Baby names of 1881

Mary and John topped the lists in 1881, out of 192,688 births recorded across 1,829 different names. That is 4.4% fewer than the 1880 files hold.

← 1880 All years 1882 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Mary	6,919
2	Anna	2,698
3	Emma	2,034
4	Elizabeth	1,852
5	Margaret	1,658
6	Minnie	1,653
7	Ida	1,439
8	Annie	1,326
9	Bertha	1,324
10	Alice	1,308
11	Clara	1,242
12	Sarah	1,226
13	Ella	1,148
14	Nellie	1,096
15	Grace	1,089
16	Florence	1,046
17	Martha	1,044
18	Cora	969
19	Laura	962
20	Carrie	958
21	Maude	923
22	Bessie	903
23	Mabel	893
24	Gertrude	791
25	Ethel	788

All 200 girls’ names of 1881 (938 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	John	8,768
2	William	8,524
3	James	5,441
4	George	4,664
5	Charles	4,636
6	Frank	2,834
7	Joseph	2,456
8	Henry	2,339
9	Thomas	2,282
10	Edward	2,177
11	Robert	2,140
12	Harry	2,002
13	Walter	1,670
14	Arthur	1,575
15	Fred	1,418
16	Albert	1,319
17	Samuel	919
18	David	750
19	Louis	746
20	Clarence	668
20	Charlie	668
22	Richard	641
23	Joe	639
24	Andrew	588
25	Ernest	571

All 200 boys’ names of 1881 (996 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1880:

Isa #836 → #405 +431
Opal #836 → #447 +389
Natalie #836 → #491 +345
Lauretta #738 → #434 +304
Arvilla #738 → #434 +304
Judith #836 → #539 +297
Wilma #836 → #539 +297
Joe #836 → #539 +297

Joe 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.

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1880:

Noble #809 → #318 +491
Buck #909 → #460 +449
Ivy #909 → #460 +449
Chin #909 → #533 +376
Ransom #909 → #533 +376
Artie #909 → #563 +346
Bradley #909 → #563 +346
Avery #640 → #324 +316

Ivy, Artie and Avery 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 1881, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1881:

Celeste 14
Adell 14
Zadie 11
Audrey 11
Elta 10
Lelah 10
Petra 10
Aura 10
Nanie 10
Eveline 10

First recorded in 1881, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1881:

Newell 14
Brown 14
Carter 12
Lucas 11
Meyer 10
Paris 10
Bee 10
Harper 9
Orange 9
Dolph 9

Paris and Harper 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.

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.