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

#203
Shirley Shirley is a girl's name from an English place name meaning bright clearing, and it was a boys' name until Charlotte Brontë used it for a heroine in 1849.
38,387 in the 1960s
#204
Penny Penny is a girl's name of Greek origin, a diminutive of Penelope, whose own name is bound up with a duck.
38,352 in the 1960s
#207
Victoria Victoria is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "victory."
37,865 in the 1960s
#208
Peggy Peggy is a girl's name meaning pearl, a pet form of Margaret by way of Meg.
37,147 in the 1960s
#211
Joan Joan is a girl's name, the medieval English feminine of John meaning God is gracious, and it was once as common as Mary.
36,897 in the 1960s
#212
Melanie Melanie is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "black" or "dark."
36,821 in the 1960s
#215
Melinda Melinda is an invented name rather than an inherited one — an eighteenth-century literary coinage joining the Greek word for honey to the ending of Belinda and Lucinda.
36,379 in the 1960s
#216
Shelly Shelly means a clearing on a ledge, from an English place name — and it has nothing to do with shells, which is the reading most people assume and no source supports.
36,026 in the 1960s
#221
Virginia Virginia is a girl's name from a Roman family name, and the American state was named before the name became common in America — both honoring Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen.
35,467 in the 1960s
#223
Marie Marie is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, the French form of Mary, and the largest name in our entire dataset with more than 2.8 million births on record.
34,958 in the 1960s
#224
Maureen Maureen is the Irish Máirín, a diminutive of Máire, which is itself the Irish form of Mary.
34,537 in the 1960s
#226
Ruth Ruth is a girl's name of Hebrew origin usually given as "companion" or "friend," though the derivation is not secure.
34,328 in the 1960s
#227
Julia Julia is a girl's name of Latin origin, the feminine of the Roman family name Julius.
34,313 in the 1960s
#229
Ellen Ellen is a girl's name of Greek origin, a medieval English form of Helen whose meaning has never been settled.
34,240 in the 1960s
#230
Tonya Tonya is a short form of Antonia, and its meaning is unknown — the Roman family name Antonius has no established derivation, and the flower reading widely given for it is a Renaissance invention.
34,192 in the 1960s
#231
Heidi Heidi is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble one."
33,828 in the 1960s
#233
Joanne Joanne is a girl's name meaning God is gracious, one of the many feminines of John.
33,446 in the 1960s
#234
Gail Gail is a girl's name meaning my father rejoices, clipped from Abigail.
33,349 in the 1960s
#236
Dorothy Dorothy is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "gift of God."
33,143 in the 1960s
#237
Rita Rita is a girl's name meaning pearl, clipped from the end of Margarita rather than the front.
32,989 in the 1960s
#238
Heather Heather is a girl's name taken directly from the flowering shrub that covers Scottish and northern English moorland.
32,779 in the 1960s
#240
Deanna Deanna was popularized by a stage name — the actress born Edna Mae Durbin was renamed Deanna Durbin in 1936, and American births rose from almost nothing to a peak of 4,331 in 1970.
32,337 in the 1960s
#241
Holly Holly is a girl's name of Old English origin taken from the tree, from holegn.
32,297 in the 1960s
#242
Rose Rose is a girl's name of Latin origin naming the flower, from rosa.
32,006 in the 1960s
#243
Vickie Vickie is an American name that now charts only in France — it peaked at 6,957 US births in 1956 and has left the American rankings entirely, surviving at 6405th in a market it was never native to.
31,890 in the 1960s
#246
Carrie Carrie is a girl's name, a pet form of Caroline meaning free man through Charles.
31,249 in the 1960s
#249
Veronica Veronica is a girl's name from a Latin phrase meaning true image, and the saint behind it was invented to explain a relic — the cloth came first, and the woman was named after it.
30,131 in the 1960s
#250
Yvonne Yvonne is a girl's name from a Germanic word for the yew tree, by way of Breton.
30,095 in the 1960s
#252
Becky Becky means to bind, shortened from Rebecca, and the Hebrew is genuinely uncertain — a knotted cord and a snare are both proposed, and the reading has never been settled.
29,658 in the 1960s
#255
Helen Helen is a girl's name from Greek whose meaning is not settled, though torch and shining are the usual readings.
29,204 in the 1960s
#257
Sylvia Sylvia is a girl's name from the Latin for a forest, and the mother of Rome's founders bore it — Rhea Silvia, who was made a Vestal Virgin so she could not produce heirs.
28,750 in the 1960s
#259
Yolanda Yolanda means violet, and the flower reaches it through a chain of respellings — the Greek Iolanthe became Violante in Italian by association with viola, and Spanish then rendered that form as the Yolanda we know.
28,568 in the 1960s
#260
April April is a girl's name taken from the month, whose Latin name probably means to open — the month when buds open.
28,381 in the 1960s
#263
Elaine Elaine is a girl's name, the Old French form of Helen, whose meaning was never established.
27,545 in the 1960s
#265
Sheri Sheri means darling, and it is French by way of a misreading — English took the adjective chérie as though it were a name, which is why it has no history as one in France itself.
27,387 in the 1960s
#267
Marilyn Marilyn is a girl's name usually read as a blend of Mary and Lyn.
27,105 in the 1960s
#268
Jodi Jodi serves Judith, Joseph and Jude at once, which is why the wider Jody family never settled on one sex — three unrelated Hebrew parents pulling in different directions.
27,100 in the 1960s
#270
Alice Alice is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble," arrived at by a long contraction of Adelaide.
27,049 in the 1960s
#273
Rachel Rachel is a girl's name from Hebrew meaning ewe, borne by Jacob's wife in Genesis.
26,881 in the 1960s
#276
Sheryl Sheryl respells Cheryl, which is itself a twentieth-century invention — it appears in American records around 1920 with no traceable parent, and the meanings offered for it were supplied afterwards.
26,113 in the 1960s
#278
Phyllis Phyllis is a girl's name from the Greek for foliage, borne by a mythological princess who was turned into an almond tree.
25,772 in the 1960s
#280
Frances Frances is a girl's name meaning a Frank, or a free one, and the feminine of Francis.
25,269 in the 1960s
#283
Toni Toni has no established meaning, because Antonia does not — the Roman family name Antonius is probably Etruscan, and the flower reading attached to Anthony is a Renaissance invention.
25,090 in the 1960s
#284
Shelley Shelley means a clearing on a ledge, and it has nothing to do with shells — the poet's surname records a patch of high ground in Suffolk or Sussex, not anything from a beach.
25,089 in the 1960s
#285
Crystal Crystal is a girl's name from the Greek for ice, taken from the mineral rather than from any personal name.
25,057 in the 1960s
#286
Joann Joann is a girl's name meaning God is gracious, a simplified spelling of Joanna.
24,969 in the 1960s
#287
Eileen Eileen is a girl's name anglicizing the Irish Eibhlín, and its meaning is genuinely unsettled — it may render Helen, or Evelyn, or a native Irish name.
24,926 in the 1960s
#288
Charlene Charlene is a girl's name meaning free man, a feminine of Charles.
24,718 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.