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

#196
Jodi Jodi serves Judith, Joseph and Jude at once, which is why the wider Jody family never settled on one sex — three unrelated Hebrew parents pulling in different directions.
30,682 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
#202
Brandi Brandi respells Brandy, and the drink behind it means burned wine — the Dutch brandewijn described wine heated to distill it.
29,209 in the 1970s
#203
Suzanne Suzanne is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "lily," from shoshannah.
29,135 in the 1970s
#205
Kristi Kristi is the fifth spelling of this name to appear in our gap band — after Kristin, Kristen, Kristina and Kristine, all of them American-led despite the form being Scandinavian.
29,119 in the 1970s
#207
Samantha Samantha is a girl's name of uncertain origin, first recorded in America in the eighteenth century.
29,027 in the 1970s
#208
Beth Beth is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath," a short form of Elizabeth, and the seven in the Hebrew is the same idea as the oath.
28,946 in the 1970s
#210
Courtney Courtney is a name from a Norman family whose surname is usually read as short nose, though a place-name derivation competes.
28,545 in the 1970s
#211
Regina Regina is the Latin word for a queen, taken unchanged, and it is still the legal abbreviation in British courts — every criminal case against a defendant is formally Regina versus the accused.
28,464 in the 1970s
#212
Vanessa Vanessa was invented by Jonathan Swift around 1713, built from the name of a woman he was writing to — and it later became the name of a genus of butterflies.
28,188 in the 1970s
#215
Kristy Kristy is the seventh spelling of this name family in our gap band, and the count itself is the finding — one Latin word has produced seven separate pages on this site through American respelling alone.
27,862 in the 1970s
#220
Yolanda Yolanda means violet, and the flower reaches it through a chain of respellings — the Greek Iolanthe became Violante in Italian by association with viola, and Spanish then rendered that form as the Yolanda we know.
27,187 in the 1970s
#222
Carolyn Carolyn is a girl's name, an English elaboration of Caroline meaning free man through Charles.
27,139 in the 1970s
#223
Deanna Deanna was popularized by a stage name — the actress born Edna Mae Durbin was renamed Deanna Durbin in 1936, and American births rose from almost nothing to a peak of 4,331 in 1970.
27,069 in the 1970s
#225
Carla Carla is a girl's name meaning free man, the Italian and Spanish feminine of Carlo.
26,939 in the 1970s
#229
Sheila Sheila is the Irish form of Cecilia, meaning blind — and parents outside Ireland should know it became Australian slang for a woman in the nineteenth century, which is why it barely charts there.
26,602 in the 1970s
#231
Laurie Laurie is a name meaning laurel, and it is genuinely mixed by country — masculine in Britain as a short form of Laurence, feminine in America as a short form of Laura.
26,231 in the 1970s
#233
Shelly Shelly means a clearing on a ledge, from an English place name — and it has nothing to do with shells, which is the reading most people assume and no source supports.
25,823 in the 1970s
#234
Anne Anne is a girl's name from the Hebrew Hannah, meaning favor or grace.
25,697 in the 1970s
#235
Diane Diane is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "divine" or "heavenly," the French form of the Roman goddess Diana.
25,444 in the 1970s
#237
Ashley Ashley is a name of Old English origin meaning "ash tree clearing."
25,272 in the 1970s
#243
Sabrina Sabrina is the Latin name of the River Severn, and the legend behind it is a drowning — a princess thrown into the river became its spirit.
24,599 in the 1970s
#244
Janet Janet is a girl's name, a Scottish diminutive of Jane meaning God is gracious.
24,552 in the 1970s
#247
Erika Erika means ever-ruler, the feminine of Erik — and it is also the botanical name for heather, which is a separate Greek word that happens to match.
24,428 in the 1970s
#248
Katrina Katrina has no securely known meaning, because Catherine does not — the Greek original has never been derived, and the pure reading was attached centuries later by a false association.
24,363 in the 1970s
#252
Colleen Colleen means girl in Irish, and it is barely used in Ireland — it is an Irish-American name rather than an Irish one.
23,845 in the 1970s
#254
Carol Carol is a girl's name with two independent sources: a short form of Caroline, and the word for a joyful song.
23,689 in the 1970s
#255
Julia Julia is a girl's name of Latin origin, the feminine of the Roman family name Julius.
23,537 in the 1970s
#258
Jenny Jenny began as a pet form of Jane, not Jennifer — the two attached to each other only in the twentieth century, and Jennifer was almost unknown outside Cornwall before 1900.
23,016 in the 1970s
#259
Kathy Kathy is a girl's name, the pet form of Katherine, and it inherits that name's genuinely unknown meaning.
22,794 in the 1970s
#265
Felicia Felicia means lucky, and the Latin felix meant fertile before it meant fortunate — the word originally described soil and livestock that produced well, and good fortune was a later extension of it.
22,433 in the 1970s
#269
Lauren Lauren is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "laurel," which became a women's name because a film studio invented one.
22,207 in the 1970s
#270
Alison Alison means little Alice, and Alice means noble — but the Norman name behind it is a heavy compression of the Germanic Adalheidis, so the noble is all that survived of a longer compound.
22,198 in the 1970s
#274
Kelli Kelli respells Kelly, an Irish surname whose meaning is contested — bright-headed and strife are both proposed for Ó Ceallaigh, and neither has ever been established.
21,637 in the 1970s
#278
Leah Leah is a girl's name of Hebrew origin whose meaning is disputed, most often given as "weary" but also linked to a word for wild cow.
21,221 in the 1970s
#280
Traci Traci is the most narrowly recorded name in this sweep — every one of its 52,406 births is American, it charts in no market in the current year, and its entire history runs from 1945 to a 1970 peak and down.
20,779 in the 1970s
#281
Kristine Kristine means a follower of Christ, and it is the fourth spelling of this name to appear in our gap band — after Kristin, Kristen and Kristina, all four of them American-led rather than Scandinavian.
20,596 in the 1970s
#282
Tricia Tricia and Trisha are the same name a syllable apart, and both shorten Patricia — which makes four spellings of one Latin word on this site, alongside Patty and Patti.
20,581 in the 1970s
#285
Joy Joy is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning exactly what it says, taken from the English word.
20,275 in the 1970s
#289
Krista Krista means a follower of Christ, and it is the sixth spelling of this name family to appear in our gap band — after Kristin, Kristen, Kristina, Kristine and Kristi.
19,878 in the 1970s
#290
Kara Kara means beloved, from the Italian and Latin for dear — and a separate Norse Kara exists as the name of a valkyrie, so the same spelling covers two entirely unrelated names.
19,833 in the 1970s
#291
Terri Terri shortens Teresa, whose meaning has never been established — harvester, summer and a Greek island are all proposed and none of them is settled.
19,821 in the 1970s
#292
Sonya Sonya means wisdom, and the Greek word behind it named a divine attribute before it named a person — Constantinople's great church was dedicated to Holy Wisdom, not to any saint called Sophia.
19,556 in the 1970s
#293
Aimee Aimee means beloved, and it is grammatically passive — the French past participle of aimer, to love, so the name says she who is loved rather than she who loves.
19,446 in the 1970s
#294
Natasha Natasha means born on Christmas day, and it is a Russian pet form rather than a full name — Natalya is the formal version, and Russians would not use Natasha on a document.
19,399 in the 1970s
#298
Cassandra Cassandra is a girl's name from Greek myth, borne by a prophet cursed to see the future and never be believed.
19,074 in the 1970s
#300
Bridget Bridget means exalted one, and it belonged to a goddess before a saint — Brigid was the Irish deity of poetry, smithcraft and healing, and the saint absorbed her feast, her fire and her attributes.
18,936 in the 1970s
#301
Carmen Carmen has two unrelated sources — the Latin word for a song, and a Spanish Marian title from Mount Carmel in Israel.
18,932 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.