Which baby names were the most popular in the U.S. in 1880?
And which other names were noteworthy that year?
Below you’ll find the answers to both of these questions. (In parentheses are my guesses about the outside factors influencing each name.)
Top names
These were the most popular baby names overall in the U.S. in 1880:
| Girl names: Most popular | Boy names: Most popular |
| 1. Mary | 1. John |
| 2. Anna | 2. William |
| 3. Emma | 3. James |
| 4. Elizabeth | 4. Charles |
| 5. Minnie | 5. George |
Notable names
Because 1880 is the very first year of SSA data, we can’t look at rising names or debut names. Instead, here are the notable baby names I’ve come across for 1880:
| Girl names: Notable | Boy names: Notable |
| Winfield (politician) |
If you want to check out another year on the timeline, here’s the baby name timeline main page.
Finally, a few reminders about the Social Security Administration’s baby name data:
- It only includes names given to at least five babies (of one gender or the other) per year.
- It does contain mistakes such as misspelled names, misgendered names, and placeholder names (e.g., “Babygirl”).
- It isn’t very accurate from 1880 to the mid-1930s. Why? Because the SSA was established in the mid-1930s, so the names in the dataset from 1880 to the mid-1930s are not the names of babies, but the names (or nicknames) of adults applying for social security numbers. More importantly, adults born during these decades who never applied for a number are simply not accounted for.
Data source: U.S. Social Security Administration