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

#865
Cornelius
4,046 in the 1970s
#866
Kimberlee
4,044 in the 1970s
#867
Karrie
4,040 in the 1970s
#868
Irma Irma means whole or complete, and it is the surviving fragment of much longer Germanic names — Irmgard and Irmintrud both begin with it, and only the first element outlasted them.
4,039 in the 1970s
#869
Randolph Randolph means shield-wolf, and the shield in it is specifically the rim — the Germanic rand names the edge of the shield rather than the whole thing, which is the part that met an enemy's blade.
4,038 in the 1970s
#870
Salvatore Salvatore means savior, and it is a title rather than a description — Italian Catholic families gave it as a devotional name naming Christ's role directly, in the way Spanish families use Jesús.
4,036 in the 1970s
#871
Gerard Gerard is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning brave with the spear.
4,031 in the 1970s
#872
Pablo Pablo is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "small" or "humble," the Spanish form of Paul.
4,020 in the 1970s
#873
Caleb Caleb is a boy's name of Hebrew origin whose root is debated.
4,012 in the 1970s
#874
Pauline Pauline is a girl's name from the Latin for small or humble, the feminine of Paul.
4,011 in the 1970s
#875
Josh Josh is a boy's name, the short form of Joshua, from a Hebrew name meaning the Lord is salvation.
4,011 in the 1970s
#876
Kendrick Kendrick is a boy's name from a surname with several origins. It may come from the Welsh Cynwrig, the Old English Cyneric, "royal power," or the Scottish MacHenry.
3,995 in the 1970s
#877
Luz
3,987 in the 1970s
#878
Sammy Sammy means God has heard, or possibly name of God — the Hebrew admits both readings, and the Bible's own explanation of Samuel uses a pun on asking that fits neither.
3,977 in the 1970s
#879
Dora Dora means gift, and it is the end of several names rather than a name in its own right — Theodora, Isidora and Dorothea all supply it, and Dorothy means the same thing with the halves reversed.
3,959 in the 1970s
#880
Claire Claire is a girl's name of French origin meaning "clear" or "bright," from the Latin clarus.
3,957 in the 1970s
#881
Timmy
3,951 in the 1970s
#882
Georgia Georgia is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "farmer" or "worker of the earth," the feminine of George, from ge, earth, and ergon, work.
3,935 in the 1970s
#883
Esmeralda Esmeralda is not the character's name in the novel — Hugo's girl is christened Agnès and called Esmeralda for the green amulet she wears, so the name most readers know her by is a nickname.
3,925 in the 1970s
#884
Harvey Harvey is a boy's name of Breton origin meaning "battle worthy."
3,920 in the 1970s
#885
Marcella Marcella means dedicated to Mars, and it is reviving — 948th in the United States, 1,386th in England and Wales, 1,507th in Canada and 6,569th in France, from a peak more than a century old.
3,907 in the 1970s
#886
Ty Ty has no source of its own — it shortens Tyler, Tyrone and Tyson, three names with nothing in common, so which one a given Ty belongs to cannot be read off the name.
3,902 in the 1970s
#887
Aubrey Aubrey is a name of Germanic origin meaning "elf ruler."
3,897 in the 1970s
#888
Dexter Dexter is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "right-handed" or "skilful."
3,895 in the 1970s
#889
Lakesha
3,893 in the 1970s
#890
Nadine Nadine looks entirely French and is Russian underneath — it is Nadezhda, the ordinary Russian word for hope, borrowed into French and given a French ending.
3,889 in the 1970s
#891
Nicolas Nicolas is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "victory of the people."
3,877 in the 1970s
#892
Malcolm Malcolm means devotee of Columba, and it is one of only two rising names in this group — 168th in Canada, 272nd in the United States, 362nd in Scotland, 539th in Ireland, 1,333rd in England and Wales and 1,629th in France, and climbing on record rather than falling.
3,876 in the 1970s
#893
Ladonna
3,867 in the 1970s
#894
Janie Janie means God is gracious, shortened from Jane — and Jane is the English feminine of John, which makes it part of the largest name family in Europe by a considerable margin.
3,855 in the 1970s
#895
Katharine Katharine is the spelling closest to the Greek, and that Greek has never been explained — the pure gloss comes from a later association with katharos, clean, applied long after the name existed.
3,848 in the 1970s
#896
Phyllis Phyllis is a girl's name from the Greek for foliage, borne by a mythological princess who was turned into an almond tree.
3,842 in the 1970s
#897
Rusty
3,841 in the 1970s
#898
Levi Levi is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "joined" or "attached."
3,840 in the 1970s
#899
Sue Sue means lily, shortened from Susan, and it is one of the steepest falls on record — from 5,306 American births in 1947 to 11, a decline by a factor of roughly 482.
3,838 in the 1970s
#900
Kisha
3,823 in the 1970s
#901
Julius Julius means downy-bearded, and the family claimed descent from Venus — the Julii traced themselves to Iulus, son of Aeneas, which is the genealogy Virgil wrote the Aeneid to dignify.
3,806 in the 1970s
#902
Dianne Dianne means divine, from the Roman goddess of the hunt — and Diana was originally a woodland deity of the Latin countryside, identified with the Greek Artemis only later and never completely.
3,803 in the 1970s
#903
Gabrielle Gabrielle is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my strength," the French feminine of Gabriel.
3,798 in the 1970s
#904
Scottie Scottie is a name meaning "a Scot," a pet form of Scott.
3,787 in the 1970s
#905
Myra Myra was invented by a poet — Fulke Greville coined it around 1580, probably by rearranging Mary, and every later meaning attached to it was supplied after the fact.
3,781 in the 1970s
#906
Bryon
3,772 in the 1970s
#907
Oliver Oliver is a boy's name that entered England with the Normans and has a disputed origin.
3,770 in the 1970s
#908
Donovan Donovan means dark brown, and the Irish surname behind it belonged to a king who backed the wrong side — the Uí Donnabháin lost their lands after opposing Brian Boru in the tenth century.
3,768 in the 1970s
#909
Wendell Wendell names a people rather than a quality — the Wends were the Slavic populations of eastern Germany, so the name records who someone's neighbors thought they were rather than anything they did.
3,740 in the 1970s
#910
Ingrid Ingrid carries a god's name — Ing, the Norse deity the Swedish kings claimed descent from, joined to a word meaning beautiful.
3,735 in the 1970s
#911
Antonia Antonia has no known meaning, and the flower reading given everywhere is a Renaissance invention — humanists attached the Greek anthos to a Roman family name that has never been explained.
3,733 in the 1970s
#912
Randi
3,724 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.