1970s Baby Names

8,079 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

#424
Clifford Clifford is a boy's name from an English place name meaning a ford by a cliff — a river crossing below a steep bank.
11,854 in the 1970s
#428
Harry Harry is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "home ruler."
11,760 in the 1970s
#430
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.
11,687 in the 1970s
#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
#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 this group, 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 on record — it peaked in 1921 and now ranks 240th in the United States on 1,493 births, a century later.
10,155 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
#518
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
#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

Children in the United States were registered with it between 1970 and 1979. 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.