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

#289
Sandy Sandy shortens Alexander and Alexandra, meaning defender of the people — and in Scotland it is the standard familiar form of Alexander, which is why it reads as Scottish rather than merely short.
24,676 in the 1960s
#290
Kristin Kristin is a girl's name meaning a follower of Christ, and it is the smaller of a pair — Kristen holds 222,720 recorded births to its 181,344, and both charted only ever in America.
24,567 in the 1960s
#291
Carmen Carmen has two unrelated sources — the Latin word for a song, and a Spanish Marian title from Mount Carmel in Israel.
24,535 in the 1960s
#292
Sally Sally is a girl's name meaning princess, a pet form of Sarah reached by medieval rhyming.
24,422 in the 1960s
#293
Charlotte Charlotte is a girl's name of French origin meaning "free man," the feminine form of Charles, itself from the Germanic name Karl.
24,306 in the 1960s
#294
Kristine Kristine means a follower of Christ, and it is the fourth spelling of this name to appear in our gap band — after Kristin, Kristen and Kristina, all four of them American-led rather than Scandinavian.
24,185 in the 1960s
#295
Duane Duane means the little dark one, from an Irish surname built on the word for black — and that same root also gives us Dublin, which means the black pool that the city originally grew up around.
23,889 in the 1960s
#296
Juan Juan is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious."
23,724 in the 1960s
#297
Jeanne Jeanne is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious," the French feminine of Jean.
23,595 in the 1960s
#298
Melvin Melvin is a boy's name from a Scottish place name, and the gentle chieftain reading usually given for it is an invention — the source is a Norman family who took their name from Malleville in France.
23,335 in the 1960s
#299
Fred Fred is a boy's name, the short form of Frederick meaning peaceful ruler.
23,312 in the 1960s
#300
Sara Sara is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "princess" or "noblewoman."
23,105 in the 1960s
#301
Tanya Tanya is a Russian pet form of Tatiana, whose meaning is not known — the Roman family name behind it may be Sabine rather than Latin, and the Sabine language is barely attested at all.
23,087 in the 1960s
#302
Belinda Belinda is a literary invention with a snake in it — the Germanic element behind it is usually read as a serpent, and Pope's Rape of the Lock made the name fashionable in 1712.
23,003 in the 1960s
#303
Adam Adam is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "earth" or "ground," from adamah.
22,998 in the 1960s
#304
Jesse Jesse is a name of Hebrew origin whose meaning is debated.
22,935 in the 1960s
#305
Norman Norman means a Northman — a Viking.
22,932 in the 1960s
#306
Mitchell Mitchell is a boy's name from a medieval English form of Michael, meaning who is like God — though a second and quite separate source exists from an old word simply meaning big.
22,808 in the 1960s
#307
Harry Harry is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "home ruler."
22,795 in the 1960s
#308
Dan Dan means he judged, and it is a full Hebrew name in its own right before it is short for Daniel — one of Jacob's twelve sons, and the tribe that gave its name to the northern border of Israel.
22,754 in the 1960s
#309
Evelyn Evelyn is a girl's name of English and French origin meaning "desired" or "wished for".
22,683 in the 1960s
#310
Carlos Carlos is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "free man."
22,664 in the 1960s
#311
Alicia Alicia is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble," a Latinate form of Alice.
22,486 in the 1960s
#312
Jerome Jerome is a boy's name meaning sacred name, and it belongs to the scholar who translated the Bible into Latin — the version Western Europe read for over a thousand years.
22,467 in the 1960s
#313
Ray Ray is a boy's name that serves as a short form of Raymond and as the English word for a beam of light.
22,465 in the 1960s
#314
Nicholas Nicholas is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "victory of the people," from nike, victory, and laos, the people.
22,407 in the 1960s
#315
Sonya Sonya means wisdom, and the Greek word behind it named a divine attribute before it named a person — Constantinople's great church was dedicated to Holy Wisdom, not to any saint called Sophia.
22,351 in the 1960s
#316
Lorraine Lorraine is a girl's name from the French region, whose own name means the kingdom of Lothair — a Frankish king's realm that was carved out of Charlemagne's empire and slowly disappeared.
22,320 in the 1960s
#317
Kirk Kirk means church, and it is Norse rather than English — the Vikings brought the word to northern England and Scotland, which is why Scots say kirk where English says church.
22,275 in the 1960s
#318
Don Don is a boy's name shortened from Donald, meaning world ruler.
22,268 in the 1960s
#319
Yvette Yvette is a girl's name from a Germanic word for the yew tree, by way of Breton.
22,163 in the 1960s
#320
Jeanette Jeanette means God is gracious, a French double diminutive of Jeanne.
22,154 in the 1960s
#321
Loretta Loretta comes from an Italian shrine, not from the laurel — Loreto is the town where the Holy House of Nazareth was said to have been carried by angels.
22,150 in the 1960s
#322
Calvin Calvin is a boy's name of French origin meaning "little bald one," from the Latin calvus, bald.
22,103 in the 1960s
#323
Glen Glen means a narrow valley, and it is one of very few Gaelic words that English borrowed wholesale rather than adapting to its own sounds.
22,003 in the 1960s
#324
Joy Joy is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning exactly what it says, taken from the English word.
21,922 in the 1960s
#325
Sue Sue means lily, shortened from Susan, and it is one of the steepest falls in our data — from 5,306 American births in 1947 to 11, a decline by a factor of roughly 482.
21,640 in the 1960s
#326
Norma Norma is a girl's name that appears to have been invented for an opera — Bellini's Norma of 1831 — and it was the birth name of Marilyn Monroe, who appears elsewhere in these pages under the name that replaced it.
21,636 in the 1960s
#327
Karl Karl means free man, and it is the original German spelling behind Charles — the word named a free peasant, so it began at the bottom of the free classes and rose to name emperors.
21,404 in the 1960s
#328
Brad Brad means broad clearing, shortened from Bradley — and the broad element is the same word as the modern English broad, one of the few Old English place-name terms still transparent.
21,395 in the 1960s
#329
Theodore Theodore is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "gift of God," formed from theos, meaning god, and doron, meaning gift.
21,389 in the 1960s
#330
Derrick Derrick means ruler of the people, and the crane is named after a man — Thomas Derrick, an Elizabethan hangman whose gallows design was distinctive enough that his name became the word for it.
21,382 in the 1960s
#331
Roberta Roberta is a girl's name meaning bright fame, the feminine of Robert.
21,199 in the 1960s
#332
Vanessa Vanessa was invented by Jonathan Swift around 1713, built from the name of a woman he was writing to — and it later became the name of a genus of butterflies.
21,046 in the 1960s
#333
Francis Francis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "Frenchman" or "free man."
20,830 in the 1960s
#334
Edwin Edwin is a boy's name from Old English meaning rich friend, borne by a Northumbrian king whose fortress may have given Edinburgh its name.
20,784 in the 1960s
#335
Shari Shari means a plain, if it comes from Sharon — the Hebrew names the fertile coastal strip of Israel, so the rose of Sharon is a region's flower rather than a person's.
20,551 in the 1960s
#336
Earl Earl is a boy's name taken from the English noble title, and it is the only rank in the British peerage with a native English name rather than a French one.
20,524 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.