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

#385
Howard Howard is a boy's name whose origin is genuinely contested — high guardian, brave heart and even a keeper of pigs have all been proposed.
13,102 in the 1970s
#386
Jeanette Jeanette means God is gracious, a French double diminutive of Jeanne.
13,040 in the 1970s
#387
Cathy Cathy is a girl's name, a pet form of Catherine whose meaning has never been established.
12,973 in the 1970s
#388
Adrienne Adrienne means from Hadria, an Italian town that also named the Adriatic Sea — so the name and the sea are both called after a small settlement whose own name is uncertain.
12,851 in the 1970s
#389
Beverly Beverly is a name from an English town meaning beaver stream, and it began as a boys' name before crossing decisively to girls.
12,795 in the 1970s
#390
Lindsay Lindsay and Lindsey are the same place — a district of Lincolnshire that was effectively an island in fen.
12,766 in the 1970s
#391
Rachael Rachael respells Rachel, meaning ewe, and the animal is the point — Rachel is a shepherd in Genesis, and Jacob works fourteen years for her, which is one of the longest courtships in scripture.
12,763 in the 1970s
#392
Candace Candace is a job title mistaken for a name — Kandake was the word for the queen mother of Kush, and Acts uses it as though it were personal, so a Sudanese royal office became an American given name.
12,687 in the 1970s
#393
Sylvia Sylvia is a girl's name from the Latin for a forest, and the mother of Rome's founders bore it — Rhea Silvia, who was made a Vestal Virgin so she could not produce heirs.
12,682 in the 1970s
#394
Penny Penny is a girl's name of Greek origin, a diminutive of Penelope, whose own name is bound up with a duck.
12,630 in the 1970s
#395
Jessie Jessie is a name that arrives from two unrelated directions — the Scottish pet form of Janet, and a feminine of the Hebrew Jesse.
12,602 in the 1970s
#396
Charlene Charlene is a girl's name meaning free man, a feminine of Charles.
12,597 in the 1970s
#397
Trisha Trisha is the fourth spelling of Patricia on this site, and England now ranks it above America — 1123rd in England and Wales against 3484th in the United States, having set its English peak this year.
12,563 in the 1970s
#398
Charlotte Charlotte is a girl's name of French origin meaning "free man," the feminine form of Charles, itself from the Germanic name Karl.
12,534 in the 1970s
#399
Belinda Belinda is a literary invention with a snake in it — the Germanic element behind it is usually read as a serpent, and Pope's Rape of the Lock made the name fashionable in 1712.
12,515 in the 1970s
#400
Yvette Yvette is a girl's name from a Germanic word for the yew tree, by way of Breton.
12,508 in the 1970s
#401
Candice Candice is not a name but a title — Kandake was the word for the queen mother of Kush, and Acts records one without naming her, so a royal office became a personal name by misreading.
12,505 in the 1970s
#402
Duane Duane means the little dark one, from an Irish surname built on the word for black — and that same root also gives us Dublin, which means the black pool that the city originally grew up around.
12,499 in the 1970s
#403
Trevor Trevor is a Welsh place name meaning big settlement, and the first element is the tre that begins a great many Cornish and Welsh place names — Tregaron, Trelawney, Treharris and several hundred others besides.
12,470 in the 1970s
#404
Keri
12,428 in the 1970s
#405
Rosa Rosa is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "rose."
12,401 in the 1970s
#406
Melody Melody is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "song" or "singing," from melodia.
12,345 in the 1970s
#407
Caroline Caroline is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "free man," the French feminine of Charles by way of the Latin Carolus.
12,321 in the 1970s
#408
Jeff Jeff means peace, shortened from Geoffrey — but the first element of that compound is disputed between three different Germanic words, so only the peace half of the name is actually agreed on by the sources.
12,284 in the 1970s
#409
Hector Hector is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "holding fast," borne by the Trojan prince who is the most sympathetic figure in the Iliad.
12,253 in the 1970s
#410
Geoffrey Geoffrey means peace, and only half of it is settled — the second element is agreed, while the first is disputed between three unrelated Germanic words, so the name is half-translatable.
12,223 in the 1970s
#411
Bethany Bethany is a village outside Jerusalem, and its meaning is contested — house of figs and house of the poor are both proposed.
12,210 in the 1970s
#412
Joey Joey is a name of Hebrew origin meaning "God will increase."
12,161 in the 1970s
#413
Trina
12,145 in the 1970s
#414
Terrance Terrance respells Terrence, and the name descends from a Roman playwright born enslaved in North Africa — Terence was freed by his owner and his Latin became a school text for centuries.
12,090 in the 1970s
#415
Terrence Terrence descends from a Roman playwright who was born enslaved in North Africa — Terence was freed by his owner, wrote six comedies that survive complete, and shaped Latin prose style for centuries.
12,052 in the 1970s
#416
Joyce Joyce is a girl's name that was a man's name for most of its history, from a Breton saint called Iodoc. Our data marks it stable, and its highest current rank is France at 334th — not any English-speaking market.
12,042 in the 1970s
#417
Joanne Joanne is a girl's name meaning God is gracious, one of the many feminines of John.
12,031 in the 1970s
#418
Leigh Leigh means a woodland clearing, and the same word is hiding at the end of dozens of modern names — the -leigh in Kayleigh and Ashlyn's cousins is this word, borrowed for its sound rather than its sense.
12,011 in the 1970s
#419
Tabitha Tabitha means gazelle, and it is Aramaic rather than Hebrew — one of a small set of New Testament names from the everyday language of first-century Judaea.
12,006 in the 1970s
#420
Vicki Vicki means victory, shortened from Victoria — and Victoria was a rare name in Britain before the queen, not a traditional one she happened to carry.
11,956 in the 1970s
#421
Oscar Oscar is a boy's name with two competing origins: the Irish os, deer, plus cara, friend, giving "deer lover," or the Old Norse Ásgeirr, meaning "god's spear."
11,953 in the 1970s
#422
Tamika
11,951 in the 1970s
#423
Tyler Tyler is a boy's name from a medieval trade — a man who laid roof tiles — and the leader of the Peasants' Revolt carried it as a job description.
11,875 in the 1970s
#424
Clifford Clifford is a boy's name from an English place name meaning a ford by a cliff — a river crossing below a steep bank.
11,854 in the 1970s
#425
Gretchen Gretchen means little pearl, and German uses her name for a kind of question — a Gretchenfrage is the awkward essential one you cannot dodge, after the question she puts to Faust about religion.
11,822 in the 1970s
#426
Ginger Ginger reached English from Sanskrit by way of four languages — shringavera, horn-root, named for the rhizome's antler shape, and every step of that journey is documented.
11,809 in the 1970s
#427
Betty Betty is a girl's name that began as a short form of Elizabeth and is now used in its own right.
11,770 in the 1970s
#428
Harry Harry is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "home ruler."
11,760 in the 1970s
#429
Dorothy Dorothy is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "gift of God."
11,688 in the 1970s
#430
Kirk Kirk means church, and it is Norse rather than English — the Vikings brought the word to northern England and Scotland, which is why Scots say kirk where English says church.
11,687 in the 1970s
#431
Debbie Debbie is a girl's name meaning bee, a pet form of Deborah.
11,572 in the 1970s
#432
Helen Helen is a girl's name from Greek whose meaning is not settled, though torch and shining are the usual readings.
11,541 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.