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

#241
Gabriel Gabriel is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my strength," from Gavri'el.
24,857 in the 1970s
#242
Wayne Wayne is an occupational surname meaning a wagon maker, and its life as a given name follows one man — John Wayne, who was born Marion Robert Morrison and renamed by a studio.
24,782 in the 1970s
#243
Sabrina Sabrina is the Latin name of the River Severn, and the legend behind it is a drowning — a princess thrown into the river became its spirit.
24,599 in the 1970s
#244
Janet Janet is a girl's name, a Scottish diminutive of Jane meaning God is gracious.
24,552 in the 1970s
#245
Jared Jared is a boy's name from Hebrew meaning descent, borne by the father of Enoch — the one man in Genesis who does not die but is taken.
24,540 in the 1970s
#246
Martin Martin is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "of Mars," borne by Saint Martin of Tours, whose cloak gave Europe the word chapel.
24,456 in the 1970s
#247
Erika Erika means ever-ruler, the feminine of Erik — and it is also the botanical name for heather, which is a separate Greek word that happens to match.
24,428 in the 1970s
#248
Katrina Katrina has no securely known meaning, because Catherine does not — the Greek original has never been derived, and the pure reading was attached centuries later by a false association.
24,363 in the 1970s
#249
Micheal Micheal is a boy's name of Hebrew origin whose full form is a rhetorical question — who is like God?
24,324 in the 1970s
#250
Jay Jay is a name serving as an initial-letter shortening for any J name, as a bird name, and as an Indian name meaning victory.
24,253 in the 1970s
#251
Luis Luis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior."
24,207 in the 1970s
#252
Colleen Colleen means girl in Irish, and it is barely used in Ireland — it is an Irish-American name rather than an Irish one.
23,845 in the 1970s
#253
Henry Henry is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "home ruler," from heim, meaning home or estate, and ric, meaning ruler or power.
23,731 in the 1970s
#254
Carol Carol is a girl's name with two independent sources: a short form of Caroline, and the word for a joyful song.
23,689 in the 1970s
#255
Julia Julia is a girl's name of Latin origin, the feminine of the Roman family name Julius.
23,537 in the 1970s
#256
Wesley Wesley is a boy's name of English origin meaning "western meadow," from the Old English west and leah.
23,506 in the 1970s
#257
Randall Randall is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning shield-wolf.
23,174 in the 1970s
#258
Jenny Jenny began as a pet form of Jane, not Jennifer — the two attached to each other only in the twentieth century, and Jennifer was almost unknown outside Cornwall before 1900.
23,016 in the 1970s
#259
Kathy Kathy is a girl's name, the pet form of Katherine, and it inherits that name's genuinely unknown meaning.
22,794 in the 1970s
#260
Kerry Kerry is 53 percent female in our records — the fourth-closest to an even split on this site, behind only Emerson, Riley and Jackie.
22,785 in the 1970s
#261
Brad Brad means broad clearing, shortened from Bradley — and the broad element is the same word as the modern English broad, one of the few Old English place-name terms still transparent.
22,737 in the 1970s
#262
Darren Darren has no established origin — it appears in twentieth-century America with no traceable parent, and the Irish and Gaelic derivations offered for it were attached after the fact.
22,725 in the 1970s
#263
Roy Roy is a boy's name with two independent sources — the Gaelic ruadh, meaning red-haired, and the French roi, meaning king.
22,524 in the 1970s
#264
Kim Kim is a name that arrives from three unrelated directions — an English place name, Kipling's 1901 novel, and the most common Korean surname in the world.
22,515 in the 1970s
#265
Felicia Felicia means lucky, and the Latin felix meant fertile before it meant fortunate — the word originally described soil and livestock that produced well, and good fortune was a later extension of it.
22,433 in the 1970s
#266
Albert Albert is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble and bright."
22,318 in the 1970s
#267
Ricky Ricky is a boy's name, the pet form of Richard or Ricardo, meaning strong ruler.
22,309 in the 1970s
#268
Arthur Arthur is a boy's name of disputed origin.
22,303 in the 1970s
#269
Lauren Lauren is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "laurel," which became a women's name because a film studio invented one.
22,207 in the 1970s
#270
Alison Alison means little Alice, and Alice means noble — but the Norman name behind it is a heavy compression of the Germanic Adalheidis, so the noble is all that survived of a longer compound.
22,198 in the 1970s
#271
Lance Lance does not mean a spear.
21,913 in the 1970s
#272
Allen Allen is a boy's name whose meaning is genuinely unknown — rock, handsome and deer have all been proposed from an unidentified Breton source.
21,819 in the 1970s
#273
Andre Andre is a boy's name, the French form of Andrew, from the Greek for manly.
21,700 in the 1970s
#274
Kelli Kelli respells Kelly, an Irish surname whose meaning is contested — bright-headed and strife are both proposed for Ó Ceallaigh, and neither has ever been established.
21,637 in the 1970s
#275
Adrian Adrian is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "from Hadria," a town in northern Italy that also gave its name to the Adriatic Sea.
21,347 in the 1970s
#276
Bruce Bruce is a boy's name from a Norman place name, and Scotland's most famous king carried it as an import — the Bruces came from Normandy, not from Scotland.
21,273 in the 1970s
#277
Mario Mario is a boy's name from a Roman family name of uncertain meaning, and the video game character was named after a real landlord — Mario Segale, who owned the warehouse Nintendo rented in Seattle.
21,249 in the 1970s
#278
Leah Leah is a girl's name of Hebrew origin whose meaning is disputed, most often given as "weary" but also linked to a word for wild cow.
21,221 in the 1970s
#279
Frederick Frederick is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "peaceful ruler."
20,915 in the 1970s
#280
Traci Traci is the most narrowly recorded name in this sweep — every one of its 52,406 births is American, it charts in no market in the current year, and its entire history runs from 1945 to a 1970 peak and down.
20,779 in the 1970s
#281
Kristine Kristine means a follower of Christ, and it is the fourth spelling of this name to appear in our gap band — after Kristin, Kristen and Kristina, all four of them American-led rather than Scandinavian.
20,596 in the 1970s
#282
Tricia Tricia and Trisha are the same name a syllable apart, and both shorten Patricia — which makes four spellings of one Latin word on this site, alongside Patty and Patti.
20,581 in the 1970s
#283
Louis Louis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior."
20,321 in the 1970s
#284
Darrell Darrell does not mean beloved.
20,289 in the 1970s
#285
Joy Joy is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning exactly what it says, taken from the English word.
20,275 in the 1970s
#286
Damon Damon means one who tames, and the story attached to it is about friendship — Damon and Pythias each offered to die in the other's place, which persuaded a tyrant to release them both.
20,252 in the 1970s
#287
Shaun Shaun spells the Irish Seán phonetically for English readers, and it is the same name as John — the Irish took it from Norman French Jehan rather than directly from Latin, which is why it sounds nothing like John.
20,118 in the 1970s
#288
Lynn Lynn is a name from a Welsh and Gaelic word for a lake or a pool below a waterfall.
19,932 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.