The 20 Most Popular Middle Names in the Decade You Were Born

Between 1900 and 1909, the second most popular middle name for a baby girl in the U.S. was Marie. Everyone knows that names come in and out of fashion, so it’s no surprise that Marie no longer held that position between 2010 and 2015. During that span, it was … in first place.

In fact, Marie has never fallen past fourth place in any decade since 1900; and during most decades, it was either in second or first place. It’s far from the only moniker that has remained in the top 10 middle names for more than a century—Ann and Elizabeth have, too.

And that’s just on the girls’ side. For boys’ middle names, Joseph, James, and Lee have all ranked every single decade. Lee in particular deserves a special shout-out: Not only was it in first place for five consecutive decades (the 1930s through the 1970s) on the boys’ side, but it also made the top 10 girls’ middle names in every decade of the 20th century.

The data is from a 2016 study by MooseRoots, a now-defunct genealogical site that trawled some 57.5 million middle names from the Social Security Death Index to create the lists. The timing of the study explains why the 2010s data cuts off at 2015—and if all the research were updated with nearly a decade’s worth of additional death records, it’s possible or even likely that the rankings would shift slightly. Still, though, it probably wouldn’t be enough to threaten Marie’s and Lee’s supremacy.

The lists aren’t completely without fads. Margaret and Dawn each only made the top 10 girls’ names during one decade: Margaret in the 1900s, and Dawn in the 1970s. Scott, meanwhile, is only on the boys’ list for the 1960s; and Wayne made its first appearance in the ’40s, but fell off after the ’70s. Rose had the opposite trajectory, first appearing in the ’80s and climbing the list by a couple spots every decade since then.

In general, it seems like people prefer to go short in choosing middle names for girls: Seven of the top 10 from 2010 to 2015 are only one syllable. (It’s probably not a coincidence that so many of today’s most popular first names for girls are quite long: e.g. Olivia, Amelia, and Isabella.) For boys’ middle names, “traditional” seems to be a common theme—Michael, William, etc.

Is your own middle name one of the most popular from your birth decade? Find out below.

1900 – 1909

1910 – 1919

1920 – 1929

1930 – 1939

1940 – 1949

1950 – 1959

1960 – 1969

1970 – 1979

1980 – 1989

1990 – 1999

2000 – 2009

2010 – 2015

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