1950s Baby Names

8,957 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

#96
Bonnie Bonnie is a girl's name of Scots origin meaning "pretty" or "fine."
83,505 in the 1950s
#97
Martha Martha is a girl's name of Aramaic origin meaning "lady" or "mistress of the house."
83,395 in the 1950s
#98
Jane Jane is a girl's name from the Hebrew for God is gracious, the English feminine of John.
83,095 in the 1950s
#100
Cathy Cathy is a girl's name, a pet form of Catherine whose meaning has never been established.
82,859 in the 1950s
#101
Debbie Debbie is a girl's name meaning bee, a pet form of Deborah.
82,295 in the 1950s
#102
Diana Diana is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "divine" or "heavenly," the Roman goddess of the hunt and the moon.
80,403 in the 1950s
#103
Marilyn Marilyn is a girl's name usually read as a blend of Mary and Lyn.
80,328 in the 1950s
#108
Kathryn Kathryn is a girl's name, the y-spelling of Katherine, and it inherits that name's genuinely unknown meaning.
77,933 in the 1950s
#111
Dorothy Dorothy is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "gift of God."
74,712 in the 1950s
#113
Wanda Wanda is a girl's name from Polish, borne by a legendary queen who drowned herself in the Vistula rather than marry a German prince.
72,636 in the 1950s
#115
Vicki Vicki means victory, shortened from Victoria — and Victoria was a rare name in Britain before the queen, not a traditional one she happened to carry.
72,108 in the 1950s
#116
Sheila Sheila is the Irish form of Cecilia, meaning blind — and parents outside Ireland should know it became Australian slang for a woman in the nineteenth century, which is why it barely charts there.
70,329 in the 1950s
#117
Virginia Virginia is a girl's name from a Roman family name, and the American state was named before the name became common in America — both honoring Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen.
69,956 in the 1950s
#119
Sherry Sherry is a girl's name that appears to have been taken from the wine, whose own name is a corruption of the Spanish town Jerez.
68,500 in the 1950s
#120
Katherine Katherine is a girl's name whose meaning is not settled.
67,002 in the 1950s
#121
Rose Rose is a girl's name of Latin origin naming the flower, from rosa.
66,891 in the 1950s
#127
Jo Jo is a name serving as the short form of Joanne, Josephine and Joan for women and Joseph for men.
64,223 in the 1950s
#128
Maria Maria is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, the Latin and Greek form of Miryam.
62,808 in the 1950s
#130
Ruth Ruth is a girl's name of Hebrew origin usually given as "companion" or "friend," though the derivation is not secure.
62,668 in the 1950s
#136
Darlene Darlene is a girl's name built from the English word darling, and it is one of a small group of American twentieth-century coinages that used the -ene ending.
62,024 in the 1950s
#140
Jacqueline Jacqueline is a girl's name, the French feminine of Jacques, and it inherits the meaning supplanter from Jacob.
60,589 in the 1950s
#141
Rita Rita is a girl's name meaning pearl, clipped from the end of Margarita rather than the front.
60,390 in the 1950s
#142
Rhonda Rhonda is a girl's name from a Welsh river valley, and the great spear reading usually given for it is wrong — the Rhondda is named for its own noisiness, not for a weapon.
59,940 in the 1950s
#145
Phyllis Phyllis is a girl's name from the Greek for foliage, borne by a mythological princess who was turned into an almond tree.
57,882 in the 1950s
#146
Helen Helen is a girl's name from Greek whose meaning is not settled, though torch and shining are the usual readings.
57,749 in the 1950s
#148
Vickie Vickie is an American name that now charts only in France — it peaked at 6,957 US births in 1956 and has left the American rankings entirely, surviving at 6405th in a market it was never native to.
57,040 in the 1950s
#149
Lori Lori is a girl's name, a short form of Laura meaning laurel.
56,168 in the 1950s
#150
Ellen Ellen is a girl's name of Greek origin, a medieval English form of Helen whose meaning has never been settled.
55,507 in the 1950s
#155
Elaine Elaine is a girl's name, the Old French form of Helen, whose meaning was never established.
54,320 in the 1950s
#157
Joanne Joanne is a girl's name meaning God is gracious, one of the many feminines of John.
53,639 in the 1950s
#162
Anne Anne is a girl's name from the Hebrew Hannah, meaning favor or grace.
52,498 in the 1950s
#163
Valerie Valerie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "strong" or "healthy," from the verb valere, meaning to be strong or to be well.
52,346 in the 1950s
#164
Alice Alice is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble," arrived at by a long contraction of Adelaide.
52,230 in the 1950s
#165
Frances Frances is a girl's name meaning a Frank, or a free one, and the feminine of Francis.
51,604 in the 1950s
#167
Suzanne Suzanne is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "lily," from shoshannah.
50,414 in the 1950s
#168
Kimberly Kimberly is a girl's name that reached America by way of a South African diamond town, which was itself named after a British colonial secretary.
50,196 in the 1950s
#170
Marie Marie is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, the French form of Mary, and the largest name in our entire dataset with more than 2.8 million births on record.
49,416 in the 1950s
#171
Victoria Victoria is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "victory."
49,218 in the 1950s
#176
Anita Anita is a girl's name, the Spanish diminutive of Ana, meaning grace.
47,698 in the 1950s
#178
Laurie Laurie is a name meaning laurel, and it is genuinely mixed by country — masculine in Britain as a short form of Laurence, feminine in America as a short form of Laura.
47,249 in the 1950s
#179
Michelle Michelle is a girl's name, the French feminine of Michel, from a Hebrew question meaning who is like God.
46,896 in the 1950s
#180
Sally Sally is a girl's name meaning princess, a pet form of Sarah reached by medieval rhyming.
46,805 in the 1950s
#182
Terri Terri shortens Teresa, whose meaning has never been established — harvester, summer and a Greek island are all proposed and none of them is settled.
46,604 in the 1950s
#185
Marcia Marcia means dedicated to Mars, and that god's name is also where the month of March comes from — the Roman year began in March, because that was when the campaigning season opened up again after the winter.
43,801 in the 1950s
#188
Jennifer Jennifer is a girl's name, the Cornish form of the Welsh Gwenhwyfar, the name of King Arthur's queen.
43,159 in the 1950s
#189
Doris Doris is a girl's name from Greek mythology, where she is a sea nymph and the mother of the fifty Nereids.
43,109 in the 1950s
#190
Maureen Maureen is the Irish Máirín, a diminutive of Máire, which is itself the Irish form of Mary.
42,901 in the 1950s
#191
Wendy Wendy is usually credited to J.
42,786 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.