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 in our data: 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 genuinely 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 the births in our records 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 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
#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

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.