Baby names of 1890

Mary and John topped the lists in 1890, out of 301,401 births recorded across 2,475 different names. That is 4.3% more than the 1889 files hold.

← 1889 All years 1891 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Mary	12,078
2	Anna	5,233
3	Elizabeth	3,112
4	Margaret	3,100
5	Emma	2,980
6	Florence	2,744
7	Ethel	2,718
8	Minnie	2,650
9	Clara	2,496
10	Bertha	2,388
11	Bessie	2,370
12	Helen	2,312
13	Grace	2,278
14	Alice	2,271
15	Annie	2,220
16	Ida	2,178
17	Mabel	2,058
18	Edna	1,973
19	Lillian	1,862
20	Nellie	1,821
21	Sarah	1,786
22	Martha	1,784
23	Ella	1,758
24	Pearl	1,741
25	Rose	1,725

All 200 girls’ names of 1890 (1,534 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	John	8,502
2	William	7,494
3	James	5,097
4	George	4,458
5	Charles	4,061
6	Frank	3,078
7	Joseph	2,670
8	Robert	2,541
9	Henry	2,349
10	Harry	2,345
11	Edward	2,282
12	Thomas	2,200
13	Walter	1,905
14	Arthur	1,610
15	Fred	1,506
16	Albert	1,417
17	Clarence	1,018
18	Roy	941
19	Louis	860
20	Samuel	815
21	Charlie	797
22	Ernest	774
23	Willie	758
24	Earl	744
25	Richard	743

All 200 boys’ names of 1890 (1,161 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1889:

Electa #1,279 → #667 +612
Lular #1,279 → #693 +586
Alvena #1,147 → #599 +548
Prudie #1,279 → #758 +521
Tempie #1,147 → #642 +505
Harry #1,279 → #791 +488
Claude #1,279 → #791 +488
Macie #1,147 → #667 +480

Harry and Claude 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 1889:

Hoyt #974 → #511 +463
Ebb #974 → #533 +441
Eva #974 → #603 +371
Perley #974 → #603 +371
Wendell #974 → #603 +371
Jimmy #974 → #603 +371
Minor #878 → #511 +367
Elzie #722 → #376 +346

Eva 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 1890, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1890:

Verena 11
Nobie 10
Esma 8
Modeste 8
Arbie 8
Melia 8
Verla 8
Lallie 8
Gwen 8
Versie 7

Arbie 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 1890, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1890:

Mckinley 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.