1960s Baby Names

5,710 names were given to children in the United States between 1960 and 1969, 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

#327
Karl Karl means free man, and it is the original German spelling behind Charles — the word named a free peasant, so it began at the bottom of the free classes and rose to name emperors.
21,404 in the 1960s
#328
Brad Brad means broad clearing, shortened from Bradley — and the broad element is the same word as the modern English broad, one of the few Old English place-name terms still transparent.
21,395 in the 1960s
#329
Theodore Theodore is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "gift of God," formed from theos, meaning god, and doron, meaning gift.
21,389 in the 1960s
#330
Derrick Derrick means ruler of the people, and the crane is named after a man — Thomas Derrick, an Elizabethan hangman whose gallows design was distinctive enough that his name became the word for it.
21,382 in the 1960s
#333
Francis Francis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "Frenchman" or "free man."
20,830 in the 1960s
#334
Edwin Edwin is a boy's name from Old English meaning rich friend, borne by a Northumbrian king whose fortress may have given Edinburgh its name.
20,784 in the 1960s
#336
Earl Earl is a boy's name taken from the English noble title, and it is the only rank in the British peerage with a native English name rather than a French one.
20,524 in the 1960s
#338
Lance Lance does not mean a spear.
20,102 in the 1960s
#341
Clifford Clifford is a boy's name from an English place name meaning a ford by a cliff — a river crossing below a steep bank.
19,394 in the 1960s
#342
Kent Kent is the oldest recorded place name in England — Cantium appears in Greek writing before the Roman invasion, and its meaning was already uncertain to the Romans who wrote it down.
19,333 in the 1960s
#343
Derek Derek is a boy's name from the Germanic Theodoric, meaning ruler of the people — and it is the same name as Terry and Thierry, three forms of one original that no longer resemble each other.
19,089 in the 1960s
#344
Wesley Wesley is a boy's name of English origin meaning "western meadow," from the Old English west and leah.
18,957 in the 1960s
#345
Antonio Antonio is a boy's name of Etruscan origin whose meaning is unknown.
18,818 in the 1960s
#346
Alfred Alfred is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "elf counsel."
18,792 in the 1960s
#350
Warren Warren is a boy's name from a Norman place name, and it is the second-strongest revival we hold — it peaked in 1921 and now ranks 240th in the United States on 1,493 births, a century later.
18,643 in the 1960s
#352
Andre Andre is a boy's name, the French form of Andrew, from the Greek for manly.
18,584 in the 1960s
#361
Kyle Kyle is a boy's name of Scottish Gaelic origin meaning "narrow strait," taken from a district of Ayrshire.
17,730 in the 1960s
#362
Clarence Clarence is a boy's name taken from an English dukedom, itself named for a Suffolk town.
17,662 in the 1960s
#364
Bernard Bernard is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning brave as a bear.
17,598 in the 1960s
#378
Tyrone Tyrone means Eoghan's land, an Irish county, and it reached American use almost entirely through one actor — Tyrone Power, whose grandfather took the name from the county his family came from.
16,615 in the 1960s
#383
Manuel Manuel is a boy's name meaning God is with us, the Spanish short form of Emmanuel.
16,164 in the 1960s
#385
Luis Luis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior."
16,039 in the 1960s
#386
Chad Chad is a boy's name from a seventh-century English saint, and it has since become an American internet stereotype and, separately, the name of a country and a disputed ballot.
15,952 in the 1960s
#387
Daryl Daryl completes a set of three — Darrell, Darryl and Daryl are one Norman place name split across three spellings, and all three appear in our gap band, carrying about 328,000 births between them.
15,914 in the 1960s
#389
Gordon Gordon is a Scottish surname turned given name, from a place in Berwickshire whose meaning is not settled — spacious fort is the usual gloss but it is a guess.
15,896 in the 1960s
#390
Lonnie Lonnie shortens Alonzo and Alphonso, meaning noble and ready — and the Germanic original reached Spain with the Visigoths, so a name that reads as American South is Gothic by descent.
15,887 in the 1960s
#391
Dave Dave ranks 2217th in England and Wales and 2469th in the United States, so the short form outranks its American peak market in a country that never recorded more than fifteen in a year.
15,808 in the 1960s
#393
Nathan Nathan is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he gave," from Natan.
15,584 in the 1960s
#395
Guy Guy is a boy's name from a Germanic word probably meaning wood or wide, and one of very few names to have become an ordinary English noun — through Guy Fawkes, whose effigies gave the word its modern sense.
15,410 in the 1960s
#396
Perry Perry means at the pear tree, from an English place name — and our data marks it reviving, at 1373rd in the United States and 1681st in England and Wales.
15,356 in the 1960s
#398
Leroy Leroy is a boy's name that is simply the French for the king, taken as one word.
15,330 in the 1960s
#402
Maurice Maurice is a boy's name from a Latin word meaning a Moor, originally describing someone from Roman North Africa. Our data marks it reviving, and it peaked in 1920 — a century-long gap of the same kind we see in Walter and Frances.
14,870 in the 1960s
#403
Erik Erik is a boy's name meaning ever-ruler or sole ruler, from Old Norse.
14,842 in the 1960s
#406
Rene Rene is a name from the Latin for reborn, given at baptism to mark spiritual rebirth.
14,675 in the 1960s
#407
Marcus Marcus is a boy's name of Latin origin most likely meaning "of Mars," and it was one of only about eighteen first names Roman men used.
14,659 in the 1960s
#409
Alvin Alvin means elf-friend, from an Old English name that treats elves as beings whose favor was worth having.
14,629 in the 1960s
#411
Vernon Vernon is a Norman place name meaning a place of alders, from a Gaulish word — so a French town gave England a surname that America turned into a first name, three languages deep.
14,526 in the 1960s
#412
Gilbert Gilbert is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning bright pledge, and it founded the only medieval religious order native to England.
14,516 in the 1960s
#415
Alexander Alexander is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "defender of men," from alexein, to defend, and aner, man.
14,279 in the 1960s
#416
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.
14,257 in the 1960s
#419
Rickey Rickey means strong ruler, and its peak is the largest in this group — 3,818 American births in 1958, against 45 in the most recent year we have.
14,097 in the 1960s
#420
Stuart Stuart means steward, and the office was literally the sty warden — keeper of the pigs — which rose to run the royal household and then supplied the name of a dynasty.
14,013 in the 1960s
#421
Franklin Franklin means a freeholder — a man who owned his land but held no noble rank, a specific medieval class.
13,990 in the 1960s
#422
Leon Leon is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "lion."
13,952 in the 1960s
#423
Gene Gene means well-born, shortened from Eugene — and it has nothing at all to do with genes in biology, which is a separate word coined in 1909 from a different Greek root entirely, by a Danish botanist.
13,936 in the 1960s
#424
Darin
13,855 in the 1960s
#425
Gregg
13,851 in the 1960s
#427
Bob Bob comes from Robert, and the B is not a corruption but a system — medieval English made pet names by rhyming, which is why Rob gave Bob, Will gave Bill and Rick gave Dick.
13,820 in the 1960s

What made a 1960s name

Nothing about the sound of it. A name is on this page because children in the United States were registered with it between 1960 and 1969, and its position is simply how many. Every list of "1960s 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.