However whereas the boy chart is a close race for the most popular name the girls list is very top heavy with Mary completely dominating all other names.

Most popular names through the decades. Barbara was big and the iconic Barbie doll would be released in 1959. William means resolute protector. A word cloud is a neat way of visualising all these names the larger the name more often it has appeared over the decades since 1904.

But shades of todays trends can be seen in the Class of 1955 too like modern innovation Cheryl. Jacob means supplanter. Top 5 names in each year.

103 rows Top Names by Decade. The name spent the vast majority of the past century in the top 10 bracket of most popular boys names only falling below 10 during the late 1970s through the early 2000s. Rank 1 is assigned to the name with the highest number of occurrences rank 2 to the name with the next highest.

Or scram The cats pajamas -- the best. Every generation has its slang -- new words and phrases that allow kids to communicate without their parents understanding. A lot of important events happened in the 40s.

The Most Popular Baby Names in the 2010s. The height of excellence. Before movie theaters were everywhere and silent films exploded in popularity celebrity happened on the stage.

Lambert via Getty Images. From 1904 through to 2014 there have been 284 unique boys names featured in each decades top 100 compared to 360 girls names. Michael means who is like God.