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

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

What the Data Says About the 1920s in New Hampshire

During the 1920s (1920–1929), the Social Security Administration recorded 49,234 births across the top 50 boy and top 50 girl names in New Hampshire. The decade's leading boy name was Robert with 2,713 births, while Mary was the top girl name with 1,509 births. The top 50 boys in this decade collectively accounted for 26,017 births versus 23,217 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 New Hampshire; 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 New Hampshire during this window reflects how regional preferences interact with broader national trends.

Decade totals are computed by summing SSA state-year records for New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire 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 2,713
2 John 1,618
3 Richard 1,329
4 William 1,174
5 George 1,168
6 Donald 842
7 Raymond 826
8 Paul 808
9 Charles 803
10 Joseph 789
11 James 759
12 Edward 715
13 Arthur 692
14 Roger 655
15 Roland 605
16 Albert 521
17 Maurice 488
18 Harold 479
19 Henry 463
20 Walter 459
21 Norman 456
22 Frank 443
23 Francis 438
24 Kenneth 401
25 Ernest 396
26 Leo 387
27 Thomas 358
28 Ralph 340
29 Alfred 309
30 David 307
31 Philip 277
32 Lawrence 273
33 Harry 261
34 Gerard 251
35 Herbert 243
36 Frederick 242
37 Stanley 237
38 Armand 227
39 Bernard 224
40 Louis 219
41 Gordon 197
42 Howard 196
43 Leonard 192
44 Gerald 189
45 Russell 181
46 Fred 181
47 Earl 174
48 Wilfred 173
49 Eugene 171
50 Normand 168

Girl Top 50 Girl Names

Rank Name Births
1 Mary 1,509
2 Dorothy 1,170
3 Rita 985
4 Barbara 972
5 Doris 858
6 Helen 848
7 Ruth 845
8 Irene 754
9 Pauline 746
10 Virginia 649
11 Theresa 640
12 Margaret 640
13 Elizabeth 608
14 Alice 547
15 Marion 500
16 Shirley 499
17 Lucille 469
18 Marjorie 467
19 Evelyn 458
20 Florence 455
21 Lorraine 444
22 Eleanor 421
23 Phyllis 408
24 Lillian 388
25 Marie 364
26 Louise 351
27 Frances 348
28 Beatrice 347
29 Mildred 331
30 Jean 318
31 Jeannette 305
32 Patricia 303
33 Claire 299
34 Gloria 296
35 Priscilla 282
36 Beverly 275
37 Gertrude 275
38 Cecile 263
39 Arlene 241
40 Norma 239
41 Catherine 239
42 Betty 235
43 Charlotte 231
44 Therese 227
45 Constance 204
46 June 202
47 Jane 196
48 Thelma 189
49 Marguerite 189
50 Edith 188

Nearby Rankings

Related decade and state views for New Hampshire

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.