475
16	Albert	1,447
17	Clarence	1,185
18	Roy	1,018
19	Willie	986
20	Earl	896
21	Louis	869
22	Carl	861
23	Paul	824
24	Ernest	821
25	Richard	808

All 200 boys’ names of 1894 (1,239 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1893:

Versie #1,437 → #643 +794
Nadine #1,277 → #664 +613
Genoveva #1,437 → #850 +587
Lavada #1,277 → #719 +558
Libby #1,437 → #905 +532
Maida #1,437 → #905 +532
Littie #1,437 → #905 +532
Margaretha #1,437 → #905 +532

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1893:

Orrin #1,035 → #521 +514
Levy #1,035 → #521 +514
Alvie #907 → #419 +488
Jonnie #1,035 → #567 +468
Carson #1,035 → #594 +441
Hervey #1,035 → #594 +441
Verner #907 → #480 +427
Loyal #1,035 → #631 +404

Jonnie 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.

First recorded in 1894, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1894:

Marrie 9
Beatriz 9
Carola 9
Loa 8
Leeta 8
Justa 7
Calista 7
Octava 7
Sanna 7
Lillar 7

First recorded in 1894, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1894:

Erby 8
Arvel 8
Hezzie 7
Alston 7
Hebert 7
Vinton 7
Kurt 7
Clemon 7
Oddie 7
Ramsey 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.