Ready to take a look at history through the lens of names?
The Baby Name Timeline is a collection of thousands of historically popular/trendy U.S. baby names. Many of these names saw higher usage thanks to various types of pop culture: movies, music, television, sports, news stories, politics, comic strips, video games, and so forth.
I’m working on converting the original decade-by-decade timeline into a more detailed year-by-year timeline, so here are links to the single years I’ve completed so far, plus links to the decades that aren’t yet fully converted:
| 2020s: | 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 |
| 2010s | 2010, 2011…2016, 2017… |
| 2000s | 2000, 2001, 2002…2006, 2007… |
| 1990s: | 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 |
| 1980s | 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986…1989 |
| 1970s | 1970…1975…1978, 1979 |
| 1960s: | 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969 |
| 1950s: | 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959 |
| 1940s: | 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949 |
| 1930s: | 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939 |
| 1920s: | 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929 |
| 1910s: | 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919 |
| 1900s: | 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909 |
| 1890s: | 1890, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899 |
| 1880s: | 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1889 |
All of the names on the timeline come from the U.S. Social Security Administration’s baby name data, which goes back to 1880.
I’ve also used other sources of data to research historically significant baby names that were used…
- in the U.S. prior to 1880, and
- largely outside the U.S. (all years).
[Latest update: Jan. 2026]