COMPILED FROM THE FEDERAL REGISTERS, 1880 TO THE PRESENT
American first names, tracked to the federal reporting line.

A ROOM OF THE LIST — THE VANISHED

THE VANISHED

The names in this room were last reported above the federal line forty or more years ago. There are 19,612 of them. None are extinct; the word does not apply. Each had fewer than five recorded births in every year since its last appearance, which is all the record permits anyone to say. The room is arranged alphabetically, without flowers.

Notable holdings

Gay

BELOW THE FEDERAL REPORTING LINE SINCE 1983 — 43 YEARS

Dortha

BELOW THE FEDERAL REPORTING LINE SINCE 1985 — 41 YEARS

Floy

BELOW THE FEDERAL REPORTING LINE SINCE 1972 — 54 YEARS

Lue

BELOW THE FEDERAL REPORTING LINE SINCE 1986 — 40 YEARS

Blanch

BELOW THE FEDERAL REPORTING LINE SINCE 1984 — 42 YEARS

Hortense

BELOW THE FEDERAL REPORTING LINE SINCE 1977 — 49 YEARS

Gaye

BELOW THE FEDERAL REPORTING LINE SINCE 1977 — 49 YEARS

Hulda

BELOW THE FEDERAL REPORTING LINE SINCE 1981 — 45 YEARS

Myrtie

BELOW THE FEDERAL REPORTING LINE SINCE 1970 — 56 YEARS

Fay

BELOW THE FEDERAL REPORTING LINE SINCE 1977 — 49 YEARS

Sudie

BELOW THE FEDERAL REPORTING LINE SINCE 1985 — 41 YEARS

Clyde

BELOW THE FEDERAL REPORTING LINE SINCE 1978 — 48 YEARS

Last sightings, by decade

1880s181890s371900s371910s1,0091920s2,6461930s1,7651940s1,5081950s2,1451960s2,7831970s4,4921980s3,172
Vanished names by decade of last report. The 1980s bar covers 1980–1985 only (later years have not yet been gone forty years), and recent decades are censored: a name last seen in 1985 has had four decades to return; one last seen in 2005 is not in this room at all, yet.

The complete room — 19,612 names, by letter

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration national names file (1880–2025). Names below 5 occurrences in a year are not reported.

Somewhere, a grandmother is unsurprised.

A collection of THE MUSEUM OF HOPEFUL MACHINES