Baby names of 1900

Mary and John topped the lists in 1900, out of 450,258 births recorded across 3,393 different names. That is 32.7% more than the 1899 files hold.

← 1899 All years 1901 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Mary	16,705
2	Helen	6,342
3	Anna	6,114
4	Margaret	5,304
5	Ruth	4,765
6	Elizabeth	4,096
7	Florence	3,920
8	Ethel	3,896
9	Marie	3,856
10	Lillian	3,414
11	Annie	3,324
12	Edna	3,102
13	Emma	3,095
14	Alice	3,059
15	Bessie	3,044
16	Bertha	3,019
17	Grace	2,942
18	Rose	2,844
19	Clara	2,826
20	Mildred	2,800
21	Gladys	2,733
22	Minnie	2,673
23	Gertrude	2,580
24	Pearl	2,512
25	Mabel	2,509

All 200 girls’ names of 1900 (2,223 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	John	9,828
2	William	8,579
3	James	7,245
4	George	5,403
5	Charles	4,098
6	Robert	3,821
7	Joseph	3,714
8	Frank	3,477
9	Edward	2,720
10	Henry	2,606
11	Thomas	2,556
12	Walter	2,298
13	Harry	2,272
14	Willie	2,113
15	Arthur	1,853
16	Albert	1,741
17	Fred	1,646
18	Clarence	1,483
19	Paul	1,288
20	Harold	1,245
21	Roy	1,215
22	Joe	1,179
23	Raymond	1,150
24	Richard	1,141
25	Charlie	1,124

All 200 boys’ names of 1900 (1,506 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1899:

Rosia #1,596 → #656 +940
Josiephine #1,596 → #833 +763
Lelar #1,596 → #833 +763
Carmel #1,596 → #860 +736
Gloria #1,278 → #556 +722
Aleen #1,596 → #917 +679
Otelia #1,596 → #917 +679
Theda #1,596 → #941 +655

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1899:

Bertha #1,051 → #490 +561
Wilber #928 → #402 +526
Pasquale #1,051 → #534 +517
Lonie #1,051 → #534 +517
Boyce #1,051 → #578 +473
Randall #1,051 → #603 +448
Bruno #857 → #446 +411
Graham #1,051 → #649 +402

Bertha and Lonie 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 1900, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1900:

Luciel 14
Clydia 12
Ardena 10
Pecola 10
Ermon 10
Valma 10
Bernita 9
Johnsie 8
Velna 8
Francine 8

Ermon 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 1900, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1900:

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.