Opal
Opal is ranked 450th among girls in 2024 (694 births). Its best rank was 81st, in 1911.
- Rank in 2024
- #450up 36 from 2023
- Births in 2024
- 6940.04% of girls
- Peak year
- 19182,847 births
- Best rank
- #81in 1911
- Since 1880
- 72,794people given the name
The story in the numbers
72,794 girls have been named Opal in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1918, with 2,847 births — 0.25% of all girls recorded that year.
It is rising: its share of births is at least one and a half times what it was ten years ago.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1922, and the 1920s alone account for 30%. It has spent 89 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 16 of them in the top 100.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Opal | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 294 | |
| 1890s | 1,666 | |
| 1900s | 6,791 | |
| 1910s | 20,386 | |
| 1920s | 21,542 | |
| 1930s | 8,529 | |
| 1940s | 3,792 | |
| 1950s | 1,712 | |
| 1960s | 897 | |
| 1970s | 704 | |
| 1980s | 527 | |
| 1990s | 304 | |
| 2000s | 559 | |
| 2010s | 2,167 | |
| 2020s | 2,924 |
In 1918, its biggest year
Opal was the 94th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1918 were Mary, Helen, Dorothy, Margaret and Ruth. See all of 1918.
Names that rose and fell with Opal
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Rubyepeak 1919
- Filomenapeak 1923
- Mildredpeak 1920
- Maurinepeak 1917
- Lucillepeak 1920
- Thelmapeak 1921
- Mozellepeak 1920
- Jewellpeak 1920
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.