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

#385
Luis Luis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior."
16,039 in the 1960s
#386
Chad Chad is a boy's name from a seventh-century English saint, and it has since become an American internet stereotype and, separately, the name of a country and a disputed ballot.
15,952 in the 1960s
#387
Daryl Daryl completes a set of three — Darrell, Darryl and Daryl are one Norman place name split across three spellings, and all three appear in our gap band, carrying about 328,000 births between them.
15,914 in the 1960s
#388
Vicky Vicky means victory, and it is one of the clearest cases on this site of a monarch making a name — Victoria was rare in English before the queen and ordinary for a century afterward.
15,903 in the 1960s
#389
Gordon Gordon is a Scottish surname turned given name, from a place in Berwickshire whose meaning is not settled — spacious fort is the usual gloss but it is a guess.
15,896 in the 1960s
#390
Lonnie Lonnie shortens Alonzo and Alphonso, meaning noble and ready — and the Germanic original reached Spain with the Visigoths, so a name that reads as American South is Gothic by descent.
15,887 in the 1960s
#391
Dave Dave ranks 2217th in England and Wales and 2469th in the United States, so the short form outranks its American peak market in a country that never recorded more than fifteen in a year.
15,808 in the 1960s
#392
Lynda Lynda means lime tree, from Spanish and Germanic roots that disagree — the pretty reading comes from the Spanish linda, and the tree from a Germanic element, and neither is settled.
15,705 in the 1960s
#393
Nathan Nathan is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he gave," from Natan.
15,584 in the 1960s
#394
Irene Irene is a girl's name from the Greek word for peace, and the name of the goddess who personified it.
15,499 in the 1960s
#395
Guy Guy is a boy's name from a Germanic word probably meaning wood or wide, and one of very few names to have become an ordinary English noun — through Guy Fawkes, whose effigies gave the word its modern sense.
15,410 in the 1960s
#396
Perry Perry means at the pear tree, from an English place name — and our data marks it reviving, at 1373rd in the United States and 1681st in England and Wales.
15,356 in the 1960s
#397
Robyn Robyn is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "bright fame."
15,353 in the 1960s
#398
Leroy Leroy is a boy's name that is simply the French for the king, taken as one word.
15,330 in the 1960s
#399
Jan Jan is 66 percent female in our records because two unrelated uses collide — it is the ordinary man's name for John across Dutch, Polish and Czech, and a woman's short form of Janet and Janice in English.
15,224 in the 1960s
#400
Rosa Rosa is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "rose."
15,142 in the 1960s
#401
Christy Christy serves both Christine and Christopher, so it is used for both sexes — 98 percent of the births in our records are female, but the masculine use remains ordinary in Ireland.
14,951 in the 1960s
#402
Maurice Maurice is a boy's name from a Latin word meaning a Moor, originally describing someone from Roman North Africa. Our data marks it reviving, and it peaked in 1920 — a century-long gap of the same kind we see in Walter and Frances.
14,870 in the 1960s
#403
Erik Erik is a boy's name meaning ever-ruler or sole ruler, from Old Norse.
14,842 in the 1960s
#404
Doreen Doreen has two possible parents and neither is settled — an Irish Doireann whose own meaning is disputed, or Dora with an Irish diminutive attached, which would make it a nineteenth-century construction.
14,707 in the 1960s
#405
Constance Constance is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "steadfastness," one of the abstract virtue names the early Church favored.
14,704 in the 1960s
#406
Rene Rene is a name from the Latin for reborn, given at baptism to mark spiritual rebirth.
14,675 in the 1960s
#407
Marcus Marcus is a boy's name of Latin origin most likely meaning "of Mars," and it was one of only about eighteen first names Roman men used.
14,659 in the 1960s
#408
Rosemary Rosemary is not Rose and Mary joined together — it is the herb, from a Latin phrase meaning dew of the sea.
14,652 in the 1960s
#409
Alvin Alvin means elf-friend, from an Old English name that treats elves as beings whose favor was worth having.
14,629 in the 1960s
#410
Tara Tara is a girl's name from the hill in County Meath where the High Kings were inaugurated, and its meaning is a place of assembly.
14,583 in the 1960s
#411
Vernon Vernon is a Norman place name meaning a place of alders, from a Gaulish word — so a French town gave England a surname that America turned into a first name, three languages deep.
14,526 in the 1960s
#412
Gilbert Gilbert is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning bright pledge, and it founded the only medieval religious order native to England.
14,516 in the 1960s
#413
Bridget Bridget means exalted one, and it belonged to a goddess before a saint — Brigid was the Irish deity of poetry, smithcraft and healing, and the saint absorbed her feast, her fire and her attributes.
14,483 in the 1960s
#414
Patti Patti and Patty peaked one year apart at almost exactly the same size — 3,121 births in 1958 and 3,123 in 1959 — which is about as close as two spellings of one name get in our records.
14,356 in the 1960s
#415
Alexander Alexander is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "defender of men," from alexein, to defend, and aner, man.
14,279 in the 1960s
#416
Shane Shane is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious," and it exists because English speakers wrote down how Ulster pronounced Seán.
14,257 in the 1960s
#417
Lora Lora means from Laurentum, and the laurel is one step removed — the Roman town was named for its bay trees, and the personal name says which town you came from rather than which plant crowned you.
14,221 in the 1960s
#418
Vivian Vivian is a name of Latin origin meaning "alive" or "lively," from vivus.
14,111 in the 1960s
#419
Rickey Rickey means strong ruler, and its peak is the largest in this group — 3,818 American births in 1958, against 45 in the most recent year we have.
14,097 in the 1960s
#420
Stuart Stuart means steward, and the office was literally the sty warden — keeper of the pigs — which rose to run the royal household and then supplied the name of a dynasty.
14,013 in the 1960s
#421
Franklin Franklin means a freeholder — a man who owned his land but held no noble rank, a specific medieval class.
13,990 in the 1960s
#422
Leon Leon is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "lion."
13,952 in the 1960s
#423
Gene Gene means well-born, shortened from Eugene — and it has nothing at all to do with genes in biology, which is a separate word coined in 1909 from a different Greek root entirely, by a Danish botanist.
13,936 in the 1960s
#424
Darin
13,855 in the 1960s
#425
Gregg
13,851 in the 1960s
#426
Marty
13,830 in the 1960s
#427
Bob Bob comes from Robert, and the B is not a corruption but a system — medieval English made pet names by rhyming, which is why Rob gave Bob, Will gave Bill and Rick gave Dick.
13,820 in the 1960s
#428
Herbert Herbert is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning bright army.
13,792 in the 1960s
#429
Jessica Jessica is a girl's name invented by Shakespeare for The Merchant of Venice in 1596.
13,726 in the 1960s
#430
Neil Neil means champion or cloud, from Irish, and it traveled to Iceland with the Vikings and back to England with the Normans — so the English Neil arrived by way of Scandinavia and France.
13,690 in the 1960s
#431
Darrin
13,687 in the 1960s
#432
Mario Mario is a boy's name from a Roman family name of uncertain meaning, and the video game character was named after a real landlord — Mario Segale, who owned the warehouse Nintendo rented in Seattle.
13,636 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.