1970s Baby Names

14,880 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
#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 genuinely 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 the births in our records 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 genuinely 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
#149
Brandy Brandy is named for the drink, and the drink means burned wine — the Dutch brandewijn described wine heated to distil it, so the name records a manufacturing process rather than a quality.
40,853 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 genuinely 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
#193
Tracey Tracey is a Norman place name, not an Irish one — it comes from Tracy in Normandy, and the warrior reading widely given for it has no basis in the French original at all.
31,408 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

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.