This is fascinating!

[nuranar]

It's a little Facebook link thingy, but SO COOL for historic stuffs.

http://time.com/3856405/baby-name-popularity/?xid=fbshare&fb_ref=Default"Get the name of the same popularity as yours for this year and for every decade back to the 1890s

Comments

[padawansguide]

This is my fav tool - you can type in names and see how popular they were in graphical form. Also interesting is seeing when names like Meredith swapped from boy names to girl names. It's really fun to play with:
http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager

My name was 499th most popular for the year I was born, though it was at its low at 809 four years before I was born! I don't know many Maggies. I think I've only ever actually met 2 and one is the DFWCG.

ETA: If I were born in 1910, the 499th most popular name was Margret. So same deal. :-)

[isabelladangelo]

I'm having too much fun with that link.

[atherleisure]

Very cool. My name was #1 from the beginning of the list through the end of WWII. Then it wavered between #1 and #2 until 1965. Then people started getting creative, and it's been in constant decline. Still, my name is the only name I know that has a song about how great the name is.

Thanks for sharing.

[nuranar]

It IS a grand old name!

I get different and fun results from my middle name, too.

[atherleisure]

Points to you for knowing the song. (Though I'm not surprised you do.)

My middle name starts in the 20s and descends from there, though at the same time the closest alternate spelling becomes a little more popular. I have a very traditional name, and I like it that way!

[nuranar]

A couple of throwaway references in old radio shows. ;)

Ooh, it just starts in the 20s? How interesting! I tried Adelaide (my 1920s name) on the link that padawansguide provided, and it totally disappears from the 1950s to the 1980s. But it was certainly popular from the 1880s on.

[jenthompson]

I was so excited about this until I discovered that my name was #1 for its year, which means that my previous names would be Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary, and oh yeah, Mary. :P

[nuranar]

Haha! Try just "Jen," or go with your middle name. I get very different results from my real name (162nd), my nickname (373rd), and my middle name (6th). Maybe you'll have some more variety. ;)

[ktlovely]

Yes, this! I've tried Katie and Katrina with very different results. Plus it's just fun to play with. :)

Edit: And, using my middle name, my 1890s name would be 'Tiny!'

[nuranar]

It really is!

Tiny? Wow. At least I can explain why "Bell" was a girl's name in that decade...

[mala_14]

Really fun and interesting! My name ranked 118th for when I was born, which makes sense because I haven't met a lot of Sabrina's in my life, but I have met a few. And I was almost a Jennifer! (It's one of my middle names instead.) I like my 1920's and 1900's names (Cecilia and Veronica), but my 1940's and 1890's names are just weird (Melba and Lura!). Thanks for sharing!

[chocolatepot]

My name is 456th for 1987, so I got some lovely weird answers as well. Best is "Forrest" for 1890s, which ... that was used as a girl's name??

And my misspelled entry is "Shanon" for the '80s.