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

#721
Celeste Celeste is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "heavenly."
5,542 in the 1970s
#722
Roland Roland is a boy's name meaning famous land, and its bearer is the hero of France's national epic — a knight who dies at Roncevaux because he is too proud to blow his horn for help.
5,537 in the 1970s
#723
Preston Preston means the priest's settlement — land held by the church rather than by a lord, which is why so many English places carry the name.
5,531 in the 1970s
#724
Patrice Patrice is masculine in French and feminine in English — the same spelling, opposite sexes on either side of the Channel.
5,525 in the 1970s
#725
Darcy Darcy is a name of Norman French origin meaning "from Arcy," a place in Normandy.
5,512 in the 1970s
#726
Gregg
5,507 in the 1970s
#727
Kate Kate is a girl's name of Greek origin, a short form of Katherine whose meaning has never actually been established.
5,504 in the 1970s
#728
Tyson Tyson means son of the firebrand, and it began as an insult — the Old French tison named a hot-tempered man, so the surname records a reputation the family did not choose.
5,493 in the 1970s
#729
Perry Perry means at the pear tree, from an English place name — and our data marks it reviving, at 1373rd in the United States and 1681st in England and Wales.
5,491 in the 1970s
#730
Ted Ted is a boy's name that serves two unrelated names at once, and it exists because medieval English moved the n from "mine Edward."
5,462 in the 1970s
#731
Betsy Betsy is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath."
5,461 in the 1970s
#732
Lorenzo Lorenzo is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "from Laurentum," the Italian and Spanish form of Laurence.
5,459 in the 1970s
#733
Israel Israel means he wrestles with God, and it is a name given after a fight — Jacob receives it in Genesis having wrestled a stranger until dawn and refused to let go without a blessing.
5,448 in the 1970s
#734
Brandie
5,438 in the 1970s
#735
Annie Annie is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "grace" or "favor."
5,423 in the 1970s
#736
Leo Leo is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "lion."
5,419 in the 1970s
#737
Maribel
5,389 in the 1970s
#738
Darla Darla is a girl's name coined in twentieth-century America from the word darling.
5,387 in the 1970s
#739
Lillian Lillian is a girl's name usually explained as an elaboration of Lily, from the Latin lilium, and sometimes as a variant of Elizabeth by way of the medieval pet form Lilian.
5,379 in the 1970s
#740
Tim Tim means honoring God, and France ranks it 277th — far above the United States at 3221st, which is the reverse of what an English short form would normally do.
5,345 in the 1970s
#741
Amelia Amelia is a girl's name most often explained as a blend of two older names: the Germanic Amalia, meaning "work" or "industrious," and the Latin Emilia, from the Roman family name Aemilius.
5,326 in the 1970s
#742
Glenda Glenda is a twentieth-century Welsh invention rather than a traditional name — it joins two ordinary Welsh adjectives, and it does not appear in the historical record before about 1900.
5,324 in the 1970s
#743
Chasity
5,317 in the 1970s
#744
Lorie
5,304 in the 1970s
#745
Ethan Ethan is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "firm," "enduring," or "strong."
5,301 in the 1970s
#746
Rickey Rickey means strong ruler, and its peak is the largest in this group — 3,818 American births in 1958, against 45 in the most recent year we have.
5,301 in the 1970s
#747
Elena Elena is a girl's name of Greek origin, the Italian, Spanish, and Russian form of Helen.
5,294 in the 1970s
#748
Tabatha
5,273 in the 1970s
#749
Jocelyn Jocelyn began as a man's name for a Germanic tribe — the Gauts — and turned female in twentieth-century America. About 90 percent of the births in our records are now female.
5,247 in the 1970s
#750
Lana Lana is a girl's name with several competing origins — a Hawaiian word for calm, a Slavic short form of Svetlana, and a Hollywood invention of the 1930s.
5,235 in the 1970s
#751
Marion Marion is a French diminutive of Mary that has crossed sexes twice over — it is 81 percent female in our records, yet its most famous bearer was John Wayne, born Marion Robert Morrison.
5,226 in the 1970s
#752
Bill Bill comes from William, and the B is the point — medieval English made pet names by rhyming, which is why Will became Bill, Rob became Bob and Rick became Dick.
5,225 in the 1970s
#753
Cary
5,211 in the 1970s
#754
Salvador Salvador means savior, and it names a country and an ocean crossing — El Salvador is the only nation named directly for Christ, and San Salvador was the first island Columbus reached.
5,208 in the 1970s
#755
Johanna Johanna means God is gracious, and it heads one of the largest name families in Europe — Jane, Joan, Jean, Janet, Sinead and Siobhan are all the same name arriving by different national routes.
5,197 in the 1970s
#756
Jeannette Jeannette means God is gracious, a French double diminutive of Jeanne — and the -ette ending is doing the same work twice, since Jeanne is already a feminine of Jean.
5,196 in the 1970s
#757
Marcie
5,175 in the 1970s
#758
Abraham Abraham is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "father of many."
5,172 in the 1970s
#759
Darnell
5,172 in the 1970s
#760
Josephine Josephine is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he will add," the French feminine form of Joseph.
5,160 in the 1970s
#761
Lester Lester means from Leicester, and the spelling is the honest one — Leicester has been pronounced LES-ter for centuries, so the surname simply wrote down what people had actually been saying to each other all along.
5,156 in the 1970s
#762
Ernesto Ernesto means serious in the deadly sense — the Germanic eornost named vigor in a fight, and the modern in earnest still keeps that force, meaning for real rather than in play.
5,114 in the 1970s
#763
Hilary
5,083 in the 1970s
#764
Tisha
5,076 in the 1970s
#765
Leanne Leanne is a British and Irish name far more than an American one — England peaked at 616 births, Scotland 287 and Ireland 201, against an American high of 801 in a vastly larger population.
5,063 in the 1970s
#766
Vivian Vivian is a name of Latin origin meaning "alive" or "lively," from vivus.
5,050 in the 1970s
#767
Rudy Rudy is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous wolf."
5,011 in the 1970s
#768
Dewayne
4,967 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.