1970s Baby Names

25,022 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

#577
Vernon Vernon is a Norman place name meaning a place of alders, from a Gaulish word — so a French town gave England a surname that America turned into a first name, three languages deep.
7,812 in the 1970s
#578
Lora Lora means from Laurentum, and the laurel is one step removed — the Roman town was named for its bay trees, and the personal name says which town you came from rather than which plant crowned you.
7,781 in the 1970s
#579
Micah Micah is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "who is like Yahweh?" — a rhetorical question expecting the answer that nobody is.
7,771 in the 1970s
#580
Jennie Jennie began as a Scottish pet form of Jean and only later attached to Jennifer, which is a Cornish name with no connection to it.
7,771 in the 1970s
#581
Cheri
7,763 in the 1970s
#582
Donnie Donnie ranks 563rd in Ireland and 1,804th in the United States, so the country with a fraction of the births ranks it three times higher — a pattern we see when a name goes home.
7,741 in the 1970s
#583
Shelby Shelby is a girl's name from an English place name of Norse formation meaning a willow farm.
7,715 in the 1970s
#584
Dominic Dominic is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "of the Lord," from dominus.
7,707 in the 1970s
#585
Lydia Lydia is a girl's name meaning "woman from Lydia," an ancient kingdom in what is now western Turkey.
7,641 in the 1970s
#586
Lara Lara is a girl's name of Russian origin, a short form of Larisa, and its meaning is unresolved — most often given as "citadel," after the Greek city of Larissa.
7,617 in the 1970s
#587
Alisa
7,603 in the 1970s
#588
Lewis Lewis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior," the English form of Louis.
7,600 in the 1970s
#589
Kenya
7,562 in the 1970s
#590
Colin Colin has two entirely separate origins — a French pet form of Nicolas, and the Scottish Gaelic Cailean.
7,555 in the 1970s
#591
Damian Damian is a boy's name of Greek origin, from damao, meaning to tame or subdue.
7,424 in the 1970s
#592
Autumn Autumn is a girl's name taken from the English word for the season, which comes through French from the Latin autumnus.
7,409 in the 1970s
#593
Gail Gail is a girl's name meaning my father rejoices, clipped from Abigail.
7,374 in the 1970s
#594
Sheryl Sheryl respells Cheryl, which is itself a twentieth-century invention — it appears in American records around 1920 with no traceable parent, and the meanings offered for it were supplied afterwards.
7,368 in the 1970s
#595
Jacquelyn Jacquelyn means supplanter, and the chain is long — it is an American respelling of Jacqueline, the French feminine of Jacques, which is James, which is Jacob.
7,356 in the 1970s
#596
Devin Devin is a name from an Irish surname, and its meanings are contested — poet, and a word for a stag, are both proposed from different Irish originals.
7,341 in the 1970s
#597
Jami
7,328 in the 1970s
#598
Sergio Sergio means servant, from a Roman family name that is probably Etruscan — and Virgil gave the Sergii a Trojan ancestor, which is the Aeneid doing genealogical work for Rome's aristocracy.
7,319 in the 1970s
#599
Esther Esther is a girl's name usually connected to the Persian word for star, and possibly to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar.
7,318 in the 1970s
#600
Alberto Alberto means bright nobility, and both halves are compliments — the Germanic joins a word for noble descent to one meaning bright or famous, with nothing descriptive about the person at all.
7,308 in the 1970s
#601
Herbert Herbert is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning bright army.
7,304 in the 1970s
#602
Lynette Lynette entered English through Tennyson, who reshaped a Welsh name for the Idylls of the King — Luned became Lynette, and the spelling he used is the one that survived.
7,302 in the 1970s
#603
Nina Nina is a girl's name with several unrelated origins.
7,286 in the 1970s
#604
Erick Erick means ever-ruler, and the K-spelling is the Scandinavian one — Erik the Red named Greenland deliberately to attract settlers, which may be the earliest recorded use of a misleading brand name.
7,246 in the 1970s
#605
Grant Grant means tall or large, from a Norman French nickname — and it has nothing to do with granting or giving, which is a different word that arrived in English by a separate route.
7,242 in the 1970s
#606
Jonathon Jonathon respells Jonathan, and the original names a gift — Yahweh has given, borne in scripture by the friend whose bond with David the text describes in terms it uses nowhere else.
7,217 in the 1970s
#607
Antoinette Antoinette means little Antoine, and the meaning usually given for the parent name — flower — is a false etymology.
7,215 in the 1970s
#608
Marlon
7,187 in the 1970s
#609
Johnnie Johnnie means God is gracious, a pet form of John.
7,149 in the 1970s
#610
Julio Julio means downy-bearded, and France ranks it 517th — above the United States at 641st, which is not where a Spanish form of a Roman family name would be expected to lead.
7,142 in the 1970s
#611
Deana
7,088 in the 1970s
#612
Ivan Ivan is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious."
7,078 in the 1970s
#613
Dwight Dwight descends from Dionysus, the Greek god of wine — through the medieval woman's name Diot, a pet form of Dionysia, which is an unusually indirect route for a masculine surname.
7,064 in the 1970s
#614
Jaclyn Jaclyn compresses Jacqueline, and the name underneath means heel-grabber — Jacob was born gripping his twin's heel, and every Jack, Jacques and Jacqueline descends from that description.
7,039 in the 1970s
#615
Alexandra Alexandra is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "defender of men," and it appears as a title of the goddess Hera before it was ever a personal name.
7,027 in the 1970s
#616
Lorraine Lorraine is a girl's name from the French region, whose own name means the kingdom of Lothair — a Frankish king's realm that was carved out of Charlemagne's empire and slowly disappeared.
7,007 in the 1970s
#617
Ronda
6,972 in the 1970s
#618
Brendan Brendan is not Irish in origin — it comes from a Welsh word meaning a prince, borrowed into Irish, and its saint is credited with a transatlantic voyage six centuries before Columbus.
6,969 in the 1970s
#619
Orlando Orlando is Roland with its consonants swapped — Italian moved the r, and the hero of the Song of Roland became the hero of Orlando Furioso, the same man under a rearranged name.
6,966 in the 1970s
#620
Darrin
6,961 in the 1970s
#621
Julian Julian is a boy's name of Latin origin, derived from the Roman family name Julius.
6,957 in the 1970s
#622
Spencer Spencer is a name of Middle English origin meaning "steward" or "dispenser of provisions."
6,956 in the 1970s
#623
Demetrius
6,950 in the 1970s
#624
Noel Noel means Christmas, and its American peak was 2014 — the most recent peak of any name in this group by a wide margin.
6,942 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.