1960s Baby Names

5,757 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

#318
Don Don is a boy's name shortened from Donald, meaning world ruler.
22,268 in the 1960s
#322
Calvin Calvin is a boy's name of French origin meaning "little bald one," from the Latin calvus, bald.
22,103 in the 1960s
#323
Glen Glen means a narrow valley, and it is one of very few Gaelic words that English borrowed wholesale rather than adapting to its own sounds.
22,003 in the 1960s
#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
#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 on record — 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 this group, 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
#391
Dave Dave ranks 2,217th in England and Wales and 2,469th 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
#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
#399
Jan Jan is 66 percent female on record because two unrelated uses collide — it is the ordinary man's name for John across Dutch, Polish and Czech, and a woman's short form of Janet and Janice in English.
15,224 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. It is 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 on record.
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

What Made a 1960s Name

Children in the United States were registered with it between 1960 and 1969. A name's position here is how many of them were.

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.