Name Legacy

Baby names in South Dakota, 1920s

1920–1929 · 120,786 recorded births

Robert was the most common name given in South Dakota across the 1920s, with 3,763 births in the decade. The state recorded 120,786 births in total over those years.

Most distinctive to South Dakota in the 1920s

Names given far more often here than nationally in these years. The multiplier is conservative — it is the low end of the plausible range, so a name carried by a handful of births does not outrank one carried by hundreds.

NameBirthsvs national
Milbert5549×
Marlys11016×
Lavonne22915×
Luverne50
Darlene377
Mavis281
Ardis109
Lyle455

Top 25 in the 1920s

RankNameBirths
#1Robert3,763
#2Donald2,612
#3Mary2,456
#4Dorothy2,279
#5John2,242
#6William1,760
#7Betty1,747
#8James1,697
#9Helen1,555
#10Richard1,332
#11Ruth1,316
#12Doris1,235
#13Kenneth1,215
#14Harold1,199
#15Margaret1,196
#16Charles1,183
#17George1,079
#18Lois1,028
#19Phyllis1,003
#20Evelyn965
#21Raymond947
#22Shirley876
#23Irene859
#24Marjorie835
#25Alice821

Other decades in South Dakota

All South Dakota names, 2025

Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. State records begin in 1910. Names given to fewer than five babies in a state in a year are withheld at source. namelegacy.org