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

#691
Lorenzo Lorenzo is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "from Laurentum," the Italian and Spanish form of Laurence.
5,989 in the 1960s
#692
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.
5,986 in the 1960s
#694
Curt
5,981 in the 1960s
#703
Dewayne
5,903 in the 1960s
#709
Bradford
5,805 in the 1960s
#710
Felix Felix is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "lucky" or "fortunate."
5,797 in the 1960s
#712
Clay Clay means the earth a potter works, and it carries a creation story in almost every tradition — Genesis forms Adam from the ground, and Mesopotamian and Egyptian accounts do the same with clay.
5,729 in the 1960s
#713
Benny Benny means son of the right hand, and Jacob overruled the name at the deathbed — Rachel called the child son of my sorrow as she died, and his father renamed him on the spot.
5,724 in the 1960s
#722
Darrel
5,529 in the 1960s
#723
Alberto Alberto means bright nobility, and both halves are compliments — the Germanic joins a word for noble descent to one meaning bright or famous, with nothing descriptive about the person at all.
5,516 in the 1960s
#725
Salvatore Salvatore means savior, and it is a title rather than a description — Italian Catholic families gave it as a devotional name naming Christ's role directly, in the way Spanish families use Jesús.
5,505 in the 1960s
#732
Myron Myron means myrrh, and the resin was worth its weight in gold — traded up the incense routes from southern Arabia, used for embalming, and one of the three gifts in Matthew.
5,393 in the 1960s
#733
Morris Morris means dark-skinned, from the Latin for a Moor — and the morris dance carries the same word, having been thought to imitate Moorish dancing when it reached England.
5,393 in the 1960s
#734
Teddy Teddy is a boy's name that shortens either Edward, meaning "wealthy guardian," or Theodore, meaning "gift of God."
5,380 in the 1960s
#735
Bryant Bryant means noble or high, and the t is a French accident — Norman scribes added it to the Irish Brian, so the surname carries a letter the original name never had.
5,375 in the 1960s
#738
Joshua Joshua is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "Yahweh is salvation," from Yehoshua.
5,339 in the 1960s
#743
Lyle Lyle is a boy's name from the Norman French for "the island," and the l at the front is the definite article rather than part of the word.
5,298 in the 1960s
#745
Virgil Virgil is misspelled and always has been — the poet's name was Vergilius, and medieval scribes changed the e to an i by association with virgo, which is how a Roman family name acquired a meaning it never had.
5,278 in the 1960s
#747
Scot
5,250 in the 1960s
#751
Evan Evan is a boy's name of Welsh origin meaning "God is gracious."
5,199 in the 1960s
#754
Pete Pete means rock, and it began as a joke about a man's character — Jesus renames Simon as Cephas, the Aramaic for a stone, and the pun works in Greek but not in English.
5,174 in the 1960s
#756
Trent Trent means the trespasser, and it is a warning rather than a description — the English river was named for its habit of flooding across its banks and cutting new channels.
5,154 in the 1960s
#759
Dominic Dominic is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "of the Lord," from dominus.
5,092 in the 1960s
#762
Jacob Jacob is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "supplanter" or "holder of the heel," from Ya'aqov.
5,080 in the 1960s
#763
Monte
5,048 in the 1960s
#764
Otis Otis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "wealth" or "fortune."
5,036 in the 1960s
#765
Max Max is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "greatest."
5,035 in the 1960s
#768
Alfredo Alfredo means counsel of the elves, and the elves were taken seriously — Anglo-Saxon naming treated them as beings whose advice was worth invoking, not as decoration for a children's story.
5,008 in the 1960s
#769
Ian Ian is a boy's name of Scottish origin meaning "Yahweh is gracious," the Scottish Gaelic form of John.
4,996 in the 1960s
#771
Eduardo Eduardo means wealthy guardian, and it is one of very few Old English names that spread across the Catholic world — carried by Edward the Confessor's cult rather than by English settlement.
4,975 in the 1960s
#775
Julian Julian is a boy's name of Latin origin, derived from the Roman family name Julius.
4,961 in the 1960s
#778
Dexter Dexter is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "right-handed" or "skilful."
4,939 in the 1960s
#781
Malcolm Malcolm means devotee of Columba, and it is one of only two rising names in this group — 168th in Canada, 272nd in the United States, 362nd in Scotland, 539th in Ireland, 1333rd in England and Wales and 1629th in France, and climbing in our data rather than falling.
4,907 in the 1960s
#787
Stewart
4,819 in the 1960s
#788
Preston Preston means the priest's settlement — land held by the church rather than by a lord, which is why so many English places carry the name.
4,810 in the 1960s
#789
Blake Blake is a name of Old English origin with two opposite meanings.
4,807 in the 1960s
#800
Arturo Arturo means bear, probably — but Arthur is one of the genuinely unsolved names, with a Celtic word for bear and a Roman family name both proposed and neither established.
4,707 in the 1960s
#802
Mathew Mathew drops a t from Matthew, and the doubled t was never in the Hebrew — it entered through the Greek and Latin spellings, so the shorter form is arguably closer to the original.
4,653 in the 1960s
#805
Jeremy Jeremy is a boy's name, the medieval English form of Jeremiah, from a Hebrew name generally read as God will exalt.
4,638 in the 1960s
#806
Isaac Isaac is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he laughs," from Yitzhak.
4,631 in the 1960s
#807
Rocky
4,622 in the 1960s
#808
Earnest Earnest respells Ernest, and the Germanic behind it is not mild — eornost meant vigor in battle, seriousness of the deadly kind, long before it settled into the sense of being sincere.
4,592 in the 1960s
#814
Scotty
4,525 in the 1960s
#815
Clint
4,507 in the 1960s
#818
Spencer Spencer is a name of Middle English origin meaning "steward" or "dispenser of provisions."
4,433 in the 1960s
#819
Alonzo Alonzo is the Spanish descendant of a Visigothic name, and our data marks it rising — 511th in the United States, 1186th in Canada, 1324th in France and 1714th in England and Wales, having peaked as recently as 2022, which is unusual for a name our records carry from 1880.
4,420 in the 1960s
#821
Alton Alton means the settlement at the river's source, and that is more specific than the old town reading usually given — the Old English element is a spring or wellhead, not age.
4,410 in the 1960s
#823
Brandon Brandon is a boy's name from an English place name meaning broom-covered hill, often confused with the Irish Brendan.
4,369 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.