Baby names of 1905
Mary and John topped the lists in 1905, out of 423,923 births recorded across 3,331 different names. That is 5.1% more than the 1904 files hold.
Girls
| # | Name | Births |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mary | 16,067 |
| 2 | Helen | 6,811 |
| 3 | Margaret | 5,690 |
| 4 | Anna | 5,424 |
| 5 | Ruth | 5,068 |
| 6 | Elizabeth | 4,121 |
| 7 | Dorothy | 3,937 |
| 8 | Mildred | 3,758 |
| 9 | Marie | 3,643 |
| 10 | Alice | 3,610 |
| 11 | Florence | 3,478 |
| 12 | Ethel | 3,401 |
| 13 | Lillian | 3,185 |
| 14 | Gladys | 2,996 |
| 15 | Edna | 2,953 |
| 16 | Frances | 2,887 |
| 17 | Annie | 2,793 |
| 18 | Rose | 2,724 |
| 19 | Grace | 2,630 |
| 20 | Bessie | 2,446 |
| 21 | Bertha | 2,434 |
| 22 | Clara | 2,397 |
| 23 | Louise | 2,367 |
| 24 | Irene | 2,357 |
| 25 | Hazel | 2,351 |
All 200 girls’ names of 1905 (2,234 recorded)
Boys
| # | Name | Births |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | John | 8,059 |
| 2 | William | 6,495 |
| 3 | James | 6,042 |
| 4 | George | 4,256 |
| 5 | Charles | 3,608 |
| 6 | Robert | 3,410 |
| 7 | Joseph | 3,302 |
| 8 | Frank | 2,837 |
| 9 | Edward | 2,366 |
| 10 | Thomas | 2,135 |
| 11 | Henry | 2,126 |
| 12 | Walter | 1,902 |
| 13 | Willie | 1,782 |
| 14 | Harry | 1,619 |
| 15 | Albert | 1,532 |
| 16 | Arthur | 1,505 |
| 17 | Clarence | 1,377 |
| 18 | Fred | 1,284 |
| 19 | Paul | 1,262 |
| 20 | Harold | 1,258 |
| 21 | Raymond | 1,159 |
| 22 | Richard | 1,033 |
| 23 | Joe | 1,024 |
| 24 | Roy | 1,016 |
| 25 | Louis | 981 |
All 200 boys’ names of 1905 (1,421 recorded)
Biggest climbers, girls
Names that gained the most ground on 1904:
Biggest climbers, boys
Names that gained the most ground on 1904:
- Ludwig #1,205 → #615 +590
- Domenick #1,205 → #666 +539
- Conley #1,205 → #699 +506
- Cloyd #1,205 → #699 +506
- Elgin #1,205 → #699 +506
- Finley #1,205 → #741 +464
- Jennie #1,205 → #741 +464
- Nora #1,205 → #741 +464
Finley, Jennie and Nora 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 1905, girls
Names the SSA had never published before 1905:
First recorded in 1905, boys
Names the SSA had never published before 1905:
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.