Baby names of 1909
Mary and John topped the lists in 1909, out of 511,224 births recorded across 3,837 different names. That is 4.6% more than the 1908 files hold.
Girls
| # | Name | Births |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mary | 19,259 |
| 2 | Helen | 9,250 |
| 3 | Margaret | 7,358 |
| 4 | Ruth | 6,509 |
| 5 | Dorothy | 6,253 |
| 6 | Anna | 5,804 |
| 7 | Elizabeth | 5,176 |
| 8 | Mildred | 5,054 |
| 9 | Marie | 4,301 |
| 10 | Alice | 4,170 |
| 11 | Florence | 3,789 |
| 12 | Frances | 3,780 |
| 13 | Ethel | 3,661 |
| 14 | Lillian | 3,596 |
| 15 | Gladys | 3,538 |
| 16 | Edna | 3,429 |
| 17 | Rose | 3,374 |
| 18 | Evelyn | 3,157 |
| 19 | Louise | 3,019 |
| 20 | Irene | 2,961 |
| 21 | Grace | 2,912 |
| 22 | Annie | 2,904 |
| 23 | Catherine | 2,897 |
| 24 | Hazel | 2,708 |
| 25 | Gertrude | 2,622 |
All 200 girls’ names of 1909 (2,548 recorded)
Boys
| # | Name | Births |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | John | 9,590 |
| 2 | William | 7,913 |
| 3 | James | 7,595 |
| 4 | George | 4,688 |
| 5 | Robert | 4,563 |
| 6 | Joseph | 4,348 |
| 7 | Charles | 4,029 |
| 8 | Frank | 3,244 |
| 9 | Edward | 2,935 |
| 10 | Thomas | 2,468 |
| 11 | Henry | 2,411 |
| 12 | Walter | 2,287 |
| 13 | Willie | 2,175 |
| 14 | Harry | 1,924 |
| 15 | Albert | 1,816 |
| 16 | Harold | 1,725 |
| 17 | Paul | 1,676 |
| 18 | Arthur | 1,665 |
| 19 | Clarence | 1,518 |
| 20 | Raymond | 1,441 |
| 21 | Richard | 1,427 |
| 22 | Fred | 1,355 |
| 23 | Joe | 1,292 |
| 24 | Louis | 1,231 |
| 25 | Carl | 1,215 |
All 200 boys’ names of 1909 (1,679 recorded)
Biggest climbers, girls
Names that gained the most ground on 1908:
- Laverna #1,862 → #868 +994
- Nevada #1,862 → #868 +994
- Gayle #1,862 → #961 +901
- Elba #1,676 → #990 +686
- Gertha #1,547 → #935 +612
- Blossom #1,439 → #845 +594
- Jesse #1,547 → #961 +586
- Hermina #1,439 → #868 +571
Jesse 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 1908:
- Toney #1,373 → #590 +783
- Cicero #1,373 → #653 +720
- Alfonzo #1,217 → #679 +538
- Bessie #1,373 → #840 +533
- Orland #1,373 → #840 +533
- Leonardo #1,373 → #840 +533
- Ezell #1,373 → #840 +533
- Angus #1,113 → #590 +523
Bessie 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 1909, girls
Names the SSA had never published before 1909:
First recorded in 1909, boys
Names the SSA had never published before 1909:
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.