Naming conventions are a fascinating topic reflecting cultural icons, history, family traditions, and other signs of the times. You can explore all of this through Kremp’s infographic showing the most popular baby names every decade over the last century. Through the infographic we can see that some names are evergreen, some rise and fall (and maybe even rise again) in popularity, while others are short-lived trends.
For example, these boys’ names were the most popular in 1920:
- John
- William
- Robert
- James
- Charles
- George
- Joseph
- Edward
- Frank
- Richard
And these were the most popular boy names in 2023:
- Liam
- Noah
- Oliver
- James
- Elijah
- Mateo
- Theodore
- Henry
- Lucas
- William
As for girl names, these were the most popular in 1920:
- Mary
- Dorothy
- Helen
- Margaret
- Ruth
- Mildred
- Virginia
- Elizabeth
- Frances
- Anna
As compared to 2023 when the top girl names were:
- Olivia
- Emma
- Charlotte
- Amelia
- Sophia
- Mia
- Isabella
- Ava
- Evelyn
- Luna
We can see that boy names are a little more consistent in popularity. Names like John remained popular for decades before fading while names like James stayed on the chart for years dropped off briefly before returning to make the top 10 in 2023. Other names like Ethan, Jayden, Aiden, and Justin experienced only brief popularity for a decade.
On the girl’s side, no names that were popular in the 1920s remain until 2023. Girls’ names have more variety and more short-lived trends. For example, Frances, Anna, Doris, Joan, Judith, Shirley, Kathleen, Debra, Cynthia, Tammy, Tracy, Kimberly, Heather, Nicole, Lauren, Taylor, Chlore, Abigail, Alexis, Harper, and Hannah are all names that only remained popular for a decade. That’s a lot more variety than what we see on the boys’ chart. To explore more fascinating names or get some inspiration, see what other trends you can spot in this fun infographic.
