Opal — #449 US girls' name

What the Data Says About Opal

The Social Security Administration has registered 72,794 babies named Opal between 1880 and 2024, spanning 145 consecutive years of U.S. birth records. As a girl's name, Opal currently holds the #449 rank among girls for 2024. The name reached its historical peak in 1918, when 2,847 babies received it in a single year.

Decade-level aggregation shows that Opal performed strongest in the 1920s, accumulating 21,542 births during that ten-year window. Across the 15 decades of recorded activity, Opal shows a clear decline from its mid-century high. Geographically, the name is most concentrated in Texas, which accounts for 6,554 births — the largest state-level total in the dataset — followed by Oklahoma and Kentucky. In total, SSA state-level files list Opal in 46 of the 51 U.S. reporting jurisdictions.

No etymological entry is currently available for Opal in our reference dataset. These figures derive from SSA's annual national and state-level name files, which include any name appearing at least five times in a given year or state-year; names below that threshold are suppressed for privacy and therefore excluded from the totals shown here. The 72,794 total represents a lower bound — actual usage may be higher in years or states where the count fell below the disclosure floor. This page is provided for informational and research purposes only and does not constitute personal, legal, or naming advice.