1950s Baby Names

5,155 names were given to children in the United States between 1950 and 1959, ranked below by how many.

A name's place is its total across those ten years. Names that appear in only some of the decade say so, because a name recorded once is a different fact from one recorded every year.

All Girls Boys Unisex

Rankings for

#960
Wilfred Wilfred is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "desiring peace."
2,838 in the 1950s
#961
Enrique Enrique means ruler of the estate, and the home in it is territorial rather than domestic — the Germanic element named the land a lord held, not the house he lived in.
2,834 in the 1950s
#962
Amos
2,826 in the 1950s
#963
Woodrow
2,814 in the 1950s
#965
Denny
2,796 in the 1950s
#967
Moses Moses is explained in Exodus as drawn out of the water, but the name is more likely Egyptian — mose means born of, and it is the second half of Thutmose and Ramose, where the god's name sits in front.
2,780 in the 1950s
#968
Orlando Orlando is Roland with its consonants swapped — Italian moved the r, and the hero of the Song of Roland became the hero of Orlando Furioso, the same man under a rearranged name.
2,777 in the 1950s
#971
Scot
2,774 in the 1950s
#972
Alphonso
2,768 in the 1950s
#973
Lanny
2,767 in the 1950s
#975
Cedric Cedric was invented by Walter Scott in Ivanhoe in 1819, and it appears to be a misspelling — he took the Anglo-Saxon Cerdic and transposed the letters.
2,747 in the 1950s
#976
Shane Shane is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious," and it exists because English speakers wrote down how Ulster pronounced Seán.
2,740 in the 1950s
#978
Elton
2,731 in the 1950s
#981
Harlan
2,720 in the 1950s
#982
Murray Murray is a boy's name of Scottish origin from Moray, the northern province, whose name means "sea settlement."
2,718 in the 1950s
#983
Norris
2,699 in the 1950s
#984
Dirk
2,688 in the 1950s
#985
Barney
2,684 in the 1950s
#987
Michel Michel is a boy's name, the French form of Michael, from a Hebrew question meaning who is like God.
2,663 in the 1950s
#996
Donny
2,620 in the 1950s
#1,000
Blake Blake is a name of Old English origin with two opposite meanings.
2,605 in the 1950s
#1,002
Sterling Sterling is a unit of money that became a name, and the coin was probably named for a bird — the little star on early Norman pennies gives one account, and a starling stamped on them gives the other.
2,597 in the 1950s
#1,003
Ned
2,596 in the 1950s
#1,005
Julio Julio means downy-bearded, and France ranks it 517th — above the United States at 641st, which is not where a Spanish form of a Roman family name would be expected to lead.
2,585 in the 1950s
#1,013
Joesph
2,547 in the 1950s
#1,014
Winston Winston is a boy's name of English origin meaning "Wine's settlement", from an Old English personal name plus tun.
2,540 in the 1950s
#1,015
Vaughn
2,525 in the 1950s
#1,016
Eldon
2,523 in the 1950s
#1,025
Dane
2,499 in the 1950s
#1,026
Reed Reed is a boy's name of English origin meaning "red" — a nickname for someone with red hair or a ruddy complexion.
2,494 in the 1950s
#1,029
Grover
2,478 in the 1950s
#1,032
Randell
2,465 in the 1950s
#1,033
Colin Colin has two entirely separate origins — a French pet form of Nicolas, and the Scottish Gaelic Cailean.
2,459 in the 1950s
#1,034
Jess
2,452 in the 1950s
#1,035
Erik Erik is a boy's name meaning ever-ruler or sole ruler, from Old Norse.
2,450 in the 1950s
#1,043
Irving Irving names a Scottish river valley, and it reached American use largely through one writer — Washington Irving, who gave English both Rip Van Winkle and the nickname Gotham for New York.
2,403 in the 1950s
#1,044
Lon
2,401 in the 1950s
#1,047
Elliott Elliott is a name of Hebrew origin meaning "the Lord is my God."
2,387 in the 1950s
#1,048
Emanuel Emanuel began as a sign rather than a name — Isaiah tells Ahaz that a child will be called God with us as proof of a prophecy, and the phrase became a personal name only afterward.
2,386 in the 1950s
#1,051
Junior Junior is a boy's name from the Latin for younger, used first as a suffix marking a son who shares his father's name and only later as a name in its own right.
2,375 in the 1950s
#1,053
Stan
2,368 in the 1950s
#1,057
Christophe Christophe is a boy's name meaning bearer of Christ, and the legend behind it explains the saint who carries travelers across a river on his shoulders.
2,354 in the 1950s
#1,062
Lane Lane means a narrow way between hedges, and it is one of only two names in this sweep our data marks as rising — it peaked in 2019 and stands at 250th in the United States on 1,495 births.
2,341 in the 1950s
#1,065
Elijah Elijah is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "my God is Yahweh," from Eliyahu.
2,319 in the 1950s
#1,066
Linwood
2,316 in the 1950s
#1,068
Luke Luke is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "man from Lucania," a region of southern Italy.
2,308 in the 1950s
#1,069
Terrell
2,297 in the 1950s
#1,071
Justin Justin is a boy's name from the Latin for just or righteous.
2,295 in the 1950s

What made a 1950s name

Nothing about the sound of it. A name is on this page because children in the United States were registered with it between 1950 and 1959, and its position is simply how many. Every list of "1950s names" you will find elsewhere is somebody's sense of the period; this one is the register.

Why Some Names Only Cover Part of the Decade

A name that appears in three of the ten years either arrived partway through or faded out — and either is more interesting than the total on its own. The statistics offices do not publish names given to very few children in a year, so a gap can also mean the count dropped below the threshold rather than to nothing.

Where to Go Next

Open any name to see its full curve — most of these have a hundred and forty years of it. Or compare the ends of the same measurement: the most popular names now and the rarest.