1980s Baby Names

9,885 names were given to children in the United States between 1980 and 1989, 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

#1,297
Erich
2,380 in the 1980s
#1,298
Anton
2,380 in the 1980s
#1,302
Benny Benny means son of the right hand, and Jacob overruled the name at the deathbed — Rachel called the child son of my sorrow as she died, and his father renamed him on the spot.
2,360 in the 1980s
#1,303
Braden Braden means descendant of the salmon, and the fish is not decorative — the Salmon of Knowledge is the center of one of the best-known Irish stories, in which Fionn gains all wisdom by burning his thumb on it.
2,357 in the 1980s
#1,305
Jamison
2,349 in the 1980s
#1,306
Will Will means will-helmet, and the compound is stranger than it looks — the Germanic joins desire to a piece of armor, so the name reads as protection by determination.
2,349 in the 1980s
#1,310
Amos
2,321 in the 1980s
#1,313
Conrad Conrad set its American peak in the most recent year we hold, 2025, on 770 births — a name our records carry from 1880 reaching its high point a hundred and forty-five years later.
2,319 in the 1980s
#1,316
Ahmad Ahmad is a boy's name of Arabic origin meaning "most praiseworthy".
2,314 in the 1980s
#1,317
Deshawn
2,305 in the 1980s
#1,322
Quintin
2,283 in the 1980s
#1,324
Barrett Barrett is a boy's name of disputed origin.
2,276 in the 1980s
#1,326
Sherman
2,274 in the 1980s
#1,328
Jerod
2,270 in the 1980s
#1,338
Reed Reed is a boy's name of English origin meaning "red" — a nickname for someone with red hair or a ruddy complexion.
2,241 in the 1980s
#1,340
Otis Otis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "wealth" or "fortune."
2,237 in the 1980s
#1,342
Demario
2,235 in the 1980s
#1,344
Marcel Marcel is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "little warrior," a diminutive of Marcus and so ultimately from Mars.
2,226 in the 1980s
#1,345
Alton Alton means the settlement at the river's source, and that is more specific than the old town reading usually given — the Old English element is a spring or wellhead, not age.
2,226 in the 1980s
#1,349
Ignacio
2,209 in the 1980s
#1,354
Cristian Cristian drops the h from Christian, and the h was never in the Greek pronunciation anyway — it marks a letter that Latin borrowed as a digraph, so the Spanish and Romanian spelling is the plainer one.
2,202 in the 1980s
#1,357
Garret
2,197 in the 1980s
#1,359
Bryson Bryson is a boy's name of Scottish origin meaning "son of Brice."
2,194 in the 1980s
#1,366
Rigoberto
2,179 in the 1980s
#1,368
Jaron
2,175 in the 1980s
#1,374
Davon
2,144 in the 1980s
#1,380
Markus
2,136 in the 1980s
#1,383
Colt Colt is a boy's name taken from the English word for a young male horse, from the Old English colt.
2,128 in the 1980s
#1,385
Bradly
2,116 in the 1980s
#1,386
Leland Leland means fallow land — ground deliberately left unplowed for a season.
2,115 in the 1980s
#1,389
Arron
2,102 in the 1980s
#1,394
Rodrigo
2,093 in the 1980s
#1,399
Davis
2,080 in the 1980s
#1,400
Hugh Hugh is a boy's name from a Germanic word for mind or spirit, brought to Britain by the Normans.
2,080 in the 1980s
#1,405
Mauricio
2,072 in the 1980s
#1,413
Bo Bo is a boy's name of Scandinavian origin meaning "to live" or "to dwell".
2,052 in the 1980s
#1,417
Keegan Keegan descends from a pagan god, not a small flame — Aodh was the Irish deity of fire and the sun, and the diminutive gloss softens a name that originally invoked him.
2,049 in the 1980s
#1,426
Sylvester Sylvester means of the woods, and a pope carried it into the calendar — Sylvester I died on 31 December, which is why New Year's Eve is still called Silvester across much of Europe.
2,024 in the 1980s
#1,427
Royce
2,020 in the 1980s
#1,429
Ron
2,013 in the 1980s
#1,431
Joesph
2,012 in the 1980s
#1,434
Teddy Teddy is a boy's name that shortens either Edward, meaning "wealthy guardian," or Theodore, meaning "gift of God."
2,005 in the 1980s
#1,435
Winston Winston is a boy's name of English origin meaning "Wine's settlement", from an Old English personal name plus tun.
2,004 in the 1980s
#1,438
Earnest Earnest respells Ernest, and the Germanic behind it is not mild — eornost meant vigor in battle, seriousness of the deadly kind, long before it settled into the sense of being sincere.
2,000 in the 1980s
#1,441
Tom Tom is a boy's name of Aramaic origin meaning "twin," a short form of Thomas used as a full name across Europe.
1,984 in the 1980s
#1,443
Morris Morris means dark-skinned, from the Latin for a Moor — and the morris dance carries the same word, having been thought to imitate Moorish dancing when it reached England.
1,980 in the 1980s
#1,444
Nathanial
1,978 in the 1980s
#1,447
Edmund Edmund was England's patron saint before George — Edmund the Martyr, king of East Anglia, was killed by a Viking army in 869 and held that position for some three hundred years before a crusader saint displaced him.
1,975 in the 1980s

What made a 1980s name

Nothing about the sound of it. A name is on this page because children in the United States were registered with it between 1980 and 1989, and its position is simply how many. Every list of "1980s 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.