1970s Baby Names

7,987 names were given to children in the United States between 1970 and 1979, 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

#433
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.
11,533 in the 1970s
#438
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.
11,477 in the 1970s
#443
Francis Francis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "Frenchman" or "free man."
11,290 in the 1970s
#444
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.
11,270 in the 1970s
#450
Rene Rene is a name from the Latin for reborn, given at baptism to mark spiritual rebirth.
10,959 in the 1970s
#453
Heath
10,907 in the 1970s
#454
Mathew Mathew drops a t from Matthew, and the doubled t was never in the Hebrew — it entered through the Greek and Latin spellings, so the shorter form is arguably closer to the original.
10,905 in the 1970s
#455
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.
10,872 in the 1970s
#457
Clayton Clayton means the settlement on clay, from an English place name that describes the ground it stood on.
10,809 in the 1970s
#458
Clarence Clarence is a boy's name taken from an English dukedom, itself named for a Suffolk town.
10,792 in the 1970s
#460
Alfred Alfred is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "elf counsel."
10,646 in the 1970s
#461
Raul Raul means wolf counsel, and it is the same name as Ralph and Rudolph — one Norse compound that entered Spanish, English and German separately and ended up looking like three different names.
10,632 in the 1970s
#464
Isaac Isaac is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he laughs," from Yitzhak.
10,568 in the 1970s
#465
Javier Javier means the new house, and it is Basque rather than Spanish — Saint Francis Xavier was named for his family's castle at Xabier, so the name is a place that became a surname and then a first name.
10,556 in the 1970s
#468
Wade Wade means a river crossing, and there is a second Wade entirely — a Germanic sea giant from Old English legend whose story Chaucer refers to as though everyone knew it, and which is now lost.
10,482 in the 1970s
#472
Ramon Ramon means protecting counsel, and both halves are Germanic — the Visigoths brought it to Iberia, so a name that reads as thoroughly Spanish is Gothic underneath, like Fernando and Alonzo.
10,391 in the 1970s
#473
Mike Mike is a boy's name, the short form of Michael, from a Hebrew question meaning who is like God.
10,391 in the 1970s
#475
Luke Luke is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "man from Lucania," a region of southern Italy.
10,329 in the 1970s
#477
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.
10,277 in the 1970s
#480
Cody Cody is a boy's name of Irish origin, anglicising Ó Cuidighthigh, meaning "descendant of the helpful one."
10,208 in the 1970s
#481
Warren Warren is a boy's name from a Norman place name, and it is the second-strongest revival we hold — it peaked in 1921 and now ranks 240th in the United States on 1,493 births, a century later.
10,155 in the 1970s
#483
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.
10,078 in the 1970s
#486
Norman Norman means a Northman — a Viking.
10,000 in the 1970s
#488
Leon Leon is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "lion."
9,969 in the 1970s
#490
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.
9,884 in the 1970s
#497
Rafael Rafael is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God heals."
9,720 in the 1970s
#504
Pedro Pedro means stone, and the name records a nickname Jesus gave — Simon was renamed Cephas in Aramaic, which Greek translated as Petros, so the pun on rock survives through three languages.
9,587 in the 1970s
#506
Byron Byron means at the cattle sheds — a working place name that became shorthand for romantic poetry, which is a longer journey than most names make.
9,531 in the 1970s
#507
Fred Fred is a boy's name, the short form of Frederick meaning peaceful ruler.
9,499 in the 1970s
#509
Franklin Franklin means a freeholder — a man who owned his land but held no noble rank, a specific medieval class.
9,424 in the 1970s
#511
Omar Omar is a boy's name of Arabic origin meaning "flourishing" or "long-lived."
9,372 in the 1970s
#513
Fernando Fernando means bold journey, and it is Germanic rather than Spanish — the Visigoths brought it to Iberia, where it became the royal name of Castile and Aragon and then traveled to the Americas.
9,246 in the 1970s
#514
Alejandro Alejandro is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "defender of mankind."
9,215 in the 1970s
#515
Bernard Bernard is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning brave as a bear.
9,183 in the 1970s
#519
Gilbert Gilbert is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning bright pledge, and it founded the only medieval religious order native to England.
9,142 in the 1970s
#520
Darin
9,141 in the 1970s
#521
Andy Andy means manly, and the Greek root is the ordinary word for a man — so Andrew is one of the few apostles carrying a Greek name rather than a Hebrew or Aramaic one.
9,133 in the 1970s
#522
Clint
9,116 in the 1970s
#525
Cameron Cameron is a name of Scottish origin meaning "crooked nose," from the Gaelic cam, crooked, and sròn, nose.
8,973 in the 1970s
#528
Lucas Lucas is a boy's name of Latin origin, the Latin form of Luke.
8,859 in the 1970s
#529
Cedric Cedric was invented by Walter Scott in Ivanhoe in 1819, and it appears to be a misspelling — he took the Anglo-Saxon Cerdic and transposed the letters.
8,798 in the 1970s
#530
Alvin Alvin means elf-friend, from an Old English name that treats elves as beings whose favor was worth having.
8,767 in the 1970s
#531
Eduardo Eduardo means wealthy guardian, and it is one of very few Old English names that spread across the Catholic world — carried by Edward the Confessor's cult rather than by English settlement.
8,749 in the 1970s
#533
Roderick Roderick means famous ruler, and its most consequential bearer lost a country — Roderic was the last Visigothic king of Spain, defeated in 711 by the Arab and Berber force that then held most of the peninsula for centuries.
8,699 in the 1970s
#534
Armando Armando means army man, and it is the same name as Herman — one Germanic compound that reached Spanish through the Visigoths and English through the Normans, ending up unrecognisably different.
8,691 in the 1970s
#537
Don Don is a boy's name shortened from Donald, meaning world ruler.
8,608 in the 1970s
#540
Darryl Darryl does not mean darling.
8,483 in the 1970s
#541
Leroy Leroy is a boy's name that is simply the French for the king, taken as one word.
8,469 in the 1970s

What made a 1970s name

Nothing about the sound of it. A name is on this page because children in the United States were registered with it between 1970 and 1979, and its position is simply how many. Every list of "1970s 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.