Sorry, Frank & Lisa! These Baby Names Are Losing Popularity in the 21st Century
There is a clear life cycle for virtually everything humans have created, including baby names. What was popular or trendy 10, 50, or even 100 years ago often isn't popular now, while other trends cycle back into popularity every few years—or even decades.
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The 1980s saw plenty of babies named after the British royal family (William, Diana, Elizabeth), well-known biblical characters (David, Sarah, Ruth), and trendy pop star names (Misty, Michael, Brandi). However, many of those names have dropped to the bottom of today's top 1,000 baby names list or have fallen completely off.
Stacker found the baby names that have declined the most in popularity during the 21st century using data from the Social Security Administration. Girl and boy names were ranked by popularity for the years 1980 to 1999 and for the years 2000 to 2021 based on the number of babies given that name at birth during those periods.
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The 100 most popular girl and boy names for 1980-1999 were then sorted by subtracting each name's 2000-2021 rank from its 1980-1999 rank to find the change. The names with the most positions lost in the 21st century when compared to the last two decades of the 20th century made this list. Ties were broken based on 21st-century popularity. Data was released in 2022.
Keep reading to discover which vintage names are losing ground in the 21st century and whether yours or the name of someone you know might be one of them.
LOOK: Baby names losing popularity in the 21st century
Gallery Credit: Stacker
LOOK: Baby boomer baby names that have gone out of style
Gallery Credit: Elizabeth Jackson