These Old-School Baby Names Were Popular 100 Years Ago & They're So Unique Today

Mildred and Ruth may have been popular baby names 100 years ago, but not anymore, according to the latest data.

The top choices for baby names have changed a lot over the last century, and while there are a few that have stood the test of time, the 1920 list looks much different than the one today.

The U.S. Social Security Administration has been tracking first name data for over a century, and their info shows just how much our preferences have changed.

The list of the top 10 baby girl names in the 1920s listed Mary, Dorothy, Helen, Betty, Margaret, Ruth, Virginia, Doris, Mildred and Frances. Some of those names are considered retro now, while others are actually pretty rare.

For example, Mildred saw its main popularity in 1920 with 18,059 children in the U.S. named as such. However, by 1984 that number had gone down to 150 births.

Fast forward 100 years and we’re seeing a brand-new list that includes the names Olivia, Emma, Charlotte, Amelia, Ava, Sophia, Isabella, Mia, Evelyn and Harper.

Mia didn’t see much popularity until the early 2000s and really blew up in 2020 with over 13,000 parents using the name. Harper doesn't even show up in the top 1,000 names in the database until 2004.

With boy names, James and William managed to hover in the same spots over the last century. In 1920, Robert, John, Charles, George, Joseph, Richard, Edward and Donald also took the top spots.

Charles was extremely popular in the late 1920s and has seen a significant drop in use since then.

Now we’re seeing names like Liam, Noah, Oliver, Elijah, Benjamin, Lucas, Henry and Theodore make the cut.

While the name Noah was not common 100 years ago, it's now one of the top names with 18,739 births in 2021.

Compared to the U.S., new parents in Canada have similar ideas when it comes to naming their newborns.

Canada’s data shows that in 2022 the top names for girls are Olivia, Emma, Amelia, Sophia, Aria, Charlotte, Zoey, Mila, Lily, and Mia.

Whereas for boys, the hottest names include Noah, Jackson, Liam, Lucas, Oliver, Leo, Theo, Jack, Aidan, and Benjamin.

As you can see there are a lot of crossovers between the two neighbouring countries.

It’ll be interesting to see how many of these names make the list 100 years from now in 2122!

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