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 unknown meaning.
22,794 in the 1970s
#260
Kerry Kerry is 53 percent female on record — 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 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 this group — 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

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.