COMPILED FROM THE FEDERAL REGISTERS, 1880 TO THE PRESENT
THE ENDANGERED NAMES LIST
American first names, tracked to the federal reporting line.
Since 1880 the Social Security Administration has published a yearly register of American first names. A name appears when at least five children of one sex received it that year; below five, for privacy, the record prints nothing at all. The federal government does not report extinctions. It reports absences, and it leaves the mourning to the private sector.
This establishment maintains the list the register implies. Of the 117,820 name-and-sex entries that have ever appeared, 19,612 have not been seen in forty years or more, 21,622 have been missing for twenty to thirty-nine, and 12,879 were reported in 2025 within four births of the line. No name on these pages is called extinct. Below five, the record says nothing, and neither do we.
117,820
entries ever
31,227
reported in 2025
19,612
gone 40+ years
5
the reporting line
Notable cases
Zilpha
Reported 1880–1943; below the line for 82 years and counting.
THE VANISHED
Gay
The largest vanished name: 17,985 recorded, peak 1959, nothing since 1982.
THE VANISHED
Vesper
Below the line 1927–2007; a Bond film in 2006, and back on the register by 2008.
THE RETURNED
Birdie
A 12-year silence, then a climb to 422 in 2025 — the best year in her whole record.
THE RETURNED
Phyllis
322,496 ever; 9,187 in 1947 alone; 7 in 2025 — and never once absent.
CRITICALLY LOW
The rooms
19,612 NAMES
THE VANISHED
Below the federal reporting line for forty years or more.
21,622 NAMES
LONG MISSING
Below the line twenty to thirty-nine years. Recent enough to return; absent enough to list.
12,879 NAMES
CRITICALLY LOW
Reported in 2025 at five to nine births. The line is five.
18,438 NAMES
THE RETURNED
Gone ten consecutive years or more, then reported again.
964 NAMES
STURDY GHOSTS
On the register by 1900 and never once absent since.