1960s Baby Names

18,229 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

#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
#194
Roy Roy is a boy's name with two independent sources — the Gaelic ruadh, meaning red-haired, and the French roi, meaning king.
40,308 in the 1960s
#195
Arthur Arthur is a boy's name of disputed origin.
39,910 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
#197
Darryl Darryl does not mean darling.
39,553 in the 1960s
#198
Henry Henry is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "home ruler," from heim, meaning home or estate, and ric, meaning ruler or power.
39,420 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
#200
Jean Jean is a unisex name on record: the French form of John, meaning "God is gracious," and separately a Scottish feminine form of Jane.
39,111 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
#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
#205
Darrell Darrell does not mean beloved.
38,283 in the 1960s
#206
Allen Allen is a boy's name whose meaning is unknown — rock, handsome and deer have all been proposed from an unidentified Breton source.
37,918 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
#209
Victor Victor is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "conqueror."
37,061 in the 1960s
#210
Harold Harold is a boy's name from Norse and Old English elements meaning army ruler, and it belongs to the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, killed at Hastings in 1066.
36,938 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
#213
Albert Albert is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble and bright."
36,586 in the 1960s
#214
Greg Greg means watchful, and the Greek is a command rather than a description — gregorein means stay awake, which early Christians took as an instruction about the second coming.
36,513 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
#217
Jack Jack is a boy's name of English origin that began as a pet form of John, by way of the medieval nickname Jankin.
35,740 in the 1960s
#218
Jamie Jamie is a unisex name of Hebrew origin, a Scottish diminutive of James meaning "supplanter" or "holder of the heel."
35,724 in the 1960s
#219
Jackie Jackie is the third most evenly divided name on this site — 48.9 percent of recorded births are female, behind only Emerson and Riley among names with more than 50,000 births.
35,712 in the 1960s
#220
Ronnie Ronnie is a name of Old Norse origin meaning "ruler's counsel."
35,656 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
#222
Darren Darren has no established origin — it appears in twentieth-century America with no traceable parent, and the Irish and Gaelic derivations offered for it were attached after the fact.
35,247 in the 1960s
#223
Marie Marie is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, the French form of Mary, and the largest name in the birth records 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
#225
Ralph Ralph is a boy's name of Norse origin meaning "wolf counsel."
34,374 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
#228
Joel Joel is a boy's name of Hebrew origin that joins two names for God, and the prophet's book supplied the line quoted at Pentecost.
34,298 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
#232
Louis Louis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior."
33,592 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
#235
Jim Jim is a boy's name meaning supplanter, shortened from James — which is the same name as Jacob, split into two by Latin.
33,289 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
#239
Micheal Micheal is a boy's name of Hebrew origin whose full form is a rhetorical question — who is like God?
32,357 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

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.