Baby names of 1908

Mary and John topped the lists in 1908, out of 488,648 births recorded across 3,640 different names. That is 5.0% more than the 1907 files hold.

← 1907 All years 1909 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Mary	18,665
2	Helen	8,439
3	Margaret	6,976
4	Ruth	6,180
5	Anna	5,860
6	Dorothy	5,703
7	Elizabeth	4,904
8	Mildred	4,624
9	Alice	4,270
10	Marie	4,076
11	Florence	3,883
12	Ethel	3,786
13	Lillian	3,634
14	Frances	3,593
15	Gladys	3,580
16	Rose	3,382
17	Edna	3,365
18	Louise	2,937
19	Grace	2,901
20	Evelyn	2,857
21	Annie	2,820
22	Catherine	2,750
23	Irene	2,732
24	Hazel	2,698
25	Gertrude	2,562

All 200 girls’ names of 1908 (2,434 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	John	9,343
2	William	7,529
3	James	7,012
4	George	4,584
5	Robert	4,219
6	Joseph	4,162
7	Charles	3,929
8	Frank	3,146
9	Edward	2,707
10	Thomas	2,301
11	Henry	2,283
12	Walter	2,192
13	Willie	1,964
14	Harry	1,934
15	Albert	1,642
16	Arthur	1,601
17	Harold	1,542
18	Paul	1,478
19	Clarence	1,428
20	Fred	1,381
20	Raymond	1,381
22	Louis	1,317
23	Richard	1,244
24	Joe	1,209
25	Ralph	1,138

All 200 boys’ names of 1908 (1,584 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1907:

Nila #2,061 → #939 +1,122
Bernetta #2,061 → #939 +1,122
Arnetta #1,821 → #912 +909
Edra #1,512 → #809 +703
Hertha #1,512 → #809 +703
Launa #1,639 → #970 +669
Glenn #1,639 → #970 +669
Dean #1,512 → #939 +573

Glenn and Dean are here because the girls’ 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.

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1907:

Ludwig #1,200 → #566 +634
Norval #1,345 → #712 +633
Guss #1,345 → #744 +601
Vicente #1,345 → #744 +601
Duke #1,345 → #744 +601
Francesco #1,345 → #744 +601
Shelton #1,200 → #613 +587
Clovis #1,345 → #779 +566

First recorded in 1908, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1908:

First recorded in 1908, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1908:

Linzie 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.