Baby names of 1911

Mary and John topped the lists in 1911, out of 644,279 births recorded across 4,394 different names. That is 9.1% more than the 1910 files hold.

← 1910 All years 1912 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Mary	24,390
2	Helen	11,801
3	Margaret	9,279
4	Dorothy	8,869
5	Ruth	8,003
6	Anna	6,753
7	Elizabeth	6,298
8	Mildred	6,271
9	Marie	5,017
10	Frances	4,967
11	Alice	4,813
12	Florence	4,424
13	Lillian	4,367
14	Rose	4,151
15	Ethel	4,141
16	Evelyn	4,076
17	Edna	3,957
18	Gladys	3,933
19	Louise	3,725
20	Catherine	3,565
21	Irene	3,502
22	Ruby	3,372
23	Grace	3,304
24	Annie	3,298
25	Hazel	3,290

All 200 girls’ names of 1911 (2,868 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	John	13,446
2	William	10,593
3	James	9,952
4	George	6,586
5	Robert	6,526
6	Joseph	6,488
7	Charles	5,725
8	Frank	4,314
9	Edward	4,164
10	Thomas	3,292
11	Henry	3,167
12	Walter	3,074
13	Harry	2,538
14	Willie	2,492
15	Albert	2,478
16	Harold	2,448
17	Paul	2,393
18	Arthur	2,376
19	Raymond	2,088
20	Richard	2,030
21	Louis	1,838
22	Fred	1,808
23	Clarence	1,775
24	Ralph	1,674
25	Jack	1,668

All 200 boys’ names of 1911 (1,999 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1910:

Laurette #1,935 → #932 +1,003
Glenda #1,521 → #838 +683
Ana #1,421 → #741 +680
Vilma #1,521 → #898 +623
Emmaline #1,421 → #898 +523
Herminia #1,335 → #853 +482
Sabina #1,171 → #704 +467
Felice #1,421 → #958 +463

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1910:

Wyman #1,589 → #689 +900
Vincenzo #1,589 → #689 +900
Rodger #1,589 → #707 +882
Cedric #1,589 → #793 +796
Hughie #1,589 → #793 +796
Rosendo #1,589 → #856 +733
Holland #1,589 → #896 +693
Monte #1,589 → #896 +693

Holland 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 1911, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1911:

Ersel 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 1911, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1911:

Colie 16
Hymen 12
Nello 12
Stanislaw 10
Atlee 9
Casmer 9
Gustavo 8
Pius 8
Blease 8
Vardaman 8

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.