Top Baby Names in Idaho, 1920s — Most Popular Boys & Girls Names

The most popular baby names in Idaho from 1920 to 1929, ranked by total births during the decade.

What the Data Says About the 1920s in Idaho

During the 1920s (1920–1929), the Social Security Administration recorded 47,476 births across the top 50 boy and top 50 girl names in Idaho. The decade's leading boy name was Robert with 2,283 births, while Mary was the top girl name with 1,758 births. The top 50 boys in this decade collectively accounted for 24,450 births versus 23,026 for the top 50 girls — a common SSA pattern in which the boy-name pool is more concentrated among fewer high-frequency choices. These totals represent only names appearing five or more times per year in Idaho; rarer names fall below the SSA's privacy-disclosure threshold and are excluded.

The 1920s sits within a specific cultural window of U.S. naming history. Pre-1950 decades like the 1920s were characterized by strong traditional and biblical naming conventions, with a small cluster of dominant names (John, William, Mary, Elizabeth) capturing a disproportionate share of births. Robert and Mary leading Idaho during this window reflects how regional preferences interact with broader national trends.

Decade totals are computed by summing SSA state-year records for Idaho across all ten years of the 1920s. Because the SSA suppresses any name with fewer than five annual occurrences in a state, the true number of unique names given in Idaho during this decade is larger than what this page lists. The dataset also treats every spelling as a separate name — for example, Kayla and Kaylah are tracked independently — so combined-spelling totals would shift the rankings somewhat. This page is provided for informational and research purposes and does not constitute naming, legal, or genealogical advice.

Boy Top 50 Boy Names

Rank Name Births
1 Robert 2,283
2 William 1,522
3 John 1,507
4 James 1,366
5 Donald 1,186
6 Charles 872
7 Richard 864
8 Jack 863
9 George 853
10 Kenneth 638
11 Harold 633
12 Frank 457
13 Ralph 430
14 Thomas 425
15 David 418
16 Joseph 390
17 Wayne 377
18 Edward 373
19 Earl 372
20 Walter 364
21 Dale 358
22 Don 351
23 Raymond 331
24 Eugene 330
25 Keith 327
26 Paul 326
27 Howard 318
28 Arthur 316
29 Roy 305
30 Ray 304
31 Carl 296
32 Dean 289
33 Melvin 277
34 Glen 271
35 Fred 265
36 Gerald 264
37 Harry 260
38 Lloyd 257
39 Norman 249
40 Glenn 247
41 Albert 247
42 Bill 244
43 Floyd 244
44 Max 243
45 Gene 241
46 Clarence 239
47 Vernon 223
48 Lawrence 223
49 Ronald 206
50 Marvin 206

Girl Top 50 Girl Names

Rank Name Births
1 Mary 1,758
2 Betty 1,629
3 Dorothy 1,382
4 Helen 1,129
5 Ruth 917
6 Margaret 821
7 Barbara 722
8 Lois 649
9 Marjorie 639
10 Donna 605
11 Virginia 563
12 Doris 559
13 Shirley 558
14 Norma 549
15 Alice 480
16 Jean 440
17 Maxine 437
18 June 434
19 Phyllis 428
20 Frances 412
21 Evelyn 411
22 Patricia 396
23 Mildred 358
24 Marie 315
25 Florence 311
26 Ruby 309
27 Wilma 300
28 Irene 296
29 Edna 289
30 Wanda 275
31 Joyce 271
32 Thelma 270
33 Elizabeth 269
34 Anna 254
35 Edith 252
36 Elaine 245
37 Louise 245
38 Lucille 241
39 Bonnie 233
40 Gladys 233
41 Eva 232
42 Grace 230
43 Beverly 225
44 Hazel 222
45 Bernice 214
46 Ethel 210
47 Esther 209
48 Carol 202
49 Geraldine 200
50 Elsie 198

Nearby Rankings

Related decade and state views for Idaho

Compare 1920s leaders: Robert vs Mary → or pick any two names →

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, Baby Names — State-Level Files, 1910–2024 (ssa.gov).

Source: SSA Baby Names Methodology — names with 5 or more occurrences per state per year are included (ssa.gov/oact/babynames/limits.html).

Data sourced from official U.S. government datasets. See our methodology for details.