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Baby names go in and out of style each decade.
- The most popular baby names are tracked each year by the Social Security Administration.
- We compiled a list of the 10 most popular baby names for each decade since 1880.
- Some names, like "William," are consistently popular, while other names like "Emma" are experiencing a resurgence.
Everyone wants their baby to be unique. But that doesn't always apply to baby names.
Every decade in the United States, new baby names become popular as older names fade out of style.
The Social Security Administration has been tracking the most popular baby names in the United States since the 1880s. We compiled a list of the 10 most popular names for each decade since then, and the data show some fascinating trends.
The name "Michael," for example, first entered the list of most popular names in the 1940s, and quickly became the most popular boy's name in America. It held the number-one spot for four straight decades from the 1960s to the 1990s, slipped to number two in the 2000s, and fell completely off the list for the current decade.
Other names are experiencing a resurgence. "Emma" was one of the 10 most popular girl's names in the 1880s and 1890s, but it didn't crack the list again until more than 100 years later, when it became the 3rd-most popular name of the 2000s. The name continues to rise in popularity, and is currently the most popular name of the 2010s.
Some names prove to have serious staying power, like "John," which made the top 10 for every decade from the 1880s to the 1980s, and William, which made the cut from the 1880s to the 1970s, as well as the 2000s and the 2010s.
Meanwhile, some names have a much shorter time in the spotlight, only appearing on the top-10 list for a single decade. They include "Jason" in the 1970s, "Amanda" in the 1980s, and "Brittany" in the 1990s.
Check out the 10 most popular baby names from every decade and see where your name lies.