Names That Peaked In 1945
These names hit their all-time highest U.S. ranking in 1945 and have never ranked as high since — the sound of that moment, frozen in the data. (The #1 names that year were Mary and James — reigning champions usually peak in a different year than they reign.)
| Save name | Name & meaning | History 1926–2025, yearly counts; individually scaled | Babies 2025 · rank | 5-year rank movement | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 297#834 | Down 149 rank positions in five years | 1953 | |||
| 21#5,774 | Down 726 rank positions in five years | 1947 | |||
| 256#922 | Up 51 rank positions in five years | 1959 | |||
| 18#5,268 | Down 1,221 rank positions in five years | 1959 | |||
| 111#1,553 | Down 299 rank positions in five years | 1945 | |||
| —Unranked | — | 1948 | |||
| 149#1,449 | Up 202 rank positions in five years | 2015 | |||
| —Unranked | — | 1947 | |||
| 7#10,281 | new | 1946 | |||
| 12#8,735 | Up 1,349 rank positions in five years | 1952 | |||
| 5#15,373 | Down 2,978 rank positions in five years | 1946 | |||
| 44#3,489 | Up 812 rank positions in five years | 1947 | |||
| 108#1,580 | Up 1,205 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| —Unranked | — | 1947 | |||
| 18#5,269 | Up 518 rank positions in five years | 1945 |
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How this list is built
A name “peaked” in 1945 when that year holds its best-ever position in the national rankings — rank, not raw count, because raw counts track how many babies were born and would pile every “peak” into the boom years. To qualify, a name must have reached the top 1,000 at its height and have at least 500 all-time applications. Lists are ordered by that peak rank.
Ranks come from U.S. births, counted separately for girls and boys. “Unranked” today means fewer than 5 applications in the latest year — uncommon, never invalid.