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

#302
Kari Kari descends from the same unexplained Greek root as Kaitlin in this group, but by a Scandinavian route — through Karen and Katarina rather than through Irish, and the pure gloss is equally unproven on both paths.
18,917 in the 1970s
#304
Anita Anita is a girl's name, the Spanish diminutive of Ana, meaning grace.
18,915 in the 1970s
#307
Nichole Nichole means victory of the people, and the compound is political — the Greek joins a word for victory to one meaning the citizen body, so it describes a public triumph rather than a personal one.
18,579 in the 1970s
#308
Christie Christie means a follower of the anointed one, and the anointing was a physical act — Christ translates the Hebrew mashiach, both describing oil poured over a king or priest at his installation.
18,283 in the 1970s
#309
Marie Marie is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, the French form of Mary, and the largest name in our entire dataset with more than 2.8 million births on record.
18,279 in the 1970s
#310
Connie Connie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "steadfast" or "constant."
18,197 in the 1970s
#312
Virginia Virginia is a girl's name from a Roman family name, and the American state was named before the name became common in America — both honoring Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen.
18,132 in the 1970s
#313
Martha Martha is a girl's name of Aramaic origin meaning "lady" or "mistress of the house."
18,036 in the 1970s
#314
Stacie Stacie means resurrection, and it is a boys' name by origin — Anastasius was masculine, and the modern name descends from it through Eustace and Anastasia alike.
17,936 in the 1970s
#318
Monique Monique is a girl's name, the French form of Monica, whose meaning is genuinely unknown despite the confident answers usually given for it.
17,593 in the 1970s
#319
Katie Katie is a girl's name of Greek origin, a diminutive of Katherine whose meaning has never been settled.
17,523 in the 1970s
#320
Shelley Shelley means a clearing on a ledge, and it has nothing to do with shells — the poet's surname records a patch of high ground in Suffolk or Sussex, not anything from a beach.
17,519 in the 1970s
#321
Kristie
17,404 in the 1970s
#325
Sherri Sherri looks French and is not — it respells Cherie, meaning darling, but Cherie is not a traditional French given name at all, so the name is an English invention wearing French clothes.
17,153 in the 1970s
#328
Bonnie Bonnie is a girl's name of Scots origin meaning "pretty" or "fine."
16,814 in the 1970s
#335
Mandy Mandy means she who must be loved, and the grammar matters — Amanda is a Latin gerundive, a form expressing obligation, so the name is closer to an instruction than a description.
16,306 in the 1970s
#336
Shawna Shawna means God is gracious, and it reaches English from Hebrew through four languages — Yochanan to Greek to Latin to Irish Seán, respelled Shawn and then given an American feminine ending.
16,247 in the 1970s
#338
Toni Toni has no established meaning, because Antonia does not — the Roman family name Antonius is probably Etruscan, and the flower reading attached to Anthony is a Renaissance invention.
16,175 in the 1970s
#339
Annette Annette is a girl's name meaning grace, a French diminutive of Anne.
16,119 in the 1970s
#340
Meredith Meredith is a Welsh man's name that turned female in America — 95 percent of the births in our records are female, and the Welsh Maredudd it comes from was borne by princes of Deheubarth.
16,095 in the 1970s
#341
Yvonne Yvonne is a girl's name from a Germanic word for the yew tree, by way of Breton.
16,080 in the 1970s
#343
Molly Molly is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, a pet form of Mary whose meaning has never been settled — the candidates are "bitter" and "beloved."
15,776 in the 1970s
#344
Kendra Kendra has no settled origin — a feminine of Kenneth, a Welsh compound meaning greatest champion, and an invention from Ken plus a fashionable ending are all proposed, and none is established.
15,752 in the 1970s
#346
Joanna Joanna means God is gracious, and it charts in all seven markets we track — the United States 306th, Ireland 367th, Scotland 395th, Northern Ireland 432nd, England and Wales 514th and France 721st.
15,323 in the 1970s
#347
Sonia Sonia is not a name in its own right in Russian — it is the everyday pet form of Sofia, and it means wisdom.
15,302 in the 1970s
#350
Brooke Brooke is a girl's name from the English word for a small stream.
14,982 in the 1970s
#353
Janice Janice is a girl's name usually credited to a 1899 novel, though our records carry it from 1894 — five years before the book.
14,917 in the 1970s
#354
Robyn Robyn is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "bright fame."
14,916 in the 1970s
#359
Kerri
14,569 in the 1970s
#360
Sheri Sheri means darling, and it is French by way of a misreading — English took the adjective chérie as though it were a name, which is why it has no history as one in France itself.
14,439 in the 1970s
#361
Becky Becky means to bind, shortened from Rebecca, and the Hebrew is genuinely uncertain — a knotted cord and a snare are both proposed, and the reading has never been settled.
14,351 in the 1970s
#362
Gloria Gloria is a girl's name that is simply the Latin word for glory, taken unchanged.
14,319 in the 1970s
#365
Mindy Mindy has no source of its own — it shortens Melinda, whose second half is transparent and whose first half nobody has explained, so the name inherits half a meaning.
14,061 in the 1970s
#370
Tracie
13,899 in the 1970s
#371
Angie Angie means messenger, and the Greek root behind it named someone carrying news — the wings and choirs of later Christianity all grew from an ordinary occupational word.
13,823 in the 1970s
#373
Kellie Kellie has no settled meaning — the Irish Ceallach has been read as bright-headed, as strife, and as one who frequents churches, and the three readings are not close to reconciling.
13,752 in the 1970s
#374
Claudia Claudia means lame, and it comes from one of Rome's most powerful families.
13,731 in the 1970s
#378
Ruth Ruth is a girl's name of Hebrew origin usually given as "companion" or "friend," though the derivation is not secure.
13,516 in the 1970s
#380
Wanda Wanda is a girl's name from Polish, borne by a legendary queen who drowned herself in the Vistula rather than marry a German prince.
13,326 in the 1970s
#386
Jeanette Jeanette means God is gracious, a French double diminutive of Jeanne.
13,040 in the 1970s
#387
Cathy Cathy is a girl's name, a pet form of Catherine whose meaning has never been established.
12,973 in the 1970s
#388
Adrienne Adrienne means from Hadria, an Italian town that also named the Adriatic Sea — so the name and the sea are both called after a small settlement whose own name is uncertain.
12,851 in the 1970s
#389
Beverly Beverly is a name from an English town meaning beaver stream, and it began as a boys' name before crossing decisively to girls.
12,795 in the 1970s
#390
Lindsay Lindsay and Lindsey are the same place — a district of Lincolnshire that was effectively an island in fen.
12,766 in the 1970s
#391
Rachael Rachael respells Rachel, meaning ewe, and the animal is the point — Rachel is a shepherd in Genesis, and Jacob works fourteen years for her, which is one of the longest courtships in scripture.
12,763 in the 1970s
#392
Candace Candace is a job title mistaken for a name — Kandake was the word for the queen mother of Kush, and Acts uses it as though it were personal, so a Sudanese royal office became an American given name.
12,687 in the 1970s
#393
Sylvia Sylvia is a girl's name from the Latin for a forest, and the mother of Rome's founders bore it — Rhea Silvia, who was made a Vestal Virgin so she could not produce heirs.
12,682 in the 1970s
#394
Penny Penny is a girl's name of Greek origin, a diminutive of Penelope, whose own name is bound up with a duck.
12,630 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.