Top Baby Names At Risk Of Disappearing
Like most trends, many once-popular baby names are hardly ever used anymore, if at all. Although some families carry on an old name, other names are facing extinction. To show this decline in popularity, we calculated a percentage decline for each name by comparing the peak year count to the 2024 count of babies with the name.
Because our data is limited to the top 1,000 names for each year, any name that didn’t appear in the top 1,000 in 2024 was given a 0 to indicate that it is no longer significantly used. This resulted in several names receiving a decline percentage of 100%, so, in cases of a tie, we used the peak year count of babies with that name for rankings.
Leading the way as the most endangered name is Patricia, with a decline percentage of 100%. The name Patricia reached its peak in 1951, when 56,446 baby girls in the U.S. were given the name. Next up on our list is another girl’s name, Debra, which saw its peak a few years after first place in 1955.
Coming in third place for the most endangered names is another girl’s name that peaked in 1955, Susan. At the top of its popularity, there were 47,419 babies given the name. Rounding out the top five are two more girl names with a decline percentage of 100%, Shirley and Karen.
In sixth place, we find our first boy name, Gary, also with a decline percentage of 100%. The name reached its peak in 1952, with nearly 39,000 boys born with it. The next boy name on our list comes in ninth place: Larry peaked in 1947 with 34,945 babies given the name.
Most popular names over the years
While many of the fastest fading names on our list peaked in the 1950s, we wanted to gain more insight into which decades’ names are disappearing fastest. To do this, we looked at popular names by decade and then measured whether popularity has been retained or lost as of 2024.
Overall, we found that the 1930s have the highest percentage (72%) of names that have gone extinct. Some of the most popular names from this decade include: Shirley, Betty, Donald, and Joe. Up next, the fastest-disappearing decade for names is a tie between the 1950s and 1960s, both with 52% of names gone, according to recent data.
When looking at names of the 1950s, we found Michael, David, Deborah, and Thomas among the most popular. In the 1960s, Lisa, Mark, Jeffrey, and Lori were among the most popular names for newborns.
In addition to our decade-by-decade breakdown, we wanted to identify which popular names by generation are at risk of fading. To do this, we looked at names that peaked during the years Baby Boomers and Gen Xers were born and calculated the decline percentage.
Leading the way as the most at-risk Baby Boomer names are Ronald and Jerry for boys and Linda and Deborah for girls. Among Gen Xers, we found that Scott and Brian are the fastest fading male names. At the same time, Lisa and Jennifer are the top female names losing popularity.
Old Baby Names That Are Still Around
It’s common for older names to appear these days as people seek to keep a loved one’s name alive. From honoring a father with a grandson named after him to remembering a beloved grandmother every time you look at a baby girl who shares her name, these are incredibly special connections.
Some people simply love vintage names and aren’t necessarily passing on a family name. But we found through our research that many names of the past are still hanging around, many years after their peak.
To show which names are making a comeback, we looked at names with a historical peak that later dropped to at least 60% below that peak, which we considered their trough. We then calculated how much those names have resurged since that dropoff in popularity.
Topping the list as the number one name making a comeback is Hazel. After peaking in 1918 with 7,680 babies named Hazel, the name reached a low in 1975 with just 134 children. The name has grown in popularity once again, with more than 6,000 babies given the name in 2024.
Coming in second place for names making a comeback is Eleanor, which reached its peak in 1920 but saw renewed popularity in 2024, when 7,127 baby girls were given the name. This is followed by Elsie, which was most popular in 1918, with more than 5,000 babies born with the name. In 2024, there were 1,901 baby girls with that name.
To wrap up our study, we wanted to shine a light on names that have never really disappeared. Whether they peaked in 1920 or 1955, these names are used frequently year in and year out. To create this ranking, we looked at names that peaked before 1960 and had at least 5,000 babies at that peak.
Then, we calculated each name’s performance each year relative to its peak and averaged those annual percentages to determine the average percentage of peak, showing the name has been consistently popular.
Up first, as the number one name that has stood the test of time, is Joseph, with an average peak percentage of 64%. William follows this at 48%, which peaked in 1947 as 67,155 boys were given the name. Coming in third place for the most consistently popular names is Edward, which, despite its peak in 1924, remains in common use today.
Methodology
In this study, we set out to identify which older names are at the greatest risk of extinction. To do this, we first collected the top 1,000 baby names for both boys and girls between 1900 and 2024 from the Social Security Administration.
We then analyzed the data to determine which year each name reached its peak, identified the number of babies with that name, subtracted that number from the number of babies born with the name in 2024, and divided by the peak number to calculate a decline percentage.
For names that did not make the top 1,000 in 2024, we set the count to 0 to signal that the name is no longer meaningfully used. We then ranked names that peaked between 1900 and 1980 by their decline percentage, from highest to lowest. This shows which names were once popular but are no longer used as frequently in recent years.
Because several names had a decline of 100% due to a lack of babies with those names in 2024, the peak count of babies with each name was used to break ties. We then created rankings for the fastest-fading boy and girl names, as well as rankings that excluded names with a 100% decline (to show those that are still used in some capacity).
We then analyzed the year each name peaked to determine when today’s fastest fading baby names were most popular. We also analyzed names that peaked between 1946 and 1964 and between 1965 and 1980 to identify the fastest declining Baby Boomer and Gen X names.
Then we analyzed the data to learn which names are making a comeback. To do this, we looked at names with a significant historical peak that later dropped to at least 60% below that peak (the trough), and then we considered how much they’ve resurged since their trough, as of 2024.
Finally, we wanted to gain insight into the older names that have stuck around the longest. For this dataset, we looked at names that peaked before 1960 with at least 5,000 babies at their peak and then calculated how each name performed each year compared to its peak year. The average of that annual performance is the average peak percentage. High averages mean consistently popular names.
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Anthony Martin is a nationally licensed insurance expert with over 16 years of experience and has personally served over 10,000 clients with their life insurance needs. He frequently authors entrepreneurial and life insurance content for Forbes, Inc.com, Newsweek, Kiplinger, and Entreprenuer.com. Anthony has been consulted as an expert life insurance source for dozens of high-profile websites such as Forbes, Bankrate, Reuters, Fox Business, CNBC, Investopedia, Insurance.com, Yahoo Finance, and many more.
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Social Security Administration. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/
