This set of graphs shows a time series of the popularity of baby names in the USA over the past century. The y-axis represents the annual rank of the name from one (most popular) to NR (not ranked among the top five). There are two graphs showing the popularity of the five most commonly used names since 1913 (one for boy names and one for girl names), and two graphs showing the popularity of the most common boy and girl names of 2012.

Interestingly, of the top five names for girls since 1913, one – Elizabeth – has never been ranked in the top five for a given year. To keep the graphs balanced, I did not plot Elizabeth as a flat line, and instead added Barbara, which has been the sixth most common name since 1913.

The trends show that the popularity of girl names is more short-lived – the most popular names are 20-year fads that pop up and then disappear altogether. The current crop of popular girl names picked up around 2005, and none of the names was ever in the top five between 1913 and 2000.

Popular boy names remain in the top five for much longer durations (60+ years). Of the current most popular boy names, one – William – has also been among the top five over the past century.

Data source: http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/