Baby names of 1902

Mary and John topped the lists in 1902, out of 386,733 births recorded across 3,065 different names. That is 11.8% more than the 1901 files hold.

← 1901 All years 1903 →

Girls

#	Name	Births
1	Mary	14,486
2	Helen	5,967
3	Anna	5,288
4	Margaret	5,011
5	Ruth	4,384
6	Elizabeth	3,694
7	Florence	3,509
8	Marie	3,424
9	Ethel	3,295
10	Alice	3,135
11	Lillian	3,063
12	Gladys	2,809
13	Edna	2,754
14	Mildred	2,750
15	Dorothy	2,707
16	Annie	2,664
17	Grace	2,642
18	Emma	2,514
19	Bessie	2,448
20	Rose	2,444
21	Clara	2,432
22	Bertha	2,372
23	Frances	2,326
24	Mabel	2,280
25	Hazel	2,238

All 200 girls’ names of 1902 (2,042 recorded)

Boys

#	Name	Births
1	John	7,907
2	William	6,617
3	James	5,592
4	George	4,223
5	Charles	3,361
6	Robert	3,180
7	Joseph	3,098
8	Frank	2,756
9	Edward	2,294
10	Henry	2,154
11	Thomas	2,134
12	Walter	1,858
13	Harry	1,750
14	Willie	1,565
15	Arthur	1,487
16	Albert	1,375
17	Clarence	1,292
18	Fred	1,286
19	Harold	1,077
20	Paul	1,067
21	Raymond	1,064
22	Roy	1,002
23	Joe	955
24	Carl	952
25	Louis	912

All 200 boys’ names of 1902 (1,320 recorded)

Biggest climbers, girls

Names that gained the most ground on 1901:

Lolita #1,679 → #648 +1,031
Cathleen #1,679 → #818 +861
Margarite #1,679 → #936 +743
Maple #1,679 → #936 +743
Mignon #1,679 → #972 +707
Venus #1,466 → #773 +693
Alline #1,466 → #849 +617
Ana #1,466 → #872 +594

Biggest climbers, boys

Names that gained the most ground on 1901:

Judge #1,058 → #507 +551
Ottis #1,058 → #536 +522
Lonzo #1,058 → #556 +502
Eldred #1,058 → #583 +475
Rogers #943 → #475 +468
Ocie #1,058 → #615 +443
Ludwig #1,058 → #615 +443
Lafayette #1,058 → #615 +443

Ocie 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 1902, girls

Names the SSA had never published before 1902:

Ozell 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 1902, boys

Names the SSA had never published before 1902:

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.