Popular girls names: Their ups and downs

If I were a cookbook writer, I think my first title would be: "100 Ways to Dice and Slice the Social Security List."There is so much information to be found embedded in it and so many ways to look at it, that there seems to be no end of different and intriguing ways to parse the data.  

Pam will be writing later about the startling number of names that have been in the Top 1000 consistently — which is to say every single year – since in1880 score-keeping began. Today I'll take a look at the patterns followed by the names that have moved in and out of fashion.

  First, the girls, grouped by the decades they first came into favor, followed by the specific years when they were included in the Top 100.  (This does not include names that have been up there every single year.)

You may be surprised at some of the names when initially appeared — sometimes earlier, sometimes later than you might have guessed.Zoe and Chloe, for example, were both strong in the 19th century, as were Savannah and Samantha.Alexis was already up there in the 1940s, but Alexa didn't break through till the 70s;Kayla was there as early as the fifties, while — and this may not be such a surprise – Kaitlyn, Katelyn, Kaylee and Makayla all broke through as a group in the eighties, along with Hailey and Bailey.

1880s-90s (and possibly earlier)

Abigail: 1880-1897, 1901-1903, 1906, 1939, 1943, 1946, 1949-2009Andrea: 1880-1881, 1884-1887, 1889, 1901-1904, 1907-2009Ava: 1880-1972, 1974-1975, 1984, 1986-2009Bella: 1880-1931, 2000-2009Chloe: 1880-1943, 1982-2009Ella: 1880-1983, 1988, 1990-2009Faith: 1880-1882, 1884-1886, 1888-2009Isabella: 1880-1948, 1990-2009Isabelle: 1880-1954, 1957, 1991-2009Jessica: 1880-1893, 1895, 1898-1900, 1903-1912, 1914-1918, 1935, 1937, 1939-2009Lily: 1880-1964, 1966, 1970, 1972, 1976, 1979-2009Madelyn: 1893, 1895-1965, 1986-2009Mariah: 1880-1908, 1910-1911, 1913, 1973, 1975-2009Melanie: 1886, 1938-2009Samantha: 1880-1902, 1907, 1964-2009Savannah: 1880-1922, 1924-1925, 1928, 1983-2009Sofia: 1881, 1881, 1886, 1888-1889, 1891-1892, 1895, 1898, 1900-1901, 1906-1914, 1916-1917, 1920-1925, 1927-1931, 1935, 1969, 1971-2009Sophie: 1880-1955, 1984-2009Sydney: 1886, 1905, 1932-1957, 1959-1961, 1963-1967, 1981-2009Valeria: 1881-1944, 1946-1976, 1983, 1985-2009Zoe: 1880-1912, 1914-1926, 1928-1929, 1931-1941, 1951-1955, 1957-1961, 1966, 1970, 1973, 1975, 1983-2009

1910s

Alexandra: 1915, 1934, 1936, 1938-2009

1920s

Jocelyn: 1927-1937, 1939-1943, 1945, 1948-2009

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

Tomorrow we'll take a look at the boys ' list.

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