Name Trends

See the popularity of names over time in the USA

How popular is “Helen” in the USA?

Number of people named “Helen” by birth year

This chart shows how many people named “Helen” were born each year.

Due to changes to population growth and data collection rates over time, this isn't a good chart for understanding popularity.

Popularity of “Helen” by birth year

This chart shows how the popularity of “Helen” has changed over time.

Popularity is the number of people named “Helen” born in that year divided by the total number of births for that year.

Bias in sex for “Helen” by birth year

This chart shows how “Helen” has been used as gendered name over time. The scale ranges from 1 (only females) to -1 (only males).

Sex is a required field in SSA's Social Security Card applications (only 2 options). Most applications are filed around a person's time of birth.

The raw data

This table shows the data used in the above charts.

Year Count Proportion Females Males Bias toward female
1880 636 0.003156578 636 100%
1881 619 0.003212447 612 7 98%
1882 838 0.003782732 838 100%
1883 867 0.003996386 862 5 99%
1884 986 0.00404993 986 100%
1885 1140 0.004733158 1134 6 99%
1886 1267 0.004962478 1267 100%
1887 1405 0.005679246 1405 100%
1888 1852 0.006184176 1847 5 99%
1889 1917 0.006634458 1909 8 99%
1890 2319 0.007694069 2312 7 99%
1891 2426 0.008462604 2417 9 99%
1892 2943 0.008801522 2936 7 100%
1893 3257 0.010014667 3249 8 100%
1894 3684 0.010877203 3676 8 100%
1895 4040 0.011509316 4023 17 99%
1896 4402 0.012313838 4392 10 100%
1897 4535 0.013070784 4519 16 99%
1898 5247 0.013755227 5230 17 99%
1899 5064 0.014927749 5048 16 99%
1900 6360 0.014125234 6342 18 99%
1901 5264 0.015222143 5247 17 99%
1902 5997 0.015506823 5967 30 99%
1903 6158 0.01615425 6129 29 99%
1904 6503 0.016117079 6488 15 100%
1905 6837 0.016127966 6811 26 99%
1906 7202 0.016809391 7176 26 99%
1907 7599 0.016328242 7579 20 99%
1908 8469 0.017331459 8439 30 99%
1909 9286 0.018164249 9250 36 99%
1910 10509 0.017790426 10479 30 99%
1911 11847 0.018388025 11801 46 99%
1912 16171 0.016366381 16133 38 100%
1913 18939 0.01665538 18888 51 99%
1914 23275 0.016433155 23221 54 100%
1915 30926 0.016877079 30866 60 100%
1916 32744 0.016927063 32661 83 99%
1917 34312 0.017098293 34251 61 100%
1918 36228 0.016686387 36148 80 100%
1919 33766 0.016000986 33706 60 100%
1920 35160 0.015539349 35097 63 100%
1921 34888 0.014944496 34822 66 100%
1922 32577 0.014231009 32510 67 100%
1923 31548 0.013701742 31486 62 100%
1924 31273 0.013131034 31194 79 99%
1925 29253 0.012537168 29173 80 99%
1926 26959 0.011742211 26885 74 99%
1927 25409 0.010955187 25317 92 99%
1928 23025 0.010183826 22937 88 99%
1929 21059 0.009606502 20982 77 99%
1930 19996 0.008993886 19913 83 99%
1931 17731 0.008425727 17664 67 99%
1932 16465 0.007798546 16376 89 99%
1933 14726 0.007365036 14644 82 99%
1934 14150 0.006813314 14101 49 99%
1935 12851 0.006149098 12784 67 99%
1936 12286 0.005913617 12234 52 99%
1937 11520 0.00540675 11454 66 99%
1938 10902 0.004927293 10837 65 99%
1939 10464 0.004748933 10419 45 99%
1940 10241 0.004447417 10203 38 99%
1941 9936 0.004078106 9887 49 99%
1942 10053 0.003679967 10016 37 99%
1943 9838 0.00348549 9800 38 99%
1944 8732 0.003246001 8696 36 99%
1945 8330 0.003139948 8300 30 99%
1946 8886 0.002780953 8853 33 99%
1947 9003 0.002499221 8979 24 99%
1948 8323 0.002410704 8301 22 99%
1949 7734 0.002219368 7707 27 99%
1950 7079 0.002020633 7060 19 99%
1951 6964 0.001890471 6950 14 100%
1952 6481 0.001706422 6464 17 99%
1953 6143 0.001594076 6123 20 99%
1954 5961 0.001497472 5947 14 100%
1955 5611 0.001397482 5592 19 99%
1956 5296 0.00128449 5279 17 99%
1957 5034 0.00119796 5020 14 99%
1958 4789 0.001158469 4769 20 99%
1959 4389 0.001055558 4374 15 99%
1960 4080 0.00098223 4070 10 100%
1961 3870 0.000934263 3858 12 99%
1962 3603 0.000892854 3587 16 99%
1963 3346 0.000845334 3337 9 99%
1964 3109 0.000799721 3100 9 99%
1965 2815 0.000776456 2801 14 99%
1966 2452 0.000705479 2447 5 100%
1967 2164 0.000637427 2156 8 99%
1968 1896 0.00056121 1884 12 99%
1969 1868 0.000537504 1858 10 99%
1970 1727 0.000478856 1718 9 99%
1971 1449 0.000422159 1440 9 99%
1972 1250 0.00039771 1241 9 99%
1973 1136 0.000376547 1136 100%
1974 1148 0.000377632 1141 7 99%
1975 1065 0.00035272 1059 6 99%
1976 952 0.000313746 943 9 98%
1977 1000 0.000314812 994 6 99%
1978 930 0.000293018 925 5 99%
1979 883 0.000265404 878 5 99%
1980 913 0.00026506 913 100%
1981 899 0.000259874 899 100%
1982 876 0.000249718 876 100%
1983 844 0.000243695 844 100%
1984 865 0.000247939 858 7 98%
1985 814 0.000228068 808 6 99%
1986 774 0.000217594 768 6 98%
1987 816 0.000226314 816 100%
1988 781 0.000211364 774 7 98%
1989 868 0.00022578 858 10 98%
1990 870 0.000220115 863 7 98%
1991 779 0.000199986 774 5 99%
1992 828 0.000215554 828 100%
1993 873 0.000231548 868 5 99%
1994 854 0.000229715 849 5 99%
1995 838 0.000228827 838 100%
1996 900 0.000246765 900 100%
1997 812 0.000223954 812 100%
1998 832 0.000226197 832 100%
1999 841 0.000227675 841 100%
2000 891 0.00023572 891 100%
2001 884 0.00023615 884 100%
2002 875 0.000234064 875 100%
2003 783 0.000205927 783 100%
2004 866 0.000226647 861 5 99%
2005 961 0.000249945 961 100%
2006 949 0.000239877 949 100%
2007 932 0.000233135 932 100%
2008 885 0.000225153 885 100%
2009 826 0.00021622 826 100%
2010 704 0.00019049 704 100%
2011 731 0.000199847 731 100%
2012 772 0.000211081 772 100%
2013 740 0.000202981 740 100%
2014 802 0.000216384 802 100%
2015 767 0.000207246 767 100%
2016 816 0.000222422 816 100%
2017 763 0.000213355 763 100%
2018 745 0.000211895 745 100%
2019 743 0.000214063 743 100%
2020 721 0.000215831 721 100%
2021 704 0.000207795 704 100%
2022 749 0.000221392 749 100%
2023 776 0.000234356 776 100%
2024 726 0.000218116 726 100%