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

#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
#428
Herbert Herbert is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning bright army.
13,792 in the 1960s
#430
Neil Neil means champion or cloud, from Irish, and it traveled to Iceland with the Vikings and back to England with the Normans — so the English Neil arrived by way of Scandinavia and France.
13,690 in the 1960s
#431
Darrin
13,687 in the 1960s
#432
Mario Mario is a boy's name from a Roman family name of uncertain meaning, and the video game character was named after a real landlord — Mario Segale, who owned the warehouse Nintendo rented in Seattle.
13,636 in the 1960s
#435
Ted Ted is a boy's name that serves two unrelated names at once, and it exists because medieval English moved the n from "mine Edward."
13,565 in the 1960s
#436
Lloyd Lloyd is a boy's name from the Welsh word for gray, and the double L is a genuine Welsh consonant that English has no letter for.
13,494 in the 1960s
#439
Ricardo Ricardo is a boy's name meaning brave ruler, the Spanish and Portuguese form of Richard.
13,253 in the 1960s
#442
Ron
13,141 in the 1960s
#443
Dwight Dwight descends from Dionysus, the Greek god of wine — through the medieval woman's name Diot, a pet form of Dionysia, which is an unusually indirect route for a masculine surname.
13,097 in the 1960s
#450
Wade Wade means a river crossing, and there is a second Wade entirely — a Germanic sea giant from Old English legend whose story Chaucer refers to as though everyone knew it, and which is now lost.
12,897 in the 1960s
#454
Travis Travis is a boy's name from an occupational surname meaning a toll collector, one who worked at a crossing.
12,763 in the 1960s
#456
Ruben Ruben is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "behold, a son."
12,707 in the 1960s
#460
Kenny Kenny sits on top of two different Gaelic names that English collapsed into one — Cináed, born of fire, and Coinneach, handsome.
12,464 in the 1960s
#463
Andy Andy means manly, and the Greek root is the ordinary word for a man — so Andrew is one of the few apostles carrying a Greek name rather than a Hebrew or Aramaic one.
12,271 in the 1960s
#465
Byron Byron means at the cattle sheds — a working place name that became shorthand for romantic poetry, which is a longer journey than most names make.
12,184 in the 1960s
#466
Alex Alex is a name of Greek origin meaning "defender of mankind."
12,165 in the 1960s
#467
Timmy
12,041 in the 1960s
#470
Kelvin Kelvin is the only name on this site that is also an SI unit, and the order runs river to man to measurement — a Glasgow river gave a physicist his title, and the title was given to the scale of absolute temperature.
11,952 in the 1960s
#473
Ken
11,913 in the 1960s
#474
Doug
11,897 in the 1960s
#477
Lewis Lewis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior," the English form of Louis.
11,768 in the 1960s
#482
Donnie Donnie ranks 563rd in Ireland and 1,804th in the United States, so the country with a fraction of the births ranks it three times higher — a pattern we see when a name goes home.
11,430 in the 1960s
#486
Floyd Floyd is the same name as Lloyd, and the F is a mistake that stuck — English had no way to say the Welsh double L, so it substituted the closest sound it had, and the substitution became a separate name.
11,315 in the 1960s
#490
Jimmie Jimmie means supplanter, shortened from James, and about 17 percent of recorded births are female — a much higher share than most nickname-names of this shape, which usually resolve firmly to one side or the other.
11,167 in the 1960s
#491
Allan Allan has no settled meaning at all — handsome, little rock and a deer are all proposed for the Breton original, and the name reached England through Brittany rather than through Ireland or Scotland at all.
11,148 in the 1960s
#495
Jesus Jesus is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "the Lord is salvation."
11,036 in the 1960s
#498
Roberto Roberto means bright fame, the Italian and Spanish form of Robert, and both halves of the compound mean roughly the same thing — which is normal in Germanic naming rather than a redundancy.
10,988 in the 1960s
#500
Terrence Terrence descends from a Roman playwright who was born enslaved in North Africa — Terence was freed by his owner, wrote six comedies that survive complete, and shaped Latin prose style for centuries.
10,928 in the 1960s
#502
Christian Christian is a boy's name from the Latin christianus, meaning "a follower of Christ."
10,847 in the 1960s
#508
Corey Corey is a boy's name from an Irish surname, generally given as dweller near a hollow.
10,564 in the 1960s
#515
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.
10,320 in the 1960s
#516
Nathaniel Nathaniel is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "gift of God."
10,295 in the 1960s
#525
Oscar Oscar is a boy's name with two competing origins: the Irish os, deer, plus cara, friend, giving "deer lover," or the Old Norse Ásgeirr, meaning "god's spear."
9,953 in the 1960s
#527
Miguel Miguel is a boy's name meaning who is like God, the Spanish and Portuguese form of Michael.
9,865 in the 1960s
#528
Lester Lester means from Leicester, and the spelling is the honest one — Leicester has been pronounced LES-ter for centuries, so the surname simply wrote down what people had been saying to each other all along.
9,835 in the 1960s
#530
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 1,465th.
9,813 in the 1960s
#532
Roland Roland is a boy's name meaning famous land, and its bearer is the hero of France's national epic — a knight who dies at Roncevaux because he is too proud to blow his horn for help.
9,719 in the 1960s
#534
Roderick Roderick means famous ruler, and its most consequential bearer lost a country — Roderic was the last Visigothic king of Spain, defeated in 711 by the Arab and Berber force that then held most of the peninsula for centuries.
9,705 in the 1960s
#536
Hector Hector is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "holding fast," borne by the Trojan prince who is the most sympathetic figure in the Iliad.
9,664 in the 1960s
#539
Arnold Arnold means eagle power, and England and Wales ranks it 631st on 59 births — well above the United States at 1,478th, which is not what the name's twentieth-century American associations would predict.
9,552 in the 1960s
#540
Leo Leo is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "lion."
9,539 in the 1960s
#541
Freddie Freddie is a name of Germanic origin meaning "peaceful ruler."
9,449 in the 1960s
#543
Neal Neal has no agreed meaning — champion, cloud and passionate are all proposed for the Irish Niall and none is established.
9,379 in the 1960s
#545
Gerard Gerard is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning brave with the spear.
9,361 in the 1960s
#548
Clayton Clayton means the settlement on clay, from an English place name that describes the ground it stood on.
9,334 in the 1960s
#549
Adrian Adrian is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "from Hadria," a town in northern Italy that also gave its name to the Adriatic Sea.
9,253 in the 1960s
#551
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.
9,216 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.