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Summary

These Can't-Miss Baby Names Have Been Popular For A Century & They Never Go Out Of Style

So many classics!

Global Staff Writer

The most popular baby names for the past 100 years have been revealed and you really can't go wrong with any of them if you're looking for something that'll stand the test of time.

The U.K.'s Office for National Statistics (ONS) gathered data on baby names over the past century, and they've identified 15 baby names that have managed to consistently stay in the top 100 over that period, reported Chronicle Live.

After some digging around, we also found the top 15 baby names in the United States that have stood the test of time over the past 100 years, and the results are quite interesting.

From the two lists, there are some crossovers of names that have been popular in the U.K. and the U.S. over the past century, and royal names seem to be popping off in both countries.

The names William, Charles and Elizabeth made the cut on both lists, and it looks like the royal family still has a strong influence over people.

Other names that also crossed over on both lists include James, Joseph, David and Michael.

Most of the long-running names happened to be for boys, while girl names saw more changes in popularity over the decades.

Despite all the similar names on the list, there were also some noticeable differences in name trends between the two lists.

For instance, the U.K. list has the name Mohammed, a Muslim name, while the U.S. list has mostly Judeo-Christian names.

Although these names have made it through many years of changing trends and eras, some names from the 1920s have pretty much completely fallen off the radar.

Names like Gwendoline, Doris and Vera were quite popular in the U.K. in the 1920s, reported Chronicle Live, and the last two names were also popular in the U.S. in the same era. That's not so much the case today.

Here is the list of the most popular names in the U.K. from 1921-2021:

  1. Alexander
  2. Charles
  3. Daniel
  4. David
  5. Edward
  6. Elizabeth
  7. George
  8. James
  9. Joseph
  10. Michael
  11. Mohammed
  12. Robert
  13. Sarah
  14. Thomas
  15. William

Here is the list of the most popular names in the U.S. from 1921-2021:

  1. James
  2. William
  3. Evelyn
  4. Jack
  5. Benjamin
  6. Henry
  7. Joseph
  8. Thomas
  9. Elizabeth
  10. Daniel
  11. Michael
  12. Anna
  13. Samuel
  14. Alice
  15. Charles

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.

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    • Sameen Chaudhry (she/her) was a Toronto-based Staff Writer for Narcity's Global Desk. She has a Bachelor of Arts and Science from the University of Toronto, where she majored in political science and philosophy. Before joining Narcity, she wrote for 6ixBuzzTV, covering topics like Toronto's music scene, local real estate stories, and breaking news.

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