The Extinction List

A generation's favorite names, now in 99% collapse

Every name on this list was once a fixture of American life — each given to more than ten thousand babies in a single year. Take Rhonda: 10,979 babies in 1965 alone, and just 8 last year — a 99.93% collapse. All 26 names below have lost at least 99.5% of their peak. Names never fully die — the SSA records any name given to five or more babies — but these are functionally extinct: a generation's favorites reduced to a rounding error.

  1. Rhonda −99.93% · peak 10,979 in 1965 · 8 last year
  2. Debra −99.92% · peak 50,635 in 1955 · 43 last year
  3. Tammy −99.87% · peak 21,240 in 1963 · 28 last year
  4. Peggy −99.87% · peak 10,084 in 1958 · 13 last year
  5. Cheryl −99.85% · peak 24,177 in 1958 · 37 last year
  6. Debbie −99.85% · peak 19,590 in 1959 · 30 last year
  7. Gail −99.83% · peak 10,066 in 1951 · 17 last year
  8. Cathy −99.82% · peak 10,961 in 1958 · 20 last year
  9. Carol −99.81% · peak 34,457 in 1946 · 66 last year
  10. Kathy −99.73% · peak 23,985 in 1958 · 64 last year
  11. Donna −99.72% · peak 36,540 in 1959 · 102 last year
  12. Kim −99.7% · peak 13,630 in 1960 · 41 last year
  13. Patricia −99.69% · peak 56,574 in 1951 · 177 last year
  14. Michele −99.69% · peak 11,281 in 1968 · 35 last year
  15. Linda −99.68% · peak 99,909 in 1947 · 321 last year
  16. Pamela −99.68% · peak 27,399 in 1954 · 88 last year
  17. Shirley −99.65% · peak 42,800 in 1935 · 151 last year
  18. Diane −99.64% · peak 23,344 in 1955 · 83 last year
  19. Dolores −99.61% · peak 12,919 in 1930 · 50 last year
  20. Janet −99.6% · peak 18,507 in 1954 · 74 last year
  21. Lisa −99.57% · peak 60,446 in 1965 · 262 last year
  22. Tina −99.56% · peak 14,819 in 1968 · 65 last year
  23. Susan −99.55% · peak 47,484 in 1955 · 213 last year
  24. Karen −99.55% · peak 40,667 in 1957 · 184 last year
  25. Gary −99.52% · peak 38,838 in 1952 · 187 last year
  26. Laurie −99.51% · peak 10,705 in 1962 · 52 last year
For journalists & researchers

This list is derived from the U.S. Social Security Administration's public baby-name records (1880–2024). Criteria: at least 10,000 births in the peak year, and a 99.5%+ decline from that peak in the most recent year. Free to cite with attribution to natre.app. Download the data (CSV) or embed any name's live chart in your piece.

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