US baby names: the 1880s

Every American decade leaves its mark on the registry books, and the 1880s are no exception. In the Social Security Administration's public records, Mary led among girls with 91,668 babies registered over the decade, and John came first among boys with 89,949. In all, the decade added up to 1,312,690 girl registrations and 1,095,401 boy registrations; the tables below list the 100 most common names of each sex, with the official counts.

Girls' top 100 of the 1880s

Boys' top 100 of the 1880s

The picture of the 1880s

Mary opens the historical series as the most registered girls' name of the 1880s: on its own it accounted for 7.0% of all girls registered in the decade. John, the boys' leader, concentrated 8.2% of boys' registrations, and each sex's top 10 added up to 22.5% of girls' and 41.3% of boys' records, a degree of concentration the following decades would slowly dismantle.

One caveat about the sample: since the series is built from Social Security number applications, and the system was only created in 1935, the earliest decades reflect only the people born back then who later joined the register. It is a faithful portrait of the names, slightly biased in the volumes.

Compare with the 1890s, which crowned Mary and John. The archive with every decade shows the whole timeline at once.

Source: Social Security Administration, public data. The series comes from Social Security number applications in the United States and starts in 1880; names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a year are excluded for privacy. Snapshot of 2026-07-10.

Last updated: 2026-07-13 · Methodology and sources