1960s Baby Names

10,954 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

#99
Paula Paula is a girl's name from the Latin for small or humble, the feminine of Paul.
80,701 in the 1960s
#101
Sherry Sherry is a girl's name that appears to have been taken from the wine, whose own name is a corruption of the Spanish town Jerez.
77,778 in the 1960s
#102
Catherine Catherine is a girl's name of Greek origin whose meaning is unknown — the familiar reading of pure is a later reshaping, not the original sense.
77,007 in the 1960s
#103
Carolyn Carolyn is a girl's name, an English elaboration of Caroline meaning free man through Charles.
75,503 in the 1960s
#105
Laurie Laurie is a name meaning laurel, and it is mixed by country — masculine in Britain as a short form of Laurence, feminine in America as a short form of Laura.
74,719 in the 1960s
#106
Sheila Sheila is the Irish form of Cecilia, meaning blind — and parents outside Ireland should know it became Australian slang for a woman in the nineteenth century, which is why it barely charts there.
74,289 in the 1960s
#108
Ann Ann is a girl's name from the Hebrew Hannah, meaning grace or favor, and the spelling without the final e.
72,291 in the 1960s
#112
Jill Jill is a girl's name, a medieval short form of Gillian, and it is half of the oldest surviving English nursery rhyme pair.
69,310 in the 1960s
#113
Leslie Leslie is a Scottish place name turned surname turned given name, and it has crossed sexes: about 71 percent of recorded births are female, though the name began firmly male and remains so in Britain.
68,177 in the 1960s
#116
Connie Connie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "steadfast" or "constant."
65,860 in the 1960s
#118
Diana Diana is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "divine" or "heavenly," the Roman goddess of the hunt and the moon.
65,221 in the 1960s
#119
Terri Terri shortens Teresa, whose meaning has never been established — harvester, summer and a Greek island are all proposed and none of them is settled.
64,033 in the 1960s
#124
Dana Dana is a name with several unrelated sources — a Danish origin, a Hebrew feminine of Daniel, and an Irish mother goddess.
61,128 in the 1960s
#128
Suzanne Suzanne is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "lily," from shoshannah.
59,889 in the 1960s
#129
Andrea Andrea is a name meaning "manly" or "brave," from the Greek aner.
59,493 in the 1960s
#130
Beth Beth is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath," a short form of Elizabeth, and the seven in the Hebrew is the same idea as the oath.
58,519 in the 1960s
#132
Janice Janice is a girl's name usually credited to a 1899 novel, though it is on record from 1894 — five years before the book.
58,183 in the 1960s
#133
Valerie Valerie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "strong" or "healthy," from the verb valere, meaning to be strong or to be well.
56,739 in the 1960s
#134
Renee Renee is a girl's name from the Latin for reborn, given at baptism to mark spiritual rebirth.
56,128 in the 1960s
#140
Christina Christina is a girl's name from the Latin for a follower of Christ, and the fullest of the family that includes Christine and Kristina.
52,952 in the 1960s
#141
Gina Gina is not one name — it is the ending of several different ones, and which name it shortens changes the meaning entirely.
52,496 in the 1960s
#143
Annette Annette is a girl's name meaning grace, a French diminutive of Anne.
52,103 in the 1960s
#144
Cathy Cathy is a girl's name, a pet form of Catherine whose meaning has never been established.
51,753 in the 1960s
#146
Katherine Katherine is a girl's name whose meaning is not settled.
50,775 in the 1960s
#148
Judy Judy is a girl's name, the pet form of Judith, from a Hebrew word meaning a woman of Judea.
50,490 in the 1960s
#155
Carla Carla is a girl's name meaning free man, the Italian and Spanish feminine of Carlo.
48,024 in the 1960s
#156
Wanda Wanda is a girl's name from Polish, borne by a legendary queen who drowned herself in the Vistula rather than marry a German prince.
48,001 in the 1960s
#157
Anne Anne is a girl's name from the Hebrew Hannah, meaning favor or grace.
47,904 in the 1960s
#164
Joyce Joyce is a girl's name that was a man's name for most of its history, from a Breton saint called Iodoc. It is stable, and its highest current rank is France at 334th — not any English-speaking market.
46,303 in the 1960s
#166
Regina Regina is the Latin word for a queen, taken unchanged, and it is still the legal abbreviation in British courts — every criminal case against a defendant is formally Regina versus the accused.
46,002 in the 1960s
#167
Beverly Beverly is a name from an English town meaning beaver stream, and it began as a boys' name before crossing decisively to girls.
45,488 in the 1960s
#168
Bonnie Bonnie is a girl's name of Scots origin meaning "pretty" or "fine."
45,368 in the 1960s
#169
Monica Monica is a girl's name whose meaning is unknown, and whose saint — the mother of Augustine — came from Roman North Africa, so the name may be Berber rather than Latin or Greek at all.
45,316 in the 1960s
#171
Kathryn Kathryn is a girl's name, the y-spelling of Katherine, and it inherits that name's unknown meaning.
44,988 in the 1960s
#173
Anita Anita is a girl's name, the Spanish diminutive of Ana, meaning grace.
44,556 in the 1960s
#175
Sarah Sarah is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "princess" or "noblewoman."
44,062 in the 1960s
#178
Stacy Stacy comes from Eustace or Anastasia, two unrelated names, and its meanings are correspondingly different — fruitful or resurrection.
43,736 in the 1960s
#180
Darlene Darlene is a girl's name built from the English word darling, and it is one of a small group of American twentieth-century coinages that used the -ene ending.
43,677 in the 1960s
#181
Jane Jane is a girl's name from the Hebrew for God is gracious, the English feminine of John.
43,455 in the 1960s
#188
Sherri Sherri looks French and is not — it respells Cherie, meaning darling, but Cherie is not a traditional French given name at all, so the name is an English invention wearing French clothes.
41,735 in the 1960s
#190
Martha Martha is a girl's name of Aramaic origin meaning "lady" or "mistress of the house."
41,189 in the 1960s
#191
Anna Anna is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "grace" or "favor," the Greek and Latin form of Hannah.
41,084 in the 1960s
#192
Colleen Colleen means girl in Irish, and it is barely used in Ireland — it is an Irish-American name rather than an Irish one.
40,762 in the 1960s
#193
Vicki Vicki means victory, shortened from Victoria — and Victoria was a rare name in Britain before the queen, not a traditional one she happened to carry.
40,607 in the 1960s
#196
Judith Judith is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "woman of Judea," borne by the heroine who beheads Holofernes in the deuterocanonical book named for her.
39,896 in the 1960s
#199
Tamara Tamara means date palm, and the tree mattered more than the fruit — in the ancient Near East a date palm was a standing symbol of uprightness and fertility.
39,116 in the 1960s
#201
Gloria Gloria is a girl's name that is simply the Latin word for glory, taken unchanged.
38,770 in the 1960s
#202
Betty Betty is a girl's name that began as a short form of Elizabeth and is now used in its own right.
38,569 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.