1980s Baby Names

17,980 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

#498
Ashleigh Ashleigh peaked far higher in England than in America — 1,133 births in England and Wales in 1996 against a US high of 1,717, in a country with roughly a fifth of the population.
9,945 in the 1980s
#500
Rose Rose is a girl's name of Latin origin naming the flower, from rosa.
9,909 in the 1980s
#502
Raquel Raquel means ewe, and the animal is the point — Rachel is a shepherd in Genesis, met at a well while watering her father's flock, so the name and the story match exactly.
9,879 in the 1980s
#503
Debra Debra is a girl's name, the phonetic respelling of Deborah, from the Hebrew for bee.
9,854 in the 1980s
#504
Amelia Amelia is a girl's name most often explained as a blend of two older names: the Germanic Amalia, meaning "work" or "industrious," and the Latin Emilia, from the Roman family name Aemilius.
9,770 in the 1980s
#505
Christie Christie means a follower of the anointed one, and the anointing was a physical act — Christ translates the Hebrew mashiach, both describing oil poured over a king or priest at his installation.
9,754 in the 1980s
#508
Hillary Hillary is a girl's name meaning "cheerful" or "happy," from the Latin hilaris.
9,709 in the 1980s
#510
Sonia Sonia is not a name in its own right in Russian — it is the everyday pet form of Sofia, and it means wisdom.
9,643 in the 1980s
#512
Sheila Sheila is the Irish form of Cecilia, meaning blind — and parents outside Ireland should know it became Australian slang for a woman in the nineteenth century, which is why it barely charts there.
9,585 in the 1980s
#513
Keri
9,564 in the 1980s
#515
Shelby Shelby is a girl's name from an English place name of Norse formation meaning a willow farm.
9,494 in the 1980s
#517
Karla Karla means free man, and the Germanic word named a free peasant — so a name that now reads as aristocratic began at the bottom of the free classes and rose to name emperors.
9,449 in the 1980s
#519
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.
9,401 in the 1980s
#521
Daisy Daisy is a girl's name of English origin naming the flower, and its meaning is unusually literal: daisy comes from the Old English dægesege, "day's eye," because the flower opens its petals at dawn and closes them at dusk.
9,310 in the 1980s
#527
Shelly Shelly means a clearing on a ledge, from an English place name — and it has nothing to do with shells, which is the reading most people assume and no source supports.
9,183 in the 1980s
#530
Roxanne Roxanne means dawn or bright, and it is Persian rather than Greek — Alexander married Roxana in Bactria, and she and their son were murdered after his death.
9,078 in the 1980s
#531
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.
9,048 in the 1980s
#532
Rachelle
9,039 in the 1980s
#535
Carol Carol is a girl's name with two independent sources: a short form of Caroline, and the word for a joyful song.
8,981 in the 1980s
#537
Chelsey
8,977 in the 1980s
#539
Charlene Charlene is a girl's name meaning free man, a feminine of Charles.
8,967 in the 1980s
#540
Sierra Sierra means a mountain range, and the Spanish word is literally a saw — ranges were named for the jagged sawtooth profile they cut against the sky.
8,913 in the 1980s
#541
Esther Esther is a girl's name usually connected to the Persian word for star, and possibly to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar.
8,884 in the 1980s
#542
Jocelyn Jocelyn began as a man's name for a Germanic tribe — the Gauts — and turned female in twentieth-century America. About 90 percent of recorded births are now female.
8,877 in the 1980s
#543
Kirsten Kirsten means a follower of the anointed one, and the anointing is literal — Christ translates the Hebrew mashiach, and both words describe someone smeared with oil at a coronation rather than a divine title.
8,807 in the 1980s
#544
Aubrey Aubrey is a name of Germanic origin meaning "elf ruler."
8,802 in the 1980s
#546
Stacie Stacie means resurrection, and it is a boys' name by origin — Anastasius was masculine, and the modern name descends from it through Eustace and Anastasia alike.
8,797 in the 1980s
#550
Savannah Savannah is a girl's name of Taino origin meaning "treeless plain."
8,746 in the 1980s
#552
Lacy
8,699 in the 1980s
#553
Christa
8,682 in the 1980s
#554
Kerri
8,666 in the 1980s
#555
Frances Frances is a girl's name meaning a Frank, or a free one, and the feminine of Francis.
8,656 in the 1980s
#556
Anita Anita is a girl's name, the Spanish diminutive of Ana, meaning grace.
8,645 in the 1980s
#557
Sherry Sherry is a girl's name that appears to have been taken from the wine, whose own name is a corruption of the Spanish town Jerez.
8,641 in the 1980s
#558
Tia Tia peaked far higher in England than its population would predict — 1,050 births in England and Wales in 2004 against an American peak of 1,189, in a country with roughly a fifth of the people.
8,634 in the 1980s
#559
Rhonda Rhonda is a girl's name from a Welsh river valley, and the great spear reading usually given for it is wrong — the Rhondda is named for its own noisiness, not for a weapon.
8,608 in the 1980s
#561
Yvonne Yvonne is a girl's name from a Germanic word for the yew tree, by way of Breton.
8,569 in the 1980s
#562
Traci Traci is the most narrowly recorded name in this sweep — every one of its 52,406 births is American, it charts in no market in the current year, and its entire history runs from 1945 to a 1970 peak and down.
8,517 in the 1980s
#563
Charlotte Charlotte is a girl's name of French origin meaning "free man," the feminine form of Charles, itself from the Germanic name Karl.
8,511 in the 1980s
#564
Shauna
8,499 in the 1980s
#565
Karina Karina means pure or beloved depending on which parent it takes, and neither has a settled meaning — Catherine's Greek original was never derived, and the Latin route gives a different sense entirely.
8,486 in the 1980s
#566
Sonya Sonya means wisdom, and the Greek word behind it named a divine attribute before it named a person — Constantinople's great church was dedicated to Holy Wisdom, not to any saint called Sophia.
8,460 in the 1980s
#567
Helen Helen is a girl's name from Greek whose meaning is not settled, though torch and shining are the usual readings.
8,449 in the 1980s
#568
Hilary
8,448 in the 1980s
#571
Yesenia
8,384 in the 1980s
#572
Laurie Laurie is a name meaning laurel, and it is mixed by country — masculine in Britain as a short form of Laurence, feminine in America as a short form of Laura.
8,355 in the 1980s
#573
Annie Annie is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "grace" or "favor."
8,305 in the 1980s
#576
Johanna Johanna means God is gracious, and it heads one of the largest name families in Europe — Jane, Joan, Jean, Janet, Sinead and Siobhan are all the same name arriving by different national routes.
8,240 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.