1950s Baby Names

15,671 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

#481
Susie Susie means lily, shortened from Susan, and the Hebrew word was borrowed from Egyptian — where it may have named a lotus rather than a lily, which changes the flower entirely.
10,315 in the 1950s
#482
Patrice Patrice is masculine in French and feminine in English — the same spelling, opposite sexes on either side of the Channel.
10,297 in the 1950s
#483
Heidi Heidi is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble one."
10,218 in the 1950s
#484
Francine Francine means Frenchwoman, and it is a French diminutive of a name that already means French — so it reads as a small French person, which is circular in a way few names manage.
10,203 in the 1950s
#485
April April is a girl's name taken from the month, whose Latin name probably means to open — the month when buds open.
10,185 in the 1950s
#486
Sam Sam is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God has heard," a short form of Samuel.
10,171 in the 1950s
#487
Nathan Nathan is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he gave," from Natan.
10,157 in the 1950s
#488
Lynette Lynette entered English through Tennyson, who reshaped a Welsh name for the Idylls of the King — Luned became Lynette, and the spelling he used is the one that survived.
10,134 in the 1950s
#489
Pat Pat is one of the most evenly divided names on this site — about 60 percent of the births in our records are female, because it shortens both Patricia and Patrick and neither side ever won.
10,076 in the 1950s
#490
Rosie Rosie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "rose."
10,046 in the 1950s
#491
Wendell Wendell names a people rather than a quality — the Wends were the Slavic populations of eastern Germany, so the name records who someone's neighbors thought they were rather than anything they did.
10,038 in the 1950s
#492
Cecilia Cecilia is a girl's name of Latin origin from the Roman family name Caecilius, which derives from caecus, meaning blind.
9,983 in the 1950s
#493
Terrance Terrance respells Terrence, and the name descends from a Roman playwright born enslaved in North Africa — Terence was freed by his owner and his Latin became a school text for centuries.
9,982 in the 1950s
#494
Alicia Alicia is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble," a Latinate form of Alice.
9,914 in the 1950s
#495
Clifton Clifton means the settlement by the cliff, and it is the same first element as Clifford — one describes a ford below the cliff and the other the farm on top of it.
9,900 in the 1950s
#496
Luis Luis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior."
9,865 in the 1950s
#497
Jeannie
9,807 in the 1950s
#498
Jayne
9,801 in the 1950s
#499
Ida Ida is a girl's name from a Germanic word for work or labor, and it charts in all seven markets we track.
9,783 in the 1950s
#500
Alma Alma is a girl's name with several competing origins: "nourishing" in Latin, "soul" in Spanish, and "young woman" in Hebrew.
9,757 in the 1950s
#501
Maxine Maxine is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "greatest," a feminine form of Maximus.
9,755 in the 1950s
#502
Lance Lance does not mean a spear.
9,737 in the 1950s
#503
Hugh Hugh is a boy's name from a Germanic word for mind or spirit, brought to Britain by the Normans.
9,717 in the 1950s
#504
Rene Rene is a name from the Latin for reborn, given at baptism to mark spiritual rebirth.
9,679 in the 1950s
#505
Lillie Lillie is a girl's name from the flower, which has stood for purity in Christian art for so long that the association predates the name.
9,655 in the 1950s
#506
Darla Darla is a girl's name coined in twentieth-century America from the word darling.
9,605 in the 1950s
#507
Laurel Laurel names the plant directly, which sets it apart from Lora and Loren on this site — those reach the laurel through a Roman town, while this one is simply the tree.
9,603 in the 1950s
#508
Lou Lou is a girl's name in France, a short form of Louise and Louis meaning "famous warrior."
9,597 in the 1950s
#509
Miriam Miriam is the origin of Mary, Maria, Marie, Maureen, Marion and Molly — the largest name family in Europe — and it still charts in all seven markets we track, with its top four inside 46 places of each other.
9,570 in the 1950s
#510
Ross Ross means a headland or a promontory, from Gaelic, and Scotland ranks it 328th — its strongest market, ahead of Ireland at 347th and far ahead of the United States at 1465th.
9,536 in the 1950s
#511
Wallace Wallace means foreigner, and the irony is complete — it is the Anglo-Saxon word for the Britons who were there first, so Scotland's national hero carries a name meaning outsider in his own country.
9,502 in the 1950s
#512
Cathleen
9,469 in the 1950s
#513
Irma Irma means whole or complete, and it is the surviving fragment of much longer Germanic names — Irmgard and Irmintrud both begin with it, and only the first element outlasted them.
9,462 in the 1950s
#514
Clinton Clinton means the settlement on the hill, from an English place name — and the two American presidents who carried it did so by adoption and by surname, not by descent from the place.
9,359 in the 1950s
#515
Clayton Clayton means the settlement on clay, from an English place name that describes the ground it stood on.
9,345 in the 1950s
#516
Dora Dora means gift, and it is the end of several names rather than a name in its own right — Theodora, Isidora and Dorothea all supply it, and Dorothy means the same thing with the halves reversed.
9,323 in the 1950s
#517
Hazel Hazel is a girl's name of English origin naming the hazel tree, from the Old English hæsel.
9,283 in the 1950s
#518
Joni
9,262 in the 1950s
#519
Nelson Nelson means son of Neil, and the admiral made it a given name — it was a surname until Trafalgar, after which parents across the English-speaking world started using it as a first name outright.
9,221 in the 1950s
#520
Lauren Lauren is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "laurel," which became a women's name because a film studio invented one.
9,184 in the 1950s
#521
Shelly Shelly means a clearing on a ledge, from an English place name — and it has nothing to do with shells, which is the reading most people assume and no source supports.
9,153 in the 1950s
#522
Cheri
9,087 in the 1950s
#523
Antoinette Antoinette means little Antoine, and the meaning usually given for the parent name — flower — is a false etymology.
9,045 in the 1950s
#524
Crystal Crystal is a girl's name from the Greek for ice, taken from the mineral rather than from any personal name.
9,019 in the 1950s
#525
Ginger Ginger reached English from Sanskrit by way of four languages — shringavera, horn-root, named for the rhizome's antler shape, and every step of that journey is documented.
9,012 in the 1950s
#526
Lucinda Lucinda was invented by Cervantes — the name appears in Don Quixote in 1605 and has no record before it, which makes it one of the few names on this site with a datable author.
8,999 in the 1950s
#527
Caroline Caroline is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "free man," the French feminine of Charles by way of the Latin Carolus.
8,985 in the 1950s
#528
Nadine Nadine looks entirely French and is Russian underneath — it is Nadezhda, the ordinary Russian word for hope, borrowed into French and given a French ending.
8,984 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.