The most popular baby name of each year 1915-2014
- Updated
Each generation cycles through its own set of popular names, but some have stood the test of time for decades.
- Data curated by MooseRoots.com
- Updated
Each generation cycles through its own set of popular names, but some have stood the test of time for decades. If you want to give your child a name that will seemingly never go out of style, there are a number of solid options to choose from. Of course, if you’re looking for something a little more unique that doesn’t cross the line into unconventional, you could always bring back an old favorite from decades past that is currently less common.
MooseRoots used data from the Social Security Administration to determine the top three male and female names each year since 1915.
There’s a good chance you probably know at least one John, James, Robert, Mary, Linda, and Jennifer, so it should come as no surprise that these classics were chart toppers for years. Others — Alexis, Olivia, Brittany — made it into the top three a couple times, but ultimately faded out.
For each year, starting with 1915, we provide the top names in order of first, second and third for each gender, and a notable event from that year. See which names were most common in the year you were born.
- Updated
1915
Top Female Names: Mary, Helen, Dorothy
Top Male Names: John, William, James
Notable Event: "The Birth of a Nation," an incredibly controversial movie, opened in Los Angeles and went on to be the highest-grossing film at the time.
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1916
Top Female Names: Mary, Helen, Dorothy
Top Male Names: John, William, James
Notable Event: America elected the first female to Congress, Jeannette Rankin of Montana.
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1917
Top Female Names: Mary, Helen, Dorothy
Top Male Names: John, William, James
Notable Event: The United States entered World War I, declaring war on Germany.
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1918
Top Female Names: Mary, Helen, Dorothy
Top Male Names: John, William, James
Notable Event: The 1918 flu pandemic infected 500 million people worldwide, killing 50 to 100 million of them. The total number of people lost equated to between three and five percent of the world's population at the time.
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1919
Top Female Names: Mary, Helen, Dorothy
Top Male Names: John, William, James
Notable Event: The signing of the Treaty of Versailles ended World War I.
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1920
Top Female Names: Mary, Dorothy, Helen
Top Male Names: John, William, Robert
Notable Event: Pittsburgh and Detroit became the first cities to broadcast radio programs.
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1921
Top Female Names: Mary, Dorothy, Helen
Top Male Names: John, Robert, William
Notable Event: The then-New York Giants faced the New York Yankees in the World Series. The Giants won, walking Babe Ruth a notable three times in Game 2.
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1922
Top Female Names: Mary, Dorothy, Helen
Top Male Names: John, Robert, William
Notable Event: The first track and field competitions for women were held at the inaugural Women's World Games.
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1923
Top Female Names: Mary, Dorothy, Helen
Top Male Names: John, Robert, William
Notable Event: Women's suffragist Alice Paul introduced The Equal Rights Amendment to the Senate.
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1924
Top Female Names: Mary, Dorothy, Helen
Top Male Names: Robert, John, William
Notable Event: President Calvin Coolidge beat former Solicitor General John W. Davis and Sen. Robert M. La Follette, Wisc., for the presidency.
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1925
Top Female Names: Mary, Dorothy, Betty
Top Male Names: Robert, John, William
Notable Event: Wyoming elected the first female governor, Nellie Tayloe Ross.
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1926
Top Female Names: Mary, Dorothy, Betty
Top Male Names: Robert, John, James
Notable Event: The Radio Corporation of America founded the National Broadcasting Company. NBC is now the oldest broadcast network in the U.S.
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1927
Top Female Names: Mary, Dorothy, Betty
Top Male Names: Robert, John, James
Notable Event: The first motion picture with sound, "The Jazz Singer," was released.
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1928
Top Female Names: Mary, Betty, Dorothy
Top Male Names: Robert, John, James
Notable Event: Disney released the still-iconic "Steamboat Willie" animated feature, starring Mickey Mouse.
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1929
Top Female Names: Mary, Betty, Dorothy
Top Male Names: Robert, James, John
Notable Event: The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as Black Tuesday, occurred at the end of the year and was the worst stock market crash at the time. A 10-year recession, known as the Great Depression, began as a result, affecting every industrialized Western country.
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1930
Top Female Names: Mary, Betty, Dorothy
Top Male Names: Robert, James, John
Notable Event: The Dust Bowl disrupted the ecology and agriculture of both the U.S. and Canada. With the Great Plains experiencing the worst drought and wind erosion, the Dust Bowl left over 500,000 Americans homeless.
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1931
Top Female Names: Mary, Betty, Dorothy
Top Male Names: Robert, James, John
Notable Event: The iconic Empire State Building opened its doors for the first time in New York City.
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1932
Top Female Names: Mary, Betty, Barbara
Top Male Names: Robert, James, John
Notable Event: Amelia Earhart took her famous solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
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1933
Top Female Names: Mary, Betty, Barbara
Top Male Names: Robert, James, John
Notable Event: Prohibition, a nationwide ban on the sale, production, transportation and importation of alcohol, ended with the ratification of the 21st Amendment.
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1934
Top Female Names: Mary, Betty, Barbara
Top Male Names: Robert, James, John
Notable Event: The Indian Reorganization Act, also known as the Indian New Deal or Wheeler-Howard Act, was signed into law. The act worked to reestablish and protect many of the native tribes that were previously encouraged to assimilate with American society.
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1935
Top Female Names: Mary, Shirley, Barbara
Top Male Names: Robert, James, John
Notable Event: The Congress of Industrial Organizations was founded, which united organized workers in industrial unions from 1935 to 1955 in the U.S. and Canada.
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1936
Top Female Names: Mary, Shirley, Barbara
Top Male Names: Robert, James, John
Notable Event: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt beat Kansas Gov. Alf Landon to secure a second term as commander in chief.
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1937
Top Female Names: Mary, Barbara, Patricia
Top Male Names: Robert, James, John
Notable Event: The Neutrality Act of 1937 was signed into law, outlawing an arms trade with Spain.
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1938
Top Female Names: Mary, Barbara, Patricia
Top Male Names: Robert, James, John
Notable Event: Orson Welles' broadcast of "The War of the Worlds" caused widespread panic when listeners didn't know the broadcast was fictitious.
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1939
Top Female Names: Mary, Barbara, Patricia
Top Male Names: Robert, James, John
Notable Event: Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" became the first full-length animated movie, the cost of which forced Walt Disney to mortgage his home.
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1940
Top Female Names: Mary, Barbara, Patricia
Top Male Names: James, Robert, John
Notable Event: Audiences were introduced to cartoon characters Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry for the first time.
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1941
Top Female Names: Mary, Barbara, Patricia
Top Male Names: James, Robert, John
Notable Event: Japan declared war on the United States by attacking the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor. Six U.S. ships were sunk, 2,402 Americans lost their lives and 1,247 were wounded.
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1942
Top Female Names: Mary, Barbara, Patricia
Top Male Names: James, Robert, John
Notable Event: Scientists' first foray into atomic bomb testing began with the Manhattan Project.
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1943
Top Female Names: Mary, Barbara, Patricia
Top Male Names: James, Robert, John
Notable Event: The "Big Three" Allied leaders, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin, met in Tehran for a four-day conference.
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1944
Top Female Names: Mary, Barbara, Linda
Top Male Names: James, Robert, John
Notable Event: Germany's final major offensive of World War II, The Battle of the Bulge, began. It would be the deadliest battle for the United States during the war.
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1945
Top Female Names: Mary, Linda, Barbara
Top Male Names: James, Robert, John
Notable Event: The United States became the first and only country to detonate an atomic bomb. Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were hit, killing an estimated 150,000 to 246,000 people.
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1946
Top Female Names: Mary, Linda, Patricia
Top Male Names: James, Robert, John
Notable Event: With the end of World War II, automobiles were produced again in the U.S. for private consumers.
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1947
Top Female Names: Linda, Mary, Patricia
Top Male Names: James, Robert, John
Notable Event: Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers became the first African-American to play baseball in the Major Leagues.
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1948
Top Female Names: Linda, Mary, Barbara
Top Male Names: James, Robert, John
Notable Event: Consumers were able to purchase the first Polaroid cameras.
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1949
Top Female Names: Linda, Mary, Patricia
Top Male Names: James, Robert, John
Notable Event: Germany was divided into Eastern and Western Germany as a result of the Allied powers — the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union — taking control after World War II.
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1950
Top Female Names: Linda, Mary, Patricia
Top Male Names: James, Robert, John
Notable Event: President Truman's orders to aid South Korea prompted America's entrance into the Korean War.
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1951
Top Female Names: Linda, Mary, Patricia
Top Male Names: James, Robert, John
Notable Event: With the ratification of the 22nd Amendment, U.S. presidents were limited to two terms.
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1952
Top Female Names: Linda, Mary, Patricia
Top Male Names: James, Robert, John
Notable Event: Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president, winning out over Gov. Adlai Stevenson II of Illinois.
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1953
Top Female Names: Mary, Linda, Deborah
Top Male Names: Robert, James, Michael
Notable Event: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed. They were found guilty of espionage for passing U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.
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1954
Top Female Names: Mary, Linda, Deborah
Top Male Names: Michael, James, Robert
Notable Event: The Supreme Court declared separate-but-equal education in public schools illegal in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case.
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1955
Top Female Names: Mary, Deborah, Linda
Top Male Names: Michael, David, James
Notable Event: Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Ala. She refused to give her bus seat to a white passenger.
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1956
Top Female Names: Mary, Debra, Linda
Top Male Names: Michael, James, Robert
Notable Event: The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 was signed into law. This initiated the construction of 41,000 miles of the Interstate Highway System over the course of 20 years.
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1957
Top Female Names: Mary, Susan, Linda
Top Male Names: Michael, James, David
Notable Event: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. founded the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) alongside Baynard Rustin, Rev. Joseph Lowrey, Fred Shuttlesworth and Ralph Abernathy.
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1958
Top Female Names: Mary, Susan, Linda
Top Male Names: Michael, David, James
Notable Event: Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit, an ancestor to the CMOS computer chips that power electronic devices today. Kilby went on to win the Nobel Prize in 2000.
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1959
Top Female Names: Mary, Susan, Linda
Top Male Names: Michael, David, James
Notable Event: Alaska became the 49th state with its admittance to the Union.
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1960
Top Female Names: Mary, Susan, Linda
Top Male Names: David, Michael, James
Notable Event: In Boynton v. Virginia, African-Americans gained protection from racial segregation on buses.
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1961
Top Female Names: Mary, Lisa, Susan
Top Male Names: Michael, David, John
Notable Event: Alan Shepard became the first American in space. He helmed the Freedom 7 capsule.
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1962
Top Female Names: Lisa, Mary, Susan
Top Male Names: Michael, David, John
Notable Event: Astronaut John Glenn successfully orbited the Earth.
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1963
Top Female Names: Lisa, Mary, Susan
Top Male Names: Michael, John, David
Notable Event: President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas while traveling in an open motorcade.
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1964
Top Female Names: Lisa, Mary, Susan
Top Male Names: Michael, John, David
Notable Event: Poll taxes were deemed unconstitutional with the 24th Amendment. This prevented both Congress and the states from restricting the right to vote in federal elections.
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1965
Top Female Names: Lisa, Mary, Karen
Top Male Names: Michael, John, David
Notable Event: President Johnson dramatically increased U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, sending over 184,000 U.S. troops overseas.
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1966
Top Female Names: Lisa, Kimberly, Mary
Top Male Names: Michael, David, James
Notable Event: Robert C. Weaver became the first African-American to hold a cabinet-level position.
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1967
Top Female Names: Lisa, Kimberly, Michelle
Top Male Names: Michael, David, James
Notable Event: The first Super Bowl took place between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs. Green Bay won 35-10.
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1968
Top Female Names: Lisa, Michelle, Kimberly
Top Male Names: Michael, David, John
Notable Event: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn.
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1969
Top Female Names: Lisa, Michelle, Jennifer
Top Male Names: Michael, David, James
Notable Event: The Woodstock Festival took place in White Lake, N.Y., and went on to define the counterculture movement.
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1970
Top Female Names: Jennifer, Lisa, Kimberly
Top Male Names: Michael, James, David
Notable Event: The National Environmental Policy Act was signed into law, shaping United States environmental policies going forward.
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1971
Top Female Names: Jennifer, Michelle, Lisa
Top Male Names: Michael, James, David
Notable Event: After decades of false advertising, the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act was signed into law. This removed cigarette advertisements from radio and television broadcasts and instated warnings on tobacco products.
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1972
Top Female Names: Jennifer, Michelle, Lisa
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, James
Notable Event: The Clean Water Act went into effect to regulate the chemical and biological composition of the country's waters.
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1973
Top Female Names: Jennifer, Amy, Michelle
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Jason
Notable Event: The Supreme Court outlawed state bans on abortions during the first 24 weeks of a pregnancy with Roe v. Wade.
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1974
Top Female Names: Jennifer, Amy, Michelle
Top Male Names: Michael, Jason, Christopher
Notable Event: President Richard Nixon resigned. This was a preemptive move, as he was facing almost-certain impeachment for his involvement in the Watergate Scandal.
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1975
Top Female Names: Jennifer, Amy, Heather
Top Male Names: Michael, Jason, Christopher
Notable Event: Innovator Bill Gates founded Microsoft Corporation. He was 19 years old.
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1976
Top Female Names: Jennifer, Amy, Melissa
Top Male Names: Michael, Jason, Christopher
Notable Event: The Copyright Act of 1976 was signed into law, which codified the basis of "fair use" and established the rights of copyright holders.
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1977
Top Female Names: Jennifer, Melissa, Amy
Top Male Names: Michael, Jason, Christopher
Notable Event: Elvis Presley, known as the King of Rock and Roll, died at his home — he was just 42 years old.
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1978
Top Female Names: Jennifer, Melissa, Jessica
Top Male Names: Michael, Jason, Christopher
Notable Event: The Camp David Accords were signed by Menachem Begin of Israel and Anwar Sadat of Egypt, for which they both receivied the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize.
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1979
Top Female Names: Jennifer, Melissa, Amanda
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Jason
Notable Event: Student activists took siege of The U.S. embassy in Tehran. This marked the beginning of a 444-day capture of the embassy, where 52 American embassy personnel were held hostage.
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1980
Top Female Names: Jennifer, Amanda, Jessica
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Jason
Notable Event: Mark David Chapman shot musician John Lennon in the back four times outside of his New York City apartment.
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1981
Top Female Names: Jennifer, Jessica, Amanda
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: President Ronald Reagan was sworn into office. The 52 U.S. hostages held in the embassy in Tehran were freed that same day.
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1982
Top Female Names: Jennifer, Jessica, Amanda
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: Anti-nuclear protests were held at Central Park in New York City, with nearly one million peaceful demonstrators protesting the arms race.
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1983
Top Female Names: Jennifer, Jessica, Amanda
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: Under Operation Urgent Fury, President Reagan used his executive powers to deploy 1,900 military personnel in the invasion of Grenada — the largest military operation executed since the days of the Vietnam War.
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1984
Top Female Names: Jennifer, Jessica, Ashley
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: Dr. Robert Gallo and his fellow researcher linked HTLV-III as the virus that causes AIDS.
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1985
Top Female Names: Jessica, Ashley, Jennifer
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: Arrow Air Flight 1285, a plane carrying U.S. Army personnel, crashed in Newfoundland, Canada, killing all 256 passengers on board. The event marked the single deadliest aviation accident in the history of the U.S. Army in peacetime.
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1986
Top Female Names: Jessica, Ashley, Amanda
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: For the first time, Americans nationwide observed Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
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1987
Top Female Names: Jessica, Ashley, Amanda
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: The U.S. and Soviet Union jointly signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, an agreement that obligated each nation to eliminate their collections of ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with the capacity to travel between 500 and 5,000 kilometers.
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1988
Top Female Names: Jessica, Ashley, Amanda
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: Robert Morris, a student at MIT, launched the first Internet worm, a crime that ultimately resulted in his felony conviction under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
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1989
Top Female Names: Jessica, Ashley, Brittany
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: The Office of National Drug Control Policy was established within the White House.
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1990
Top Female Names: Jessica, Ashley, Brittany
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: Douglas Wilder became the first African-American to be a governor of a U.S. state.
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1991
Top Female Names: Ashley, Jessica, Brittany
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: In response to Iraq’s annexation of Kuwait, the U.S. deployed 500,000 U.S. military personnel in Operation Desert Storm, a mission that involved 34 other nations.
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1992
Top Female Names: Ashley, Jessica, Amanda
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: Then-governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton won the U.S. presidential election, defeating incumbent George H. W. Bush and Texas businessman Ross Perot.
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1993
Top Female Names: Jessica, Ashley, Sarah
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin jointly signed START II (or the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), which prohibited the use of multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs) on intercontinental ballistic missiles (or ICBMs). However, it was never ratified, as Russia withdrew from the agreement following the United States’ withdrawal from the ABM Treaty.
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1994
Top Female Names: Jessica, Ashley, Emily
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: The 1994 Northridge earthquake struck the greater Los Angeles area, killing 57 people, leaving 20,000 others homeless and causing $20 billion in damage, making it the costliest earthquake in U.S. history.
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1995
Top Female Names: Jessica, Ashley, Emily
Top Male Names: Michael, Matthew, Christopher
Notable Event: Timothy McVeigh carried out the Oklahoma City bombing, a terrorist attack that took the lives of 168 people and injured 680 others.
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1996
Top Female Names: Emily, Jessica, Ashley
Top Male Names: Michael, Matthew, Jacob
Notable Event: Twelve minutes after takeoff, TWA Flight 800 exploded off the coast of Long Island, killing all 230 people on board.
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1997
Top Female Names: Emily, Jessica, Ashley
Top Male Names: Michael, Jacob, Matthew
Notable Event: “The English Patient,” a love story set during World War II, won best picture at the 1997 Academy Awards.
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1998
Top Female Names: Emily, Hannah, Samantha
Top Male Names: Michael, Jacob, Matthew
Notable Event: In two almost-simultaneous attacks on U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, over 200 people died, bringing al-Qaeda to the attention of the American people.
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1999
Top Female Names: Emily, Hannah, Alexis
Top Male Names: Jacob, Michael, Matthew
Notable Event: A tornado outbreak in Oklahoma killed 50 people and caused $1 billion in damage.
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2000
Top Female Names: Emily, Hannah, Madison
Top Male Names: Jacob, Michael, Matthew
Notable Event: George W. Bush, son of former President George H. W. Bush, won the U.S. presidential election, beating incumbent Vice President Al Gore in the third-closest presidential race in history.
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2001
Top Female Names: Emily, Madison, Hannah
Top Male Names: Jacob, Michael, Matthew
Notable Event: On Sept. 11, 19 terrorists hijacked four planes and orchestrated the deadliest terrorist attack on civilians in U.S. history. Two planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, two others flew into the Pentagon and one landed in a field in Shanksville, Pa. The attacks resulted in the deaths of nearly three thousand people and injured an additional six thousand.
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2002
Top Female Names: Emily, Madison, Hannah
Top Male Names: Jacob, Michael, Joshua
Notable Event: George W. Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act, a piece of legislation intended to deliver quality education more equally to students across the United States.
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2003
Top Female Names: Emily, Emma, Madison
Top Male Names: Jacob, Michael, Joshua
Notable Event: The U.S. Special Forces deposed and captured Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in Adwar, Iraq.
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2004
Top Female Names: Emily, Emma, Madison
Top Male Names: Jacob, Michael, Joshua
Notable Event: Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook, a social networking site now used by nearly 1.6 billion people worldwide.
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2005
Top Female Names: Emily, Emma, Madison
Top Male Names: Jacob, Michael, Joshua
Notable Event: Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf in what would become the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Its force destroyed New Orlean's levees, flooding the city. It ranks among the five deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history.
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2006
Top Female Names: Emily, Emma, Madison
Top Male Names: Jacob, Michael, Joshua
Notable Event: The Democratic Party regained control of both houses of Congress and won a majority of state governorships.
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2007
Top Female Names: Emily, Isabella, Emma
Top Male Names: Jacob, Michael, Ethan
Notable Event: Democrat Nancy Pelosi became the first female Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
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2008
Top Female Names: Emma, Isabella, Emily
Top Male Names: Jacob, Michael, Ethan
Notable Event: An outbreak of tornadoes killed over 60 people and inflicted $1 billion in damages across the Southeast.
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2009
Top Female Names: Isabella, Emma, Olivia
Top Male Names: Jacob, Ethan, Michael
Notable Event: Barack Obama, the first African-American to be elected president, was inaugurated. An estimated 1.8 million people attended, filling the National Mall in Washington.
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2010
Top Female Names: Isabella, Sophia, Emma
Top Male Names: Jacob, Ethan, Michael
Notable Event: British Petrolium oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in the death of 11 workers and the release of 4.9 million barrels of crude oil over an 87-day period. It was the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.
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2011
Top Female Names: Sophia, Isabella, Emma
Top Male Names: Jacob, Mason, William
Notable Event: In Tucson, Ariz., a gunman targeting Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords critically injured Giffords and killed six others, including federal judge John Roll.
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2012
Top Female Names: Sophia, Emma, Isabella
Top Male Names: Jacob, Mason, Ethan
Notable Event: Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc in the eastern United States, resulting in the deaths of 233 people and causing $75 billion in damage.
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2013
Top Female Names: Sophia, Emma, Olivia
Top Male Names: Noah, Liam, Jacob
Notable Event: Barack Obama began his second term as president of the United States.
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2014
Top Female Names: Emma, Olivia, Sophia
Top Male Names: Noah, Liam, Mason
Notable Event: After midterm elections, Republicans regained control of the U.S. Senate, marking their majorities in both houses of Congress.
- Data curated by MooseRoots.com
Each generation cycles through its own set of popular names, but some have stood the test of time for decades. If you want to give your child a name that will seemingly never go out of style, there are a number of solid options to choose from. Of course, if you’re looking for something a little more unique that doesn’t cross the line into unconventional, you could always bring back an old favorite from decades past that is currently less common.
MooseRoots used data from the Social Security Administration to determine the top three male and female names each year since 1915.
There’s a good chance you probably know at least one John, James, Robert, Mary, Linda, and Jennifer, so it should come as no surprise that these classics were chart toppers for years. Others — Alexis, Olivia, Brittany — made it into the top three a couple times, but ultimately faded out.
For each year, starting with 1915, we provide the top names in order of first, second and third for each gender, and a notable event from that year. See which names were most common in the year you were born.
1918
Top Female Names: Mary, Helen, Dorothy
Top Male Names: John, William, James
Notable Event: The 1918 flu pandemic infected 500 million people worldwide, killing 50 to 100 million of them. The total number of people lost equated to between three and five percent of the world's population at the time.
1929
Top Female Names: Mary, Betty, Dorothy
Top Male Names: Robert, James, John
Notable Event: The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as Black Tuesday, occurred at the end of the year and was the worst stock market crash at the time. A 10-year recession, known as the Great Depression, began as a result, affecting every industrialized Western country.
1930
Top Female Names: Mary, Betty, Dorothy
Top Male Names: Robert, James, John
Notable Event: The Dust Bowl disrupted the ecology and agriculture of both the U.S. and Canada. With the Great Plains experiencing the worst drought and wind erosion, the Dust Bowl left over 500,000 Americans homeless.
1934
Top Female Names: Mary, Betty, Barbara
Top Male Names: Robert, James, John
Notable Event: The Indian Reorganization Act, also known as the Indian New Deal or Wheeler-Howard Act, was signed into law. The act worked to reestablish and protect many of the native tribes that were previously encouraged to assimilate with American society.
1941
Top Female Names: Mary, Barbara, Patricia
Top Male Names: James, Robert, John
Notable Event: Japan declared war on the United States by attacking the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor. Six U.S. ships were sunk, 2,402 Americans lost their lives and 1,247 were wounded.
1945
Top Female Names: Mary, Linda, Barbara
Top Male Names: James, Robert, John
Notable Event: The United States became the first and only country to detonate an atomic bomb. Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were hit, killing an estimated 150,000 to 246,000 people.
1949
Top Female Names: Linda, Mary, Patricia
Top Male Names: James, Robert, John
Notable Event: Germany was divided into Eastern and Western Germany as a result of the Allied powers — the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union — taking control after World War II.
1956
Top Female Names: Mary, Debra, Linda
Top Male Names: Michael, James, Robert
Notable Event: The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 was signed into law. This initiated the construction of 41,000 miles of the Interstate Highway System over the course of 20 years.
1957
Top Female Names: Mary, Susan, Linda
Top Male Names: Michael, James, David
Notable Event: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. founded the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) alongside Baynard Rustin, Rev. Joseph Lowrey, Fred Shuttlesworth and Ralph Abernathy.
1958
Top Female Names: Mary, Susan, Linda
Top Male Names: Michael, David, James
Notable Event: Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit, an ancestor to the CMOS computer chips that power electronic devices today. Kilby went on to win the Nobel Prize in 2000.
1964
Top Female Names: Lisa, Mary, Susan
Top Male Names: Michael, John, David
Notable Event: Poll taxes were deemed unconstitutional with the 24th Amendment. This prevented both Congress and the states from restricting the right to vote in federal elections.
1971
Top Female Names: Jennifer, Michelle, Lisa
Top Male Names: Michael, James, David
Notable Event: After decades of false advertising, the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act was signed into law. This removed cigarette advertisements from radio and television broadcasts and instated warnings on tobacco products.
1974
Top Female Names: Jennifer, Amy, Michelle
Top Male Names: Michael, Jason, Christopher
Notable Event: President Richard Nixon resigned. This was a preemptive move, as he was facing almost-certain impeachment for his involvement in the Watergate Scandal.
1979
Top Female Names: Jennifer, Melissa, Amanda
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Jason
Notable Event: Student activists took siege of The U.S. embassy in Tehran. This marked the beginning of a 444-day capture of the embassy, where 52 American embassy personnel were held hostage.
1983
Top Female Names: Jennifer, Jessica, Amanda
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: Under Operation Urgent Fury, President Reagan used his executive powers to deploy 1,900 military personnel in the invasion of Grenada — the largest military operation executed since the days of the Vietnam War.
1985
Top Female Names: Jessica, Ashley, Jennifer
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: Arrow Air Flight 1285, a plane carrying U.S. Army personnel, crashed in Newfoundland, Canada, killing all 256 passengers on board. The event marked the single deadliest aviation accident in the history of the U.S. Army in peacetime.
1987
Top Female Names: Jessica, Ashley, Amanda
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: The U.S. and Soviet Union jointly signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, an agreement that obligated each nation to eliminate their collections of ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with the capacity to travel between 500 and 5,000 kilometers.
1988
Top Female Names: Jessica, Ashley, Amanda
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: Robert Morris, a student at MIT, launched the first Internet worm, a crime that ultimately resulted in his felony conviction under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
1991
Top Female Names: Ashley, Jessica, Brittany
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: In response to Iraq’s annexation of Kuwait, the U.S. deployed 500,000 U.S. military personnel in Operation Desert Storm, a mission that involved 34 other nations.
1993
Top Female Names: Jessica, Ashley, Sarah
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin jointly signed START II (or the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), which prohibited the use of multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs) on intercontinental ballistic missiles (or ICBMs). However, it was never ratified, as Russia withdrew from the agreement following the United States’ withdrawal from the ABM Treaty.
1994
Top Female Names: Jessica, Ashley, Emily
Top Male Names: Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Notable Event: The 1994 Northridge earthquake struck the greater Los Angeles area, killing 57 people, leaving 20,000 others homeless and causing $20 billion in damage, making it the costliest earthquake in U.S. history.
1998
Top Female Names: Emily, Hannah, Samantha
Top Male Names: Michael, Jacob, Matthew
Notable Event: In two almost-simultaneous attacks on U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, over 200 people died, bringing al-Qaeda to the attention of the American people.
2000
Top Female Names: Emily, Hannah, Madison
Top Male Names: Jacob, Michael, Matthew
Notable Event: George W. Bush, son of former President George H. W. Bush, won the U.S. presidential election, beating incumbent Vice President Al Gore in the third-closest presidential race in history.
2001
Top Female Names: Emily, Madison, Hannah
Top Male Names: Jacob, Michael, Matthew
Notable Event: On Sept. 11, 19 terrorists hijacked four planes and orchestrated the deadliest terrorist attack on civilians in U.S. history. Two planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, two others flew into the Pentagon and one landed in a field in Shanksville, Pa. The attacks resulted in the deaths of nearly three thousand people and injured an additional six thousand.
2002
Top Female Names: Emily, Madison, Hannah
Top Male Names: Jacob, Michael, Joshua
Notable Event: George W. Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act, a piece of legislation intended to deliver quality education more equally to students across the United States.
2005
Top Female Names: Emily, Emma, Madison
Top Male Names: Jacob, Michael, Joshua
Notable Event: Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf in what would become the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Its force destroyed New Orlean's levees, flooding the city. It ranks among the five deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history.
2009
Top Female Names: Isabella, Emma, Olivia
Top Male Names: Jacob, Ethan, Michael
Notable Event: Barack Obama, the first African-American to be elected president, was inaugurated. An estimated 1.8 million people attended, filling the National Mall in Washington.
2010
Top Female Names: Isabella, Sophia, Emma
Top Male Names: Jacob, Ethan, Michael
Notable Event: British Petrolium oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in the death of 11 workers and the release of 4.9 million barrels of crude oil over an 87-day period. It was the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.
2011
Top Female Names: Sophia, Isabella, Emma
Top Male Names: Jacob, Mason, William
Notable Event: In Tucson, Ariz., a gunman targeting Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords critically injured Giffords and killed six others, including federal judge John Roll.
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