1960s Baby Names

10,861 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

#98
Margaret Margaret is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "pearl," from margarites.
82,130 in the 1960s
#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 genuinely 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 genuinely 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
#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
#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 our records carry it 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. Our data marks it 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 genuinely 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 genuinely 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
#176
Stacey Stacey is the e-spelling of Stacy, from Eustace or Anastasia.
44,012 in the 1960s
#177
Tracey Tracey is a Norman place name, not an Irish one — it comes from Tracy in Normandy, and the warrior reading widely given for it has no basis in the French original at all.
43,896 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

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.