Stacker Data Ranks Most Popular 1950s Girl Names by State

Overview

• The state-by-state rankings were published July 14–15, 2026 and use Social Security Administration birth records from 1950–1959 with names ranked by number of births.
• The lists show state variation in top names, for example California’s top three were Linda, Susan and Mary while Colorado’s were Linda, Mary and Debra and Texas’s were Mary, Linda and Patricia.
• Each state entry pairs the 1950s birth totals with counts from 2015–2024 so readers can see how names that were common midcentury have risen or fallen in recent years.
• Stacker’s national benchmark lists Mary as the most common female name in the 1950s with 625,609 births, providing context for the state-level differences.
• The republished pieces present raw counts without demographic analysis so the data documents naming shifts but does not explain the cultural or social reasons behind those changes.