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

#925
Eli Eli is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "ascent" or "my God," depending on which Hebrew name it represents.
3,652 in the 1970s
#930
Gilberto
3,634 in the 1970s
#932
Sheldon
3,633 in the 1970s
#937
Otis Otis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "wealth" or "fortune."
3,589 in the 1970s
#938
Simon Simon is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he has heard," borne by the apostle Peter before his renaming.
3,586 in the 1970s
#943
Abel Abel is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "breath" or "vapour."
3,539 in the 1970s
#946
Alonzo Alonzo is the Spanish descendant of a Visigothic name, and our data marks it rising — 511th in the United States, 1186th in Canada, 1324th in France and 1714th in England and Wales, having peaked as recently as 2022, which is unusual for a name our records carry from 1880.
3,522 in the 1970s
#955
Scot
3,450 in the 1970s
#957
Elijah Elijah is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "my God is Yahweh," from Eliyahu.
3,427 in the 1970s
#965
Roman Roman is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "citizen of Rome," from Romanus.
3,377 in the 1970s
#966
Jake Jake is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "supplanter," a short form of Jacob that became a name in its own right.
3,373 in the 1970s
#968
Rex Rex means king, and it is the plain Latin nominative — which makes it the pair to Regis, the genitive meaning of the king.
3,366 in the 1970s
#969
Randal
3,365 in the 1970s
#970
Guillermo
3,362 in the 1970s
#971
Benny Benny means son of the right hand, and Jacob overruled the name at the deathbed — Rachel called the child son of my sorrow as she died, and his father renamed him on the spot.
3,352 in the 1970s
#977
Felipe
3,316 in the 1970s
#978
Sherman
3,302 in the 1970s
#983
Derick
3,267 in the 1970s
#985
Ismael Ismael is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God will hear," the son of Abraham and Hagar and a prophet in Islam.
3,263 in the 1970s
#986
Stephan Stephan means a wreath, not a crown — stephanos was the woven victor's garland at the Greek games, which is why the first Christian martyr's name reads as a prize rather than a rank.
3,255 in the 1970s
#991
Damion
3,196 in the 1970s
#993
Virgil Virgil is misspelled and always has been — the poet's name was Vergilius, and medieval scribes changed the e to an i by association with virgo, which is how a Roman family name acquired a meaning it never had.
3,190 in the 1970s
#994
Darius Darius means holding firm the good, and we know that because the king said so — the Behistun inscription has Darius the Great explain his own name and reign in three languages, carved on a cliff face.
3,178 in the 1970s
#995
Hugh Hugh is a boy's name from a Germanic word for mind or spirit, brought to Britain by the Normans.
3,177 in the 1970s
#996
Darrick
3,176 in the 1970s
#997
Beau Beau is a boy's name from the French beau, meaning handsome or beautiful.
3,157 in the 1970s
#1,000
Rogelio
3,128 in the 1970s
#1,006
Desmond Desmond means south Munster, and it is a territory rather than a person — Deas-Mhumhain named the earldom the Fitzgeralds held, and the name reaches modern use through the land.
3,099 in the 1970s
#1,010
Kareem
3,086 in the 1970s
#1,014
Teddy Teddy is a boy's name that shortens either Edward, meaning "wealthy guardian," or Theodore, meaning "gift of God."
3,067 in the 1970s
#1,017
Colby Colby is a boy's name of Norse origin meaning "Koli's farm," from villages in the English Danelaw.
3,057 in the 1970s
#1,021
Owen Owen is a boy's name of Welsh origin, the anglicized form of Owain.
3,034 in the 1970s
#1,022
Gustavo Gustavo has no settled meaning, and the two accounts disagree on the language — a Norse staff of the Geats, or a Slavic name reshaped by Swedish, and neither has carried the field.
3,027 in the 1970s
#1,027
Earnest Earnest respells Ernest, and the Germanic behind it is not mild — eornost meant vigor in battle, seriousness of the deadly kind, long before it settled into the sense of being sincere.
2,994 in the 1970s
#1,029
Lyle Lyle is a boy's name from the Norman French for "the island," and the l at the front is the definite article rather than part of the word.
2,990 in the 1970s
#1,030
Xavier Xavier is a boy's name from a Basque place name meaning "the new house," from etxe berri.
2,988 in the 1970s
#1,032
Elias Elias is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "my God is Yahweh."
2,986 in the 1970s
#1,037
Dante Dante means enduring, and it is a nickname that outlived its full form — the poet was christened Durante, and almost nobody has used that name since, while the short version became international.
2,975 in the 1970s
#1,038
Bart
2,973 in the 1970s
#1,041
Curt
2,960 in the 1970s
#1,042
Forrest Forrest is one of only two names in this group our data marks as rising, and it is on its second life — American births ran 490 in 2018 and 862 in 2025, having collapsed from a 1994 peak twenty years before.
2,953 in the 1970s
#1,052
Thaddeus
2,906 in the 1970s
#1,053
Dominick Dominick means of the Lord, and it was given to children born on a Sunday — dies dominica is the Lord's day, and the name records the day of birth rather than a hope for the child.
2,893 in the 1970s
#1,054
Stewart
2,892 in the 1970s
#1,056
Pete Pete means rock, and it began as a joke about a man's character — Jesus renames Simon as Cephas, the Aramaic for a stone, and the pun works in Greek but not in English.
2,885 in the 1970s
#1,058
Ramiro
2,874 in the 1970s
#1,060
Wallace Wallace means foreigner, and the irony is complete — it is the Anglo-Saxon word for the Britons who were there first, so Scotland's national hero carries a name meaning outsider in his own country.
2,865 in the 1970s
#1,064
Monte
2,862 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.