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

#309
Marie Marie is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, the French form of Mary, and the largest name in the birth records 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 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 recorded births 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 — 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 it is on record 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 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
#396
Charlene Charlene is a girl's name meaning free man, a feminine of Charles.
12,597 in the 1970s
#397
Trisha Trisha is the fourth spelling of Patricia on this site, and England now ranks it above America — 1,123rd in England and Wales against 3,484th in the United States, having set its English peak this year.
12,563 in the 1970s
#398
Charlotte Charlotte is a girl's name of French origin meaning "free man," the feminine form of Charles, itself from the Germanic name Karl.
12,534 in the 1970s
#399
Belinda Belinda is a literary invention with a snake in it — the Germanic element behind it is usually read as a serpent, and Pope's Rape of the Lock made the name fashionable in 1712.
12,515 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.