The Mother of all Baby Names Lists - Top Baby Names of the 20th Century. by Neil Street

The Mother of all Baby Names Lists - Top Baby Names of the 20th Century.
by: Neil Street

We often see "top lists" of baby names -- top ten of 2005, most popular of the decade -- and so on. Readers find these lists fascinating. Now, based on an analysis from the baby names website http://www.babynamesgarden.com comes the mother of all names lists: The Top 100 Baby Names Of The 20th Century (USA).

This fascinating list, based on Social Security card applications for births in the United States, determines and ranks the top 50 boys' names and the top 50 girls' names spanning the entire 20th century. It was compiled using the same methodology as used by the Social Security Administration in compiling their most popular names of the decade lists, i.e. by totaling the raw numbers. But in the analysis by Baby Names Garden, the time period studied is the entire 20th Century.

There are plenty of surprises: Donald in the # 13 all time spot; and Dorothy a top 10 girl's name, to name a couple. Plus, you'll see some fascinating trends such as the top 10 boys' names accounting for nearly 35 million names over the century, while the top 10 girls' account for only about 15 million names, clearly demonstrating the huge variety of girls' names versus boys' names, going back to 1900.

What names are still hot? Amazingly, five boys' names from the top dozen of the 20th Century - Michael, Daniel, Christopher, Joseph and William - are still in the top twelve today. For girls, only Elizabeth (#12 in 2005) shows that kind of endurance. For more than 100 years, parents have been very traditional in picking boys' names and ready to take a chance on something new when it comes to girls' names.

So what were the Top Baby Names of 20th Century? Here are the top ten for each gender:

Boys:

1 James
2 John
3 Robert
4 Michael
5 William
6 David
7 Richard
8 Joseph
9 Charles
10 Thomas

Girls:

1 Mary
2 Patricia
3 Linda
4 Barbara
5 Jennifer
6 Elizabeth
7 Margaret
8 Susan
9 Dorothy
10 Betty

You can see the numbers behind these rankings, plus the full list of top 50 boys' and top 50 girls' names of the 20th Century, at http://www.babynamesgarden.com/decade.aspx