Eras & decades
Greatest Generation names (born 1901–1927)
100 names · 50 girls · 50 boys · records through 2025
These are the names of the generation that grew up between two world wars: totalled from the year-by-year top-100 lists of 1901 through 1927, not remembered and not guessed.
This guide has 100 names: 50 girl names and 50 boy names. Names ranked in the national top-100 in any year from 1901 to 1927. The total beside each name counts the births of the years it made that top 100 — a name ranked lower in a given year contributes nothing for it. Built from US Social Security birth records through 2025. Tap + beside any name to keep it on your shortlist as you read.
Before the names
Mary held the #1 spot for the whole span and John held it until 1923 — a concentration no later generation comes close to. The top of the chart barely moved for twenty-seven years.
Almost every name here has since made at least one journey down and, in a dozen cases, back up again. This is the shelf the vintage revival keeps returning to, which is why some entries read as antique and others as this year's fashion.
Girl names
50 names
- Mary1.2M in its top-100 years
- Helen558k in its top-100 years
- Dorothy548k in its top-100 years
- Margaret447k in its top-100 years
- Ruth405k in its top-100 years
- Mildred283k in its top-100 years
- Anna271k in its top-100 years
- Elizabeth271k in its top-100 years
- Betty261k in its top-100 years
- Virginia250k in its top-100 years
- Frances249k in its top-100 years
- Marie217k in its top-100 years
- Evelyn213k in its top-100 years
- Alice209k in its top-100 years
- Florence189k in its top-100 years
- Doris179k in its top-100 years
- Lillian176k in its top-100 years
- Rose169k in its top-100 years
- Irene168k in its top-100 years
- Louise158k in its top-100 years
- Gladys155k in its top-100 years
- Edna152k in its top-100 years
- Catherine151k in its top-100 years
- Martha150k in its top-100 years
- Ethel148k in its top-100 years
- Ruby141k in its top-100 years
- Josephine137k in its top-100 years
- Annie134k in its top-100 years
- Grace132k in its top-100 years
- Thelma131k in its top-100 years
- Hazel129k in its top-100 years
- Edith129k in its top-100 years
- Marjorie126k in its top-100 years
- Eleanor126k in its top-100 years
- Jean124k in its top-100 years
- Lucille124k in its top-100 years
- Pauline116k in its top-100 years
- Lois112k in its top-100 years
- Esther109k in its top-100 years
- Gertrude107k in its top-100 years
- Clara105k in its top-100 years
- Emma102k in its top-100 years
- Beatrice101k in its top-100 years
- Bernice96k in its top-100 years
- Bertha94k in its top-100 years
- Marion94k in its top-100 years
- Sarah92k in its top-100 years
- Elsie91k in its top-100 years
- Ann88k in its top-100 years
- Agnes88k in its top-100 years
Boy names
50 names
- John909k in its top-100 years
- William779k in its top-100 years
- James740k in its top-100 years
- Robert727k in its top-100 years
- Charles442k in its top-100 years
- George429k in its top-100 years
- Joseph411k in its top-100 years
- Edward309k in its top-100 years
- Frank267k in its top-100 years
- Richard248k in its top-100 years
- Thomas239k in its top-100 years
- Walter206k in its top-100 years
- Harold201k in its top-100 years
- Donald200k in its top-100 years
- Paul196k in its top-100 years
- Henry186k in its top-100 years
- Raymond183k in its top-100 years
- Arthur161k in its top-100 years
- Albert159k in its top-100 years
- Harry153k in its top-100 years
- Jack149k in its top-100 years
- Ralph130k in its top-100 years
- Kenneth125k in its top-100 years
- David119k in its top-100 years
- Willie118k in its top-100 years
- Clarence116k in its top-100 years
- Louis115k in its top-100 years
- Carl113k in its top-100 years
- Howard112k in its top-100 years
- Fred107k in its top-100 years
- Eugene106k in its top-100 years
- Roy101k in its top-100 years
- Earl100k in its top-100 years
- Joe97k in its top-100 years
- Francis96k in its top-100 years
- Ernest89k in its top-100 years
- Lawrence89k in its top-100 years
- Anthony81k in its top-100 years
- Herbert81k in its top-100 years
- Stanley80k in its top-100 years
- Leonard80k in its top-100 years
- Samuel77k in its top-100 years
- Alfred77k in its top-100 years
- Norman67k in its top-100 years
- Michael66k in its top-100 years
- Andrew63k in its top-100 years
- Elmer63k in its top-100 years
- Bernard63k in its top-100 years
- Daniel63k in its top-100 years
- Leo63k in its top-100 years
Every rank and count here is published by the US Social Security Administration and refreshed each year when the new figures land. The method is stated at the top of this page.
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