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

#480
Jana Jana ranks 223rd in France and 1245th in the United States, and its French peak of 485 births came in 2019 — a Slavic form of John that is currently doing better in France than in any English-speaking market.
11,621 in the 1960s
#484
Tracie
11,385 in the 1960s
#485
June June is a girl's name of Latin origin taken from the month, which is named for the goddess Juno — the queen of the Roman gods and the protector of marriage and childbirth.
11,357 in the 1960s
#488
Arlene Arlene has no established origin at all — it appears in the nineteenth century with no traceable parent name, and the Irish pledge reading usually given for it belongs to a different name entirely.
11,259 in the 1960s
#489
Grace Grace is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "favor" or "blessing," from gratia.
11,237 in the 1960s
#492
Jacquelyn Jacquelyn means supplanter, and the chain is long — it is an American respelling of Jacqueline, the French feminine of Jacques, which is James, which is Jacob.
11,147 in the 1960s
#493
Kari Kari descends from the same unexplained Greek root as Kaitlin in this group, but by a Scandinavian route — through Karen and Katarina rather than through Irish, and the pure gloss is equally unproven on both paths.
11,056 in the 1960s
#494
Samantha Samantha is a girl's name of uncertain origin, first recorded in America in the eighteenth century.
11,051 in the 1960s
#496
Jenny Jenny began as a pet form of Jane, not Jennifer — the two attached to each other only in the twentieth century, and Jennifer was almost unknown outside Cornwall before 1900.
11,011 in the 1960s
#497
Louise Louise is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior," the French feminine form of Louis.
11,006 in the 1960s
#499
Sonja Sonja means wisdom, and the great church of Constantinople carries the same word — Hagia Sophia was dedicated to Holy Wisdom as an aspect of God, not to any saint of that name.
10,976 in the 1960s
#501
Nina Nina is a girl's name with several unrelated origins.
10,924 in the 1960s
#503
Bernadette Bernadette is a girl's name meaning brave as a bear, and its bearer was a fourteen-year-old miller's daughter whose visions at Lourdes in 1858 turned a Pyrenean grotto into one of the most visited places on earth.
10,754 in the 1960s
#504
Lillian Lillian is a girl's name usually explained as an elaboration of Lily, from the Latin lilium, and sometimes as a variant of Elizabeth by way of the medieval pet form Lilian.
10,663 in the 1960s
#505
Lorie
10,656 in the 1960s
#506
Marla
10,632 in the 1960s
#507
Carole Carole is a girl's name meaning free man, the French spelling of Carol.
10,573 in the 1960s
#510
Marjorie Marjorie is a girl's name meaning pearl, an English form of Margaret whose modern spelling was pulled toward the herb marjoram by nothing more than a coincidence of sound.
10,521 in the 1960s
#512
Gayle Gayle carries 67,694 lifetime births and now charts in none of our six markets — one of the largest names on this site to have fallen entirely out of current use.
10,404 in the 1960s
#514
Priscilla Priscilla means ancient or venerable, and it is a diminutive — so the name literally reads as little old one, which was a mark of respect rather than an insult.
10,361 in the 1960s
#517
Ruby Ruby is a girl's name of Latin origin naming the red gemstone, from ruber, meaning red.
10,277 in the 1960s
#518
Dina Dina is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "judged" or "vindicated," borne by Jacob's daughter in one of the harshest stories in Genesis.
10,246 in the 1960s
#519
Trina
10,202 in the 1960s
#521
Esther Esther is a girl's name usually connected to the Persian word for star, and possibly to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar.
10,139 in the 1960s
#522
Claudia Claudia means lame, and it comes from one of Rome's most powerful families.
10,043 in the 1960s
#523
Rochelle Rochelle means little rock, and it is a place rather than a person — La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast was a Huguenot stronghold, and the name reached English through the town rather than any saint.
9,970 in the 1960s
#524
Antoinette Antoinette means little Antoine, and the meaning usually given for the parent name — flower — is a false etymology.
9,958 in the 1960s
#526
Candace Candace is a job title mistaken for a name — Kandake was the word for the queen mother of Kush, and Acts uses it as though it were personal, so a Sudanese royal office became an American given name.
9,886 in the 1960s
#529
Geraldine Geraldine was invented in a 1537 love poem — the Earl of Surrey coined it for Lady Elizabeth FitzGerald, calling her the Fair Geraldine.
9,824 in the 1960s
#531
Gretchen Gretchen means little pearl, and German uses her name for a kind of question — a Gretchenfrage is the awkward essential one you cannot dodge, after the question she puts to Faust about religion.
9,745 in the 1960s
#533
Dolores Dolores is a girl's name meaning sorrows — taken from a title of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows, which counts seven specific griefs.
9,709 in the 1960s
#535
Annie Annie is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "grace" or "favor."
9,689 in the 1960s
#537
Debora
9,649 in the 1960s
#538
Nora Nora is a girl's name that developed as a short form of longer names, chiefly Honora and Eleanor, and is now used independently.
9,582 in the 1960s
#544
Molly Molly is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, a pet form of Mary whose meaning has never been settled — the candidates are "bitter" and "beloved."
9,364 in the 1960s
#546
Josephine Josephine is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he will add," the French feminine form of Joseph.
9,358 in the 1960s
#550
Maryann Maryann joins two names whose own meanings are unsettled — Mary has never been securely derived from the Hebrew, and Ann means grace, so only half of the compound has a firm reading.
9,238 in the 1960s
#552
Joanna Joanna means God is gracious, and it charts in all seven markets we track — the United States 306th, Ireland 367th, Scotland 395th, Northern Ireland 432nd, England and Wales 514th and France 721st.
9,208 in the 1960s
#553
Dena
9,184 in the 1960s
#557
Edith Edith is a girl's name of Old English origin meaning "prosperous in war."
9,018 in the 1960s
#558
Pauline Pauline is a girl's name from the Latin for small or humble, the feminine of Paul.
8,958 in the 1960s
#560
Mona Mona in Mona Lisa is not a name — it contracts ma donna, my lady, so the painting's title is closer to Madam Lisa than to anyone actually called Mona.
8,805 in the 1960s
#561
Karin
8,796 in the 1960s
#564
Hope Hope is a girl's name of Old English origin taken from the virtue, from hopian.
8,764 in the 1960s
#566
Lucy Lucy is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "light," from lux.
8,677 in the 1960s
#570
Betsy Betsy is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath."
8,563 in the 1960s
#571
Tiffany Tiffany is a medieval name meaning manifestation of God, given to girls born at Epiphany — a genuinely old name that now reads as thoroughly modern.
8,524 in the 1960s
#572
Delores Delores means sorrows, and it is a Marian title rather than a wish — Our Lady of Sorrows, named for the seven griefs of the Virgin, which is why a name meaning pain was ever given.
8,470 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.