1970s Baby Names

14,967 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

#113
Jill Jill is a girl's name, a medieval short form of Gillian, and it is half of the oldest surviving English nursery rhyme pair.
55,245 in the 1970s
#114
Katherine Katherine is a girl's name whose meaning is not settled.
54,251 in the 1970s
#115
Melanie Melanie is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "black" or "dark."
53,498 in the 1970s
#116
Leslie Leslie is a Scottish place name turned surname turned given name, and it has crossed sexes: about 71 percent of recorded births are female, though the name began firmly male and remains so in Britain.
52,033 in the 1970s
#119
Holly Holly is a girl's name of Old English origin taken from the tree, from holegn.
50,656 in the 1970s
#121
Erica Erica is a girl's name with two independent sources: the feminine of Eric, meaning eternal ruler, and the botanical Latin name of heather.
49,864 in the 1970s
#125
Brenda Brenda is a girl's name from an Old Norse word for a sword or a torch, and it appears to have been invented for a novel — Walter Scott used it in The Pirate in 1822, and no earlier use is recorded.
48,797 in the 1970s
#128
Sharon Sharon is a girl's name taken from a place rather than a person — the fertile coastal plain of Sharon in Israel, known from the rose of Sharon in the Song of Songs.
48,093 in the 1970s
#129
Deborah Deborah is a girl's name from the Hebrew for bee, borne by the only woman to lead Israel as a judge.
48,070 in the 1970s
#130
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.
48,044 in the 1970s
#131
Donna Donna is a girl's name from the Italian word for a lady, a title used as a name.
47,560 in the 1970s
#133
Amber Amber is a girl's name of Arabic origin meaning "ambergris."
47,220 in the 1970s
#134
Emily Emily is a girl's name of Latin origin, from the Roman family name Aemilius.
46,987 in the 1970s
#135
Linda Linda is a girl's name usually read as beautiful in Spanish or as a Germanic element meaning soft or tender.
46,124 in the 1970s
#137
Kathleen Kathleen is a girl's name anglicizing the Irish Caitlín, a form of Catherine, and it inherits that name's unknown meaning.
45,025 in the 1970s
#139
Christy Christy serves both Christine and Christopher, so it is used for both sexes — 98 percent of recorded births are female, but the masculine use remains ordinary in Ireland.
44,840 in the 1970s
#140
Kristen Kristen is a girl's name meaning a follower of Christ, and in Denmark it is a man's name — the Danish Kristen is masculine and Kirsten the feminine.
44,803 in the 1970s
#141
Catherine Catherine is a girl's name of Greek origin whose meaning is unknown — the familiar reading of pure is a later reshaping, not the original sense.
44,023 in the 1970s
#144
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.
43,042 in the 1970s
#145
Misty Misty is a word name with no older root — it is the English weather word used directly, appearing in American records only from the 1940s and peaking within a single generation.
42,512 in the 1970s
#146
Barbara Barbara is a girl's name from the Greek for foreign or strange, the feminine of the word that gives us barbarian.
42,399 in the 1970s
#147
Heidi Heidi is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble one."
42,385 in the 1970s
#148
Nancy Nancy is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "grace."
42,061 in the 1970s
#150
Cheryl Cheryl is a girl's name coined in twentieth-century America, probably by blending Cherie with Beryl.
40,532 in the 1970s
#151
Theresa Theresa is a girl's name of uncertain meaning, the German and English spelling of Teresa.
40,250 in the 1970s
#154
Alicia Alicia is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble," a Latinate form of Alice.
39,433 in the 1970s
#155
Veronica Veronica is a girl's name from a Latin phrase meaning true image, and the saint behind it was invented to explain a relic — the cloth came first, and the woman was named after it.
39,036 in the 1970s
#157
Gina Gina is not one name — it is the ending of several different ones, and which name it shortens changes the meaning entirely.
38,269 in the 1970s
#158
Jacqueline Jacqueline is a girl's name, the French feminine of Jacques, and it inherits the meaning supplanter from Jacob.
38,120 in the 1970s
#159
Rhonda Rhonda is a girl's name from a Welsh river valley, and the great spear reading usually given for it is wrong — the Rhondda is named for its own noisiness, not for a weapon.
38,100 in the 1970s
#160
Anna Anna is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "grace" or "favor," the Greek and Latin form of Hannah.
37,976 in the 1970s
#161
Renee Renee is a girl's name from the Latin for reborn, given at baptism to mark spiritual rebirth.
37,969 in the 1970s
#164
Megan Megan is a girl's name, the Welsh pet form of Margaret, from a Greek word for pearl that reached Europe from Persian.
37,491 in the 1970s
#166
Tamara Tamara means date palm, and the tree mattered more than the fruit — in the ancient Near East a date palm was a standing symbol of uprightness and fertility.
37,240 in the 1970s
#168
Melinda Melinda is an invented name rather than an inherited one — an eighteenth-century literary coinage joining the Greek word for honey to the ending of Belinda and Lucinda.
36,577 in the 1970s
#169
Kathryn Kathryn is a girl's name, the y-spelling of Katherine, and it inherits that name's unknown meaning.
36,562 in the 1970s
#174
Debra Debra is a girl's name, the phonetic respelling of Deborah, from the Hebrew for bee.
34,713 in the 1970s
#176
Allison Allison is a girl's name of Norman French origin, from Alis — the medieval form of Alice — plus a diminutive ending.
34,410 in the 1970s
#177
Sherry Sherry is a girl's name that appears to have been taken from the wine, whose own name is a corruption of the Spanish town Jerez.
34,358 in the 1970s
#178
Valerie Valerie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "strong" or "healthy," from the verb valere, meaning to be strong or to be well.
33,963 in the 1970s
#182
Diana Diana is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "divine" or "heavenly," the Roman goddess of the hunt and the moon.
33,506 in the 1970s
#184
Paula Paula is a girl's name from the Latin for small or humble, the feminine of Paul.
32,867 in the 1970s
#185
Kristina Kristina means a follower of Christ, the Scandinavian and Slavic form of Christina.
32,768 in the 1970s
#188
Ann Ann is a girl's name from the Hebrew Hannah, meaning grace or favor, and the spelling without the final e.
32,166 in the 1970s
#189
Margaret Margaret is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "pearl," from margarites.
32,067 in the 1970s
#194
Cindy Cindy is a girl's name, a pet form of Cynthia, which was a title of the moon goddess Artemis.
31,017 in the 1970s
#195
Victoria Victoria is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "victory."
31,002 in the 1970s
#199
Natalie Natalie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "birthday of the Lord," from natalis.
29,900 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.