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 this group — 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 on record — 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

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.