Heather
The hardy flowering shrub of northern moorland.
Popularity, 1880–2025
The purple moorland flower, so common by its 1970s peak that the 1988 film Heathers used it as shorthand for a clique.
Heather first shows up in the national records in 1914. It has ranked among the top 100 names for American girls in every year from 1967 to 1998. It spent 15 years inside the top 10. Its biggest year was 1975, when 24,301 newborn girls received the name, ranking it No. 3 nationally. All told, 527,387 Americans have been given the name since 1880.
Explore Heather interactively →By the decade
| Decade | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1910s | 13 | No. 2638 |
| 1920s | 27 | No. 3137 |
| 1930s | 434 | No. 701 |
| 1940s | 1,841 | No. 499 |
| 1950s | 5,550 | No. 302 |
| 1960s | 32,705 | No. 34 |
| 1970s | 203,902 | No. 3 |
| 1980s | 191,852 | No. 6 |
| 1990s | 71,626 | No. 19 |
| 2000s | 13,996 | No. 125 |
| 2010s | 2,941 | No. 681 |
| 2020s | 1,023 | No. 1261 |
Births and rank shown for girls, the sex more often given the name. The Social Security Administration omits name–year combinations with fewer than five births.
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Data: U.S. Social Security Administration national baby-name file, 1880–2025.