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

#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
#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 1465th.
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. Our data marks it 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
#359
Spencer Spencer is a name of Middle English origin meaning "steward" or "dispenser of provisions."
15,528 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 1285th 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
#415
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.
12,713 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.