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

#337
Eddie Eddie is a boy's name, the pet form of Edward or Edwin, meaning wealth.
16,200 in the 1970s
#338
Toni Toni has no established meaning, because Antonia does not — the Roman family name Antonius is probably Etruscan, and the flower reading attached to Anthony is a Renaissance invention.
16,175 in the 1970s
#339
Annette Annette is a girl's name meaning grace, a French diminutive of Anne.
16,119 in the 1970s
#340
Meredith Meredith is a Welsh man's name that turned female in America — 95 percent of recorded births are female, and the Welsh Maredudd it comes from was borne by princes of Deheubarth.
16,095 in the 1970s
#341
Yvonne Yvonne is a girl's name from a Germanic word for the yew tree, by way of Breton.
16,080 in the 1970s
#342
Leonard Leonard is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "lion-strong," and its saint is the patron of prisoners and of women in labor.
15,933 in the 1970s
#343
Molly Molly is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, a pet form of Mary whose meaning has never been settled — the candidates are "bitter" and "beloved."
15,776 in the 1970s
#344
Kendra Kendra has no settled origin — a feminine of Kenneth, a Welsh compound meaning greatest champion, and an invention from Ken plus a fashionable ending are all proposed, and none is established.
15,752 in the 1970s
#345
Maurice Maurice is a boy's name from a Latin word meaning a Moor, originally describing someone from Roman North Africa. It is reviving, and it peaked in 1920 — a century-long gap of the same kind we see in Walter and Frances.
15,485 in the 1970s
#346
Joanna Joanna means God is gracious, and it charts in all seven markets — the United States 306th, Ireland 367th, Scotland 395th, Northern Ireland 432nd, England and Wales 514th and France 721st.
15,323 in the 1970s
#347
Sonia Sonia is not a name in its own right in Russian — it is the everyday pet form of Sofia, and it means wisdom.
15,302 in the 1970s
#348
Roberto Roberto means bright fame, the Italian and Spanish form of Robert, and both halves of the compound mean roughly the same thing — which is normal in Germanic naming rather than a redundancy.
15,299 in the 1970s
#349
Jackie Jackie is the third most evenly divided name on this site — 48.9 percent of recorded births are female, behind only Emerson and Riley among names with more than 50,000 births.
15,223 in the 1970s
#350
Brooke Brooke is a girl's name from the English word for a small stream.
14,982 in the 1970s
#351
Dwayne Dwayne means the little dark one, from an Irish surname built on the word for black — the same root that gives Dublin its name, which means the black pool the city grew around.
14,949 in the 1970s
#352
Jerome Jerome is a boy's name meaning sacred name, and it belongs to the scholar who translated the Bible into Latin — the version Western Europe read for over a thousand years.
14,937 in the 1970s
#353
Janice Janice is a girl's name usually credited to a 1899 novel, though it is on record from 1894 — five years before the book.
14,917 in the 1970s
#354
Robyn Robyn is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "bright fame."
14,916 in the 1970s
#355
Marvin Marvin is a boy's name from the Welsh Merfyn, and the sea friend reading usually given for it is not supported — the Welsh elements point to marrow and eminent instead.
14,910 in the 1970s
#356
Ralph Ralph is a boy's name of Norse origin meaning "wolf counsel."
14,883 in the 1970s
#357
Francisco Francisco means Frenchman, and Saint Francis was given it as a nickname — his father traded in France and called him the little Frenchman.
14,803 in the 1970s
#358
Jorge Jorge is the Spanish and Portuguese form of George, meaning farmer.
14,785 in the 1970s
#359
Kerri
14,569 in the 1970s
#360
Sheri Sheri means darling, and it is French by way of a misreading — English took the adjective chérie as though it were a name, which is why it has no history as one in France itself.
14,439 in the 1970s
#361
Becky Becky means to bind, shortened from Rebecca, and the Hebrew is uncertain — a knotted cord and a snare are both proposed, and the reading has never been settled.
14,351 in the 1970s
#362
Gloria Gloria is a girl's name that is simply the Latin word for glory, taken unchanged.
14,319 in the 1970s
#363
Alex Alex is a name of Greek origin meaning "defender of mankind."
14,184 in the 1970s
#364
Neil Neil means champion or cloud, from Irish, and it traveled to Iceland with the Vikings and back to England with the Normans — so the English Neil arrived by way of Scandinavia and France.
14,118 in the 1970s
#365
Mindy Mindy has no source of its own — it shortens Melinda, whose second half is transparent and whose first half nobody has explained, so the name inherits half a meaning.
14,061 in the 1970s
#366
Dean Dean is a boy's name with two English origins.
14,045 in the 1970s
#367
Jermaine Jermaine means brother, and it is French rather than Germanic — germain is the ordinary word for a full brother, and it has nothing to do with Germany despite appearances.
13,994 in the 1970s
#368
Calvin Calvin is a boy's name of French origin meaning "little bald one," from the Latin calvus, bald.
13,978 in the 1970s
#369
Kristopher Kristopher means Christ-bearer, and the legend built the meaning backward — a giant who carried a child across a river turned out to be carrying Christ, which is the story explaining the name.
13,968 in the 1970s
#370
Tracie
13,899 in the 1970s
#371
Angie Angie means messenger, and the Greek root behind it named someone carrying news — the wings and choirs of later Christianity all grew from an ordinary occupational word.
13,823 in the 1970s
#372
Kelley Kelley is the same Irish name as Kellie, spelled differently, and the two split its births between them — this one peaked in 1968 and that one in 1969, a year apart at nearly the same size.
13,804 in the 1970s
#373
Kellie Kellie has no settled meaning — the Irish Ceallach has been read as bright-headed, as strife, and as one who frequents churches, and the three readings are not close to reconciling.
13,752 in the 1970s
#374
Claudia Claudia means lame, and it comes from one of Rome's most powerful families.
13,731 in the 1970s
#375
Kurt Kurt means bold counsel, shortened from Konrad — and the courteous reading commonly given is a false friend, coming from an unrelated French word that only sounds similar.
13,702 in the 1970s
#376
Ruben Ruben is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "behold, a son."
13,658 in the 1970s
#377
Theodore Theodore is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "gift of God," formed from theos, meaning god, and doron, meaning gift.
13,658 in the 1970s
#378
Ruth Ruth is a girl's name of Hebrew origin usually given as "companion" or "friend," though the derivation is not secure.
13,516 in the 1970s
#379
Edwin Edwin is a boy's name from Old English meaning rich friend, borne by a Northumbrian king whose fortress may have given Edinburgh its name.
13,457 in the 1970s
#380
Wanda Wanda is a girl's name from Polish, borne by a legendary queen who drowned herself in the Vistula rather than marry a German prince.
13,326 in the 1970s
#381
Stanley Stanley is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "stony clearing."
13,322 in the 1970s
#382
Melvin Melvin is a boy's name from a Scottish place name, and the gentle chieftain reading usually given for it is an invention — the source is a Norman family who took their name from Malleville in France.
13,304 in the 1970s
#383
Jean Jean is a unisex name on record: the French form of John, meaning "God is gracious," and separately a Scottish feminine form of Jane.
13,255 in the 1970s
#384
Mitchell Mitchell is a boy's name from a medieval English form of Michael, meaning who is like God — though a second and quite separate source exists from an old word simply meaning big.
13,125 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.