Ralph
Ralph is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 182 births. Its best rank was 21st, in 1914–1917.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 1820.01% of boys
- Peak year
- 19218,860 births
- Best rank
- #21first in 1914
- Since 1880
- 415,639people given the name
The story in the numbers
413,799 boys have been named Ralph in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1921, with 8,860 births — 0.80% of all boys recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 182 births in 2024, against 8,860 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1937, and the 1920s alone account for 20%. It has spent 134 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 84 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 1,840 girls have also been given it, 0.44% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Ralph | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 4,269 | |
| 1890s | 6,951 | |
| 1900s | 9,298 | |
| 1910s | 52,522 | |
| 1920s | 84,466 | |
| 1930s | 63,801 | |
| 1940s | 64,980 | |
| 1950s | 60,442 | |
| 1960s | 34,185 | |
| 1970s | 14,755 | |
| 1980s | 8,000 | |
| 1990s | 4,474 | |
| 2000s | 2,779 | |
| 2010s | 1,978 | |
| 2020s | 899 |
In 1921, its biggest year
Ralph was the 23rd most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1921 were John, Robert, William, James and Charles. See all of 1921.
Names that rose and fell with Ralph
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Howardpeak 1921
- Lloydpeak 1918
- Francispeak 1918
- Cliffordpeak 1925
- Merrillpeak 1926
- Alvispeak 1924
- Rudolphpeak 1927
- Virgilpeak 1921
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.