Every name given to a US baby since 1880, ranked year by year — straight from Social Security Administration birth records. 105,966 names · 375,362,447 births · public domain.

Friend

#17,347 most common boys' name of all time · #45,344 across all names · 100% male / 0% female · used 1880–1972

Rank among boys
#17,347
Rank overall
#45,344 of 105,966
First appeared
1880 or earlier
Years on the list
12 of 146
All-time
74
Since 2016
0
Peak year
1920 #2,779
Best rank
#864 1880
Girls Boys peak 10/yr
18801900192019401960

Friend is in the records from the very first year available, so it was almost certainly in use before 1880 — the data simply doesn't go back further.

Year by year

YearGirlsBoysTotalRank
1972 — 5 5 #5,022
1931 — 5 5 #3,790
1928 — 6 6 #3,729
1927 — 6 6 #3,808
1924 — 6 6 #3,888
1923 — 5 5 #4,274
1922 — 6 6 #3,887
1921 — 6 6 #3,895
1920 — 10 10 #2,779
1919 — 5 5 #4,199
1918 — 8 8 #3,119
1880 — 6 6 #864