1980s Baby Names

10,009 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

#309
Mathew Mathew drops a t from Matthew, and the doubled t was never in the Hebrew — it entered through the Greek and Latin spellings, so the shorter form is arguably closer to the original.
18,725 in the 1980s
#310
Albert Albert is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble and bright."
18,634 in the 1980s
#311
Isaac Isaac is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he laughs," from Yitzhak.
18,518 in the 1980s
#315
Roger Roger is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning famous spear.
18,129 in the 1980s
#317
Rodney Rodney is a boy's name from an English place name, and its rise as a given name follows a single admiral — George Rodney, who broke the French line at the Saintes in 1782.
18,043 in the 1980s
#319
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.
17,973 in the 1980s
#320
Jon Jon is a boy's name meaning God is gracious, and it is both an English shortening of Jonathan and the standard Scandinavian and Catalan form of John — two routes to the same three letters.
17,858 in the 1980s
#321
Colin Colin has two entirely separate origins — a French pet form of Nicolas, and the Scottish Gaelic Cailean.
17,822 in the 1980s
#323
Walter Walter is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning ruler of the army.
17,718 in the 1980s
#325
Clinton Clinton means the settlement on the hill, from an English place name — and the two American presidents who carried it did so by adoption and by surname, not by descent from the place.
17,642 in the 1980s
#327
Louis Louis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior."
17,531 in the 1980s
#328
Willie Willie is a pet form of William meaning resolute protector, and one of the more mixed names on record — a quarter of the births we hold are female, which is unusual for a name read today as male.
17,350 in the 1980s
#331
Clayton Clayton means the settlement on clay, from an English place name that describes the ground it stood on.
17,041 in the 1980s
#332
Arthur Arthur is a boy's name of disputed origin.
16,951 in the 1980s
#333
Chase Chase is a boy's name of Old French origin meaning "huntsman."
16,802 in the 1980s
#336
Joe Joe is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he will add," a short form of Joseph that has become the English word for an ordinary person.
16,727 in the 1980s
#343
Jack Jack is a boy's name of English origin that began as a pet form of John, by way of the medieval nickname Jankin.
16,060 in the 1980s
#344
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.
16,014 in the 1980s
#347
Calvin Calvin is a boy's name of French origin meaning "little bald one," from the Latin calvus, bald.
15,939 in the 1980s
#350
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.
15,827 in the 1980s
#351
Ross Ross means a headland or a promontory, from Gaelic, and Scotland ranks it 328th — its strongest market, ahead of Ireland at 347th and far ahead of the United States at 1,465th.
15,816 in the 1980s
#353
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."
15,786 in the 1980s
#354
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.
15,777 in the 1980s
#357
Gerald Gerald is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning rule of the spear, and it gave Ireland one of its great Norman dynasties, the FitzGeralds.
15,644 in the 1980s
#358
Alejandro Alejandro is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "defender of mankind."
15,539 in the 1980s
#361
Logan Logan is a name of Scottish origin meaning "little hollow," from the Gaelic lag, meaning a hollow or low-lying place, with a diminutive ending.
15,332 in the 1980s
#362
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.
15,257 in the 1980s
#367
Ruben Ruben is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "behold, a son."
15,000 in the 1980s
#368
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.
14,886 in the 1980s
#372
Brendan Brendan is not Irish in origin — it comes from a Welsh word meaning a prince, borrowed into Irish, and its saint is credited with a transatlantic voyage six centuries before Columbus.
14,708 in the 1980s
#374
Javier Javier means the new house, and it is Basque rather than Spanish — Saint Francis Xavier was named for his family's castle at Xabier, so the name is a place that became a surname and then a first name.
14,618 in the 1980s
#375
Grant Grant means tall or large, from a Norman French nickname — and it has nothing to do with granting or giving, which is a different word that arrived in English by a separate route.
14,603 in the 1980s
#377
Dylan Dylan is a boy's name of Welsh origin meaning "great tide" or "sea," from the elements dy and llanw.
14,471 in the 1980s
#378
Roy Roy is a boy's name with two independent sources — the Gaelic ruadh, meaning red-haired, and the French roi, meaning king.
14,455 in the 1980s
#380
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.
14,425 in the 1980s
#383
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.
14,020 in the 1980s
#386
Omar Omar is a boy's name of Arabic origin meaning "flourishing" or "long-lived."
13,809 in the 1980s
#389
Reginald Reginald means counsel-power, and England and Wales ranks it 229th on 217 births against 1,285th in the United States — one of the sharpest British-versus-American splits in this group.
13,670 in the 1980s
#390
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.
13,643 in the 1980s
#395
Julian Julian is a boy's name of Latin origin, derived from the Roman family name Julius.
13,410 in the 1980s
#396
Fernando Fernando means bold journey, and it is Germanic rather than Spanish — the Visigoths brought it to Iberia, where it became the royal name of Castile and Aragon and then traveled to the Americas.
13,355 in the 1980s
#398
Sergio Sergio means servant, from a Roman family name that is probably Etruscan — and Virgil gave the Sergii a Trojan ancestor, which is the Aeneid doing genealogical work for Rome's aristocracy.
13,294 in the 1980s
#399
Darrell Darrell does not mean beloved.
13,291 in the 1980s
#403
Frederick Frederick is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "peaceful ruler."
13,182 in the 1980s
#405
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.
13,091 in the 1980s
#411
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.
12,797 in the 1980s
#412
Levi Levi is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "joined" or "attached."
12,775 in the 1980s
#413
Micah Micah is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "who is like Yahweh?" — a rhetorical question expecting the answer that nobody is.
12,747 in the 1980s

What Made a 1980s Name

Children in the United States were registered with it between 1980 and 1989. 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.