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.
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#1,674Tucker Tucker is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "cloth fuller."1,559 in the 1980s
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#1,678Reggie Reggie is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "ruler's counsel."1,556 in the 1980s
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#1,700Cyrus Cyrus is a boy's name of Persian origin whose meaning is not settled.1,527 in the 1980s
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#1,701Liam Liam is a boy's name of Irish origin, a short form of Uilliam, the Irish version of William.1,527 in the 1980s
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#1,703Ezekiel Ezekiel is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God strengthens," from Yechezkel.1,522 in the 1980s
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#1,733Rhett Rhett is a boy's name of Dutch origin meaning "advice" or "counsel."1,477 in the 1980s
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#1,736August August is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "venerable" or "majestic," from augustus.1,468 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 The statistics offices do not publish names given to very few children in a year, so a gap can also mean the count dropped below the threshold rather than to nothing.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.