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.
-
#1,492Isaiah Isaiah is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "Yahweh is salvation," from Yesha'yahu.1,583 in the 1970s
-
#1,502Alexa Alexa did not simply collapse when Amazon launched the Echo — it rose first.1,564 in the 1970s
-
#1,515Maxine Maxine is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "greatest," a feminine form of Maximus.1,541 in the 1970s
-
#1,527Rhett Rhett is a boy's name of Dutch origin meaning "advice" or "counsel."1,521 in the 1970s
-
#1,528Hazel Hazel is a girl's name of English origin naming the hazel tree, from the Old English hæsel.1,513 in the 1970s
-
#1,530Pearl Pearl is a girl's name taken from the gem, and it charts in all seven markets we track.1,505 in the 1970s
-
#1,533Giovanni Giovanni is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious," the Italian form of John.1,501 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 The statistics offices do not publish names given to very few children in a year, so a gap can also mean the count dropped below the threshold rather than to nothing.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.