First name popularity index: what are the most popular names?
How popular is your name? What is the most popular name, historically speaking, since 1904?
Using existing baby name data from the ONS, we have created a ranking of boys' and girls' names since 1904, ranking them from the most popular to the least. We have also ranked the most popular names of recent years based on data since 1996 for a fascinating comparison.
You can see the key findings below, take a look at the rankings, and utilise the searchable databases we have created to find out how popular your name is. In our ‘most popular names by decade’ section, you can even discover what names were the most popular in the decade you were born.
So, get the different generations of your family together, from grandparents to grandchildren, and have fun with our first name popularity index!
Key findings
- James is the most popular boy name since 1904
- Elizabeth is the most popular girl name since 1904
- Myles is the least popular boy name since 1904
- Sybil is the least popular girl name since 1904
- Jack is the most popular boy name of the last 25 years
- Emily is the most popular girl name of the last 25 years
What is the most popular boy's name?
James is the most popular boys' name since the 1900s when you take the average ranking of names across the decades via the available ONS data. James has ranked inside the top 10 in 10 out of 13 decades since 1904 and was at its most popular (2nd) in the 80s and 90s.
If you are curious about where your name ranks, try typing it in the search bar above.
10 most popular boys' names since 1904
- James
- Thomas
- William
- David
- George
- Michael
- John
- Robert
- Joseph
- Edward
You can see the full ranking of boys' names since 1904 here.
READ ALSO: What are the top activities to do with your grandchildren?
What is the most popular girl's name?
According to the study, Elizabeth is the most popular girl’s name since 1904. Elizabeth might have waned in popularity in recent years, but it was inside the top 30 most popular names until the 90s and has ranked inside the top 100 for all 13 decades since the 1900s.
If you are curious about where your name ranks, try typing it in the search bar above.
10 most popular girls' names since 1904
- Elizabeth
- Sarah
- Mary
- Catherine
- Margaret
- Emily
- Alice
- Helen
- Kathleen
- Emma
You can see the full ranking of girls' names since 1904 here.
READ ALSO: How to have successful sleepovers with your grandchildren
What are the most popular names since 1996?
Male names
10 most popular boys' names since 1996
- Jack
- Thomas
- Oliver
- Joshua
- James
- Harry
- Daniel
- William
- George
- Samuel
You can see the full ranking of boys' names since 1996 here.
As you can see from the list of names above, the most popular boy names since 1996 are quite different from the list of popular names since 1904, showing how people’s tastes have changed over the years.
James – the overall winner since the 1900s – is down in 5th position, and Jack is the winner (a name that doesn’t appear in the top 10 since 1904).
The once popular name of David doesn’t appear in the top 10 at all, ranking all the way down in 52nd position.
How popular has your name been in recent years? Type it into the search bar above.
Female names
10 most popular girls' names since 1996
- Emily
- Olivia
- Chloe
- Jessica
- Sophie
- Amelia
- Charlotte
- Grace
- Megan
- Lucy
You can see the full ranking of girls' names since 1996 here.
When you count all the girls' names since 1996, Emily is the most popular.
It seems people’s tastes in names have changed the most when it comes to girls’ names – Emily is the only name in the top 10 that also appears in the ranking of the most popular girl’s names since the 1900s.
Names such as Olivia and Amelia have become very popular in recent decades. At the same time, names like Grace are returning to fashion after decades of being overlooked.
How popular has your name been in recent years? Type it into the search bar above.
READ ALSO: Art and craft ideas to do with your grandchildren
The most popular name by decade
Below are two tables. One for male names and one for female names. They present the top 100 names for each decade since the 1900s. Discover what names were most popular in the decade you were born.
Male names
Looking at the most popular male names for every decade since the 1900s, John emerged as the most popular name in four decades (1910s, 1920s, 1930s and 1940s), whilst David was the most popular name in two decades (1950s and 1960s).
William (1900s), Paul (1970s), Christopher (1980s), Thomas (1990s), Jack (2000s), Oliver (2010s), and Noah (2020s) were each the most popular names in one decade.
Despite being the most popular name overall, James does not come out on top in any of the decades, although it does feature in the top 10 names in 10 of the 13 decades the study looked at.
By looking at the most popular names in each decade, it becomes clear how the popularity of names has decreased and increased. Names like William, John, and David were popular choices from the 1900s to the 1960s, but none featured in the top 10 in the 2020s.
Female names
Looking at popular female names for each decade since the 1900s, Margaret came out as the most popular name in three decades (1920s, 1930s and 1940s) and was the second most popular in the 1910s.
Mary (1900s and 1910s), Susan (1950s and 1960s), and Sarah (1970s and 1980s) were the most popular names in two decades, whilst Rebecca (1990s), Emily (2000s), Amelia (2010s), and Olivia (2020s) were the most popular in one decade.
Elizabeth, which was overall the most popular female name, did not come out on top in any of the decades, but it did feature in the top 10 four times.
Mary and Margaret feature in the top 10 names in six of the 13 decades the study looks at, which is more than any other name.
The change in the popularity of names is evident as you go through the decades, as both Mary and Margaret
last featured in the top 10 most popular names back in the 1950s, whilst Olivia features in the top 10 three times but all in the most recent decades (2000s, 2010s and 2020s).
READ ALSO: The accessibility of every UK theme park
Methodology
The raw data for this study has been gathered from the database of ONS government statistics.
We started by adding the data for 2004, 2014, and 2021 from the ONS list of popular baby names since 1996 to the ONS data of popular baby names between 1904 and 1994 – providing a complete look at baby name popularity between 1904 and 2021 (the latest available year).
Once we determined where each name ranked in the different decades of ONS data, we could create a ranking of the most common names for boys and girls since 1904 by assigning each name an average ranking.
To create the ranking of names since 1996, we analysed the ONS data for boys and girls and tallied up the count of each time the name had been used per year, leading to a total number of times each name has been used per year since 1996. We then sorted our data to generate the final ranking of boys' and girl’s names.
You can see the full data and rankings of the study here.
The most popular baby names
The study is perfect for grandparents, their children and their grandchildren to look through together, allowing them to see the most popular baby names from the 1900s and see if any of their names are on the list.
As you can see, the popularity of names from 1904 to 2021 has changed dramatically, with some names common back in the 1900s not featuring amongst the most popular names in the 2020s and vice versa. For instance, David, John and Robert were extremely popular male names from 1904 to 1994 but declined in the 21st century. The same can be seen regarding female names, as Margaret was a popular name from 1904-1964, but it didn’t feature in the top 100 names from 1974 to 2021.
The study also reveals the emergence of modern names, with female names such as Mia and Olivia and male names such as Liam and Mason, all becoming very popular in recent years. You will see some names, such as Emily and Charlotte, experience fluctuations in popularity as they become less popular for a time and then regain popularity in later years.
By reading our guide and researching the data yourself, you can pick out even more trends for certain male and female names.
READ ALSO: How to have an accessible beach break
At Companion Stairlifts, we aim to make the home as accessible as possible, and we have a variety of stairlift models available. No matter whether you are after straight stairlifts or want a curved stairlift model, our experts will be able to help you. If you are interested in what a stairlift can do for you, book a free home assessment.
For more tips, guides and advice, visit our news page.
