1980s Baby Names

2,576 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

#62
Kelly Kelly is a name from the Irish surname Ó Ceallaigh, borne almost entirely by men for most of its history and now 86 percent female in our data.
119,313 in the 1980s
#65
Jamie Jamie is a unisex name of Hebrew origin, a Scottish diminutive of James meaning "supplanter" or "holder of the heel."
114,968 in the 1980s
#87
Shannon Shannon is a name from Ireland's longest river, and it is 86 percent female in our records.
86,539 in the 1980s
#97
Jordan Jordan is a name from the river, whose Hebrew name Yarden means "to descend" or "flow down" — the Jordan drops sharply from its source to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on the earth's land surface.
70,959 in the 1980s
#106
Casey Casey is a name of Irish origin meaning "vigilant" or "watchful."
63,886 in the 1980s
#141
Leslie Leslie is a Scottish place name turned surname turned given name, and it has crossed sexes: about 71 percent of the births in our records are female, though the name began firmly male and remains so in Britain.
42,593 in the 1980s
#148
Dana Dana is a name with several unrelated sources — a Danish origin, a Hebrew feminine of Daniel, and an Irish mother goddess.
41,481 in the 1980s
#154
Stacy Stacy comes from Eustace or Anastasia, two unrelated names, and its meanings are correspondingly different — fruitful or resurrection.
38,518 in the 1980s
#183
Taylor Taylor is an occupational surname meaning one who cuts cloth, now used mostly for girls at 72 percent female.
33,043 in the 1980s
#186
Angel Angel is a name of Greek origin meaning "messenger," from angelos.
32,534 in the 1980s
#189
Tracy Tracy is a Norman place name that became a surname, then a boys' name, then overwhelmingly a girls' name — about 81 percent of the births in our records are female.
32,028 in the 1980s
#194
Morgan Morgan is a Welsh name meaning sea-born, and it charts in all seven markets we track within a range of just over three hundred places — one of the most evenly distributed names on this site.
31,493 in the 1980s
#196
Alexis Alexis is a Greek name meaning helper or defender, and it is genuinely split by country: a boys' name in France, where it ranks 256th, and majority female in the United States.
31,363 in the 1980s
#211
Jaime Jaime is 41 percent female in our records, one of the most genuinely divided names on this site — Spanish reads it as James, and English hears it as a spelling of Jamie.
29,065 in the 1980s
#224
Robin Robin is a name of Germanic origin meaning "bright fame."
26,526 in the 1980s
#229
Terry Terry is a name serving as a short form of Terence and of the Germanic Theodoric, two unrelated names, and it is genuinely mixed — about 18 percent of the births in our records are female.
26,108 in the 1980s
#254
Lee Lee is a name from the Old English word for a woodland clearing, and it is one of the most productive elements in English place names — the ending of Ashley, Bradley, Shirley and Beverly.
23,530 in the 1980s
#261
Jessie Jessie is a name that arrives from two unrelated directions — the Scottish pet form of Janet, and a feminine of the Hebrew Jesse.
22,527 in the 1980s
#294
Dominique Dominique is a French name meaning of the Lord, given to children born on a Sunday.
20,182 in the 1980s
#328
Willie Willie is a pet form of William meaning resolute protector, and one of the more genuinely mixed names in our records — a quarter of the births we hold are female, which is unusual for a name read today as male.
17,350 in the 1980s
#340
Drew Drew shortens Andrew, meaning manly, and there is a second unrelated Drew from a Germanic word for a ghost or phantom.
16,294 in the 1980s
#379
Devon Devon is the English county, named for the Dumnonii — a Celtic people whose own name may mean the deep ones, possibly referring to mining.
14,452 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
#414
Kasey Kasey means vigilant, and it is one of the more evenly divided names on this site — 73 percent of the births in our records are female, against an Irish surname that was of course carried by both.
12,721 in the 1980s
#433
Kerry Kerry is 53 percent female in our records — the fourth-closest to an even split on this site, behind only Emerson, Riley and Jackie.
11,999 in the 1980s
#472
Kelley Kelley is the same Irish name as Kellie, spelled differently, and the two split its births between them — this one peaked in 1968 and that one in 1969, a year apart at nearly the same size.
10,583 in the 1980s
#496
Sasha Sasha is a unisex name of Greek origin meaning "defender of men," the Russian familiar form of Alexander.
9,980 in the 1980s
#520
Ariel Ariel means lion of God, and The Little Mermaid moved it hard and briefly.
9,330 in the 1980s
#524
Jackie Jackie is the third most evenly divided name on this site — 48.9 percent of the births in our records are female, behind only Emerson and Riley among names with more than 50,000 births.
9,253 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
#534
Kendall Kendall means the valley of the River Kent, and Scotland ranks it 309th — above the United States at 329th, which is unusual for a name whose modern use is almost entirely American.
8,992 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 the births in our records are now female.
8,877 in the 1980s
#544
Aubrey Aubrey is a name of Germanic origin meaning "elf ruler."
8,802 in the 1980s
#548
Joey Joey is a name of Hebrew origin meaning "God will increase."
8,782 in the 1980s
#551
Guadalupe Guadalupe is half Arabic and half Latin — wadi, a valley or river, joined to a word for a wolf.
8,726 in the 1980s
#552
Lacy
8,699 in the 1980s
#569
Cortney
8,445 in the 1980s
#570
Jody Jody serves Judith, Joseph and Jude at once, which is why it is 64 percent female rather than resolving to one side — three unrelated parents pulling in different directions.
8,421 in the 1980s
#594
Lynn Lynn is a name from a Welsh and Gaelic word for a lake or a pool below a waterfall.
7,898 in the 1980s
#620
Sandy Sandy shortens Alexander and Alexandra, meaning defender of the people — and in Scotland it is the standard familiar form of Alexander, which is why it reads as Scottish rather than merely short.
7,513 in the 1980s
#624
Jean Jean is a unisex name in our data: the French form of John, meaning "God is gracious," and separately a Scottish feminine form of Jane.
7,475 in the 1980s
#637
Noel Noel means Christmas, and its American peak was 2014 — the most recent peak of any name in this group by a wide margin.
7,267 in the 1980s
#652
Chris Chris shortens two unrelated Greek names — Christopher, which means bearing Christ, and Christine, which means belonging to Christ.
7,103 in the 1980s
#656
Camille Camille is a unisex name of Latin origin, from a Roman word for a young attendant at religious ceremonies.
7,054 in the 1980s
#657
Bobbie Bobbie is 83 percent female in our records and England and Wales ranks it 523rd on 110 births — far above the United States at 2072nd, reversing what an American nickname-name would usually do.
7,009 in the 1980s
#669
Lesley Lesley is the Scottish spelling and Scotland proves it — a peak of 341 births there in 1974, far above what the country's size would predict against an American high of 981.
6,778 in the 1980s
#677
Dallas Dallas is the only rising name in this group — it peaked in 2015 and is still climbing, at 238th in the United States.
6,673 in the 1980s
#682
Blair Blair is a name of Scottish Gaelic origin meaning "plain" or "field."
6,588 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.