Happy Mom's Day, Becky, Emily, Kathy, Janie, Linda, Lucille, Mandy, Margie – and all you other wonderful moms with names we grew up with (and boys pulled the ponytails and braids of in school, and pass the occasional "Do you love me. Mark yes or no" note to).
(Excuse the following silly sidebar, please) I don't know how you came to name your baby/babies, but I named mine after my grandmother – Bertha Matilda Taylor. You can guess which one of those three I choose, probably. My thinking was no matter if it was a girl or boy, we had it covered.
However, had I been born a girl, my parents (Mary & John) said they were going to name me "Marijon." Coulda been worse, I guess: "Gary & Becky" = "Gecky" or "Richard & Patricia" = "Ripatia" (a rare skin condition, no doubt).
But I'm a guy and this is Mother's Day, so I'll shut up and let's talk about the most mom thing there is: naming a baby.
If you've got grandkids running around named Maverick or Ailany, and your own name is Linda or Gary, you've lived the full arc of American baby naming. It's been quite a ride.
Note: a breakout of popular names by era can be found at the end of this article.
When you were born: 1946–1965
Picture this: it's 1946. The boys coming home from the war, the babies falling out of the skies into our mother's arms, and America is in a very James, Robert, and John kind of mood.
Those three names alone accounted for an almost absurd share of the male population for a generation. In 1946, James hit 87,000 babies. Nearly 90,000 little Jameses.
Mary, Mary, quite contrary
The girls? Mary was the undisputed queen — 67,000 of them in 1946. And Linda, the name that practically invented the concept of a trend, shot to #1 by 1950 with over 80,000 occurrences. Eighty thousand (typically smart and sassy) Lindas. In one year.
Then something happened. By 1965, Lisa had appeared from seemingly nowhere to become the #1 girl's name — with 60,000 babies. Lisa wasn't even in the top 50 in 1950. Not even close.
The cultural forces that made America fall in love with Lisa remain one of naming history's great mysteries, but it could've been fashion model Lisa Fonssagrives or actress Lisa Gaye who mom had seen in the movie 'Rock Around the Clock' and on a zillion TV shows ('Perry Mason', 'Have Gun Will Travel', etc.)
The one who "row the boat ashore"?
Meanwhile, Michael quietly became the boy juggernaut of the era, climbing from #7 in 1946 to #1 in 1965 with 81,000 boys. That's a lot of Michaels at any given Little League game.
When our kids were born: the 1980s–2000s
The data jumps ahead to 2015, by which point the landscape had shifted dramatically. Emma and Olivia were rising fast. The boys had moved on to Noah, Liam, Mason, and Jacob. Michael? Still hanging around, but fading.
The queen of 'em all, y'all
Here's a fact that will make any Boomer feel the passage of time: of the top 50 girl names from 1950, only Elizabeth is still in the top 50 today. One. Out of fifty. Linda, Mary, Patricia, Barbara, Susan, Carol — all gone from the charts. (Elizabeth, bless her, ranked #17 in 2025. The woman is timeless, I swear.)
Boy names proved sturdier (probably that nutritious high fructose corn syrup 😉). Twelve names from the 1950 top 50 are still charting in 2025, including James (#6), William (#9), and a couple of genuine comeback kids: Henry, who was barely hanging on at #47 in 1950 and has surged all the way to #5 today, and Jack, up from #48 to #15.
Francine Toder
Now, about your grandchildren: 2020–2025
And now we get to the babies currently drooling on your shoulder.
Liam (an Oasis influence?) and Olivia (a Rodrigo influence?) have held the #1 spots for boys and girls in both 2020 and 2025. Liam, which didn't exist in your grandmother's world, now feels as inevitable as the sunrise.
The biggest story of the moment, though, is Theodore. This name wasn't even in the top 50 in 2015. By 2020 it was #23. By 2025 it shot up to #4 — gaining nearly 4,700 births in five years. That's the naming equivalent of going viral.
And then there's Ailany — new to the 2025 top 50 at #14 for girls. Don't feel bad if you've never heard it. Neither had most Americans five years ago.
The Names That Survived Everything
A handful of names have been quietly present across every decade, generation after generation, never the flashiest but never gone either. James. William. Elizabeth. These are the names that outlasted every trend, every fad, every cultural moment. They were there for the Big Band era, the Baby Boom, the Reagan years, and they're still there in the TikTok era.
There's something almost comforting about that.
This Mother's Day, whatever your name is — whether you're a Linda who raised a Madison who's now raising a Theodore — know that your name was somebody's best idea at the time. Somebody held you and thought: yes, that's the one.
That's pretty special, no matter what the charts say.
The whole shootin' match
Speaking of charts, here's what the SSA baby name data for comparative eras from 1946-2025 shows.
| # | Boy name | Boys | Girl name | Girls |
|---|
Sources: U.S. Social Security Administration baby name data, 1946–2025.
