Top names for girls over last 100 years

General Name Discussion
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I have been geeking out a bit tonight on names and numbers which are two of my passions and looking at the top names over the last 100 years for girls and boys.

Only 43 names have occupied the top 5 names for girls in the last 100 years. It’s easy to see which name has taken the top spot most times - [name_f]Mary[/name_f] 37 times, followed by [name_f]Jennifer[/name_f] 15 times and then [name_f]Emily[/name_f] 12 times. That’s almost 2/3 of the years shared across just three names. I thought [name_f]Jessica[/name_f] and [name_u]Ashley[/name_u] were popular but while [name_f]Jessica[/name_f] secured the top spot 9 times, [name_u]Ashley[/name_u] only did twice. But only [name_f]Mary[/name_f] has been a runner up more times (10) than [name_u]Ashley[/name_u] (9). Poor [name_u]Ashley[/name_u] :frowning:

I tried a scoring system to rank the names, giving 5 points if they were the top name, four for second, three for third, two for fourth and one for fifth and then ranked the totals. If you are interested here they are with their scores ranked from highest to lowest.

Are there any surprises for you in these?

[name_f]Mary[/name_f] 230
[name_f]Jennifer[/name_f] 88
[name_f]Jessica[/name_f] 87
[name_f]Linda[/name_f] 76
[name_f]Emily[/name_f] 70
[name_f]Emma[/name_f] 69
[name_f]Barbara[/name_f] 64
[name_u]Ashley[/name_u] 62
[name_u]Lisa[/name_u] 55
[name_f]Patricia[/name_f] 53
[name_f]Dorothy[/name_f] 52
[name_f]Betty[/name_f] 50
[name_f]Amanda[/name_f] 38
[name_f]Olivia[/name_f] 38
[name_f]Susan[/name_f] 38
[name_f]Isabella[/name_f] 37
[name_f]Helen[/name_f] 31
[name_f]Sophia[/name_f] 31
[name_f]Michelle[/name_f] 29
[name_f]Sarah[/name_f] 28
[name_f]Amy[/name_f] 25
[name_u]Kimberly[/name_u] 24
[name_u]Madison[/name_u] 24
[name_f]Melissa[/name_f] 23
[name_f]Hannah[/name_f] 22
[name_f]Ava[/name_f] 21
[name_f]Karen[/name_f] 18
[name_f]Margaret[/name_f] 17
[name_f]Deborah[/name_f] 16
[name_f]Shirley[/name_f] 14
[name_f]Samantha[/name_f] 13
[name_f]Brittany[/name_f] 11
[name_f]Heather[/name_f] 9
[name_f]Debra[/name_f] 8
[name_f]Carol[/name_f] 7
[name_u]Alexis[/name_u] 5
[name_f]Ruth[/name_f] 4
[name_f]Angela[/name_f] 3
[name_u]Joan[/name_u] 3
[name_f]Abigail[/name_f] 2
[name_f]Donna[/name_f] 2
[name_f]Judith[/name_f] 2
[name_f]Sandra[/name_f] 1

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Not surprising at all, no. These are all ridiculously common among their appropriate age groups. (With the exception of [name_f]Samantha[/name_f] and [name_f]Susan[/name_f], for me – don’t know/haven’t met any of those.) :slight_smile:

Emma, [name_f]Isabella[/name_f], [name_f]Helen[/name_f], and [name_f]Hannah[/name_f] are all among my favorites.

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I don’t think I’ve met a [name_f]Ruth[/name_f], [name_f]Judith[/name_f], [name_f]Betty[/name_f], [name_f]Dorothy[/name_f], and [name_f]Sandra[/name_f]. I’m not necessarily surprised by any of them but for many of the ones that were more common 50-100 years ago, I didn’t necessarily know that were on the top5 back then because I don’t know as many older folks. Like I’ve only met 1-2 Debras, Donnas, [name_f]Deborah[/name_f]’s, Heathers, and Carols.

My favorites are [name_f]Sophia[/name_f], [name_u]Alexis[/name_u], [name_f]Ava[/name_f], and [name_u]Lisa[/name_u]. [name_u]Ashley[/name_u] and [name_f]Isabella[/name_f] sound nice too.

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I’m surprised that [name_f]Abigail[/name_f] is so low, but maybe it’s because you’re looking at American data. It seems like every other girl I know is called [name_f]Abigail[/name_f]!