US boys given one of the year's ten most common names, 1880–2008

Name: US boys given one of the year's ten most common names, 1880–2008
Creator: Unlabeled
License: Public domain (a U.S. government work, 17 U.S.C. 105); the copy's repository names no licence and changes nothing in the numbers

Each strand is one name, colored by its first letter. In 1880, 41% of boys got a top-10 name, John first; by 2008 it was 9%.

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y ↑: Boys given a top-10 name (%)
x →: Year of birth

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The data: 129 points

Year of birth	Boys given a top-10 name (%)
1880	41.26
1881	40.75
1882	39.8
1883	39.65
1884	38.44
1885	37.82
1886	37.58
1887	37.05
1888	36.67
1889	36.16
1890	35.59
1891	34.94
1892	34.33
1893	34.18
1894	33.29
1895	33.1
1896	32.63
1897	32.51
1898	32.41
1899	31.6
1900	31.75
1901	30.95
1902	31.02
1903	30.63
1904	30.28
1905	29.68
1906	29.9
1907	29.33
1908	29.41
1909	29.05
1910	29.08
1911	29.45
1912	29.13
1913	29.23
1914	29.53
1915	29.33
1916	29.56
1917	29.8
1918	29.99
1919	29.86
1920	30.52
1921	30.71
1922	30.92
1923	31.23
1924	31.65
1925	31.9
1926	32.04
1927	32.18
1928	32.18
1929	32.5
1930	32.76
1931	32.83
1932	32.62
1933	32.49
1934	32.34
1935	32.37
1936	32.47
1937	32.77
1938	32.66
1939	32.65
1940	32.7
1941	32.87
1942	33.19
1943	33.49
1944	33.71
1945	33.67
1946	34.32
1947	33.87
1948	33.37
1949	33.36
1950	33.26
1951	33.28
1952	33.19
1953	32.74
1954	32.04
1955	31.68
1956	31.04
1957	30.33
1958	29.59
1959	29
1960	28.64
1961	28.63
1962	28.33
1963	28.28
1964	28.52
1965	27.85
1966	27.66
1967	27.72
1968	27.73
1969	27.08
1970	26.21
1971	25.8
1972	25.72
1973	25.6
1974	25.61
1975	24.73
1976	24.23
1977	23.99
1978	23.68
1979	23.18
1980	22.7
1981	22.7
1982	22.97
1983	22.85
1984	22.59
1985	21.87
1986	21.28
1987	20.93
1988	20.46
1989	19.51
1990	18.6
1991	17.55
1992	16.49
1993	15.86
1994	15.49
1995	15.26
1996	14.68
1997	14.44
1998	13.83
1999	13.28
2000	12.58
2001	11.93
2002	11.64
2003	11.08
2004	10.67
2005	10.08
2006	9.51
2007	9.2
2008	8.84

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, popular baby names by year of birth (percent of boys), via Hadley Wickham's 2009 copy of the SSA tables; top-10 shares added up by Unlabeled after Nadieh Bremer, Visual Cinnamon: The Top 10 Baby Names
Licence: Public domain (a U.S. government work, 17 U.S.C. 105); the copy's repository names no licence and changes nothing in the numbers
Read: 2026-11-09
Drawn: 129 points as the puzzle showed them · line

Ran in puzzle #47 on November 12, 2026. Play it

US boys given one of the year's ten most common names, 1880–2008

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