Today on the blog, we published the Playground Analysis for the Top 50 baby names of all time. 
You may have guessed that Mary and John top the list, but there are some big changes from the official SSA rankings!
What do you think? Did any names surprise you? Do any of these names belong in the current Top 50? (I’m going to vote for Ruth, Laura, and Margaret)
this is so cool! a lot of these names i expected, they all have that sweet and timeless vibe. i am a little surprised that my name (hannah) didn’t make the list!
my favorites:
ruth
laura
kathleen
mary
margaret
sarah
samuel
christopher
james
henry
timothy
frank
This is awesome! I was not surprised at all by [name_f]Sarah[/name_f] and [name_f]Catherine[/name_f]. [name_f]Dorothy[/name_f] was definitely a surprise though, I’m not sure I’ve ever even met one!
I’m skeptical of all the spelling variants of [name_u]Maria[/name_u], many of them are a completely different pronunciation and name. It’s like calling [name_u]Marie[/name_u] a spelling variation of [name_f]Mary[/name_f].
I’m a little surprised to see my name at # 30. I knew it was popular but I didn’t know it was that popular! Lol
Yes, I agree with you! [name_f]Mariah[/name_f] is totally different to me (same with Carolyn/Caroline). It’s subjective so the data is imperfect.
I was surprised to see [name_f]Patricia[/name_f] in the top 10! I knew it used to be popular, but I didn’t realize it was that popular!
Otherwise, the classics didn’t surprise me much! This was all super interesting to read, though – I love any and all analysis about names/usage.
Im off to give my mom a hard time or (maybe props?) about giving me two names in the top 3. 
This is very interesting. I’ve always wished that middle name would be included on these lists, I think that Ann, Marie, and Lee would be considered a lot more popular if middle names were included. I feel like half the women I’ve known between my mom’s age and my age have one of those three as a middle name.
This is so interesting!
However, I don’t think names that are completely different names (Carolyn/Caroline; Sandra/Sondra,etc) should be lumped together. I think the spelling variations only count if they’re pronounced the same. When I was considering [name_f]Caroline[/name_f] for my baby, I got mad when someone pronounced it [name_f]Carolyn[/name_f]!
[name_f]My[/name_f] name, [name_f]Rebecca[/name_f], has a lot more spelling variations than I would have thought.
Some of the spelling variations on some names make me think people just didn’t know how to spell it! 