1980s Baby Names

30,334 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

#481
Emma Emma is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "whole" or "universal," from the element ermen, found in older names such as Ermintrude.
10,443 in the 1980s
#482
Melody Melody is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "song" or "singing," from melodia.
10,433 in the 1980s
#483
Marisa Marisa is a blend rather than an inherited name — Italian joined Maria to Luisa, and the result reads as though it means sea, which it does not, since Maria's own meaning is unsettled.
10,388 in the 1980s
#484
Nicolas Nicolas is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "victory of the people."
10,345 in the 1980s
#485
Preston Preston means the priest's settlement — land held by the church rather than by a lord, which is why so many English places carry the name.
10,324 in the 1980s
#486
Glenn Glenn is a boy's name from the Gaelic word for a narrow valley, and like Craig and Dale it is a plain landscape noun.
10,305 in the 1980s
#487
Ellen Ellen is a girl's name of Greek origin, a medieval English form of Helen whose meaning has never been settled.
10,280 in the 1980s
#488
Andres Andres is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "manly" or "brave."
10,171 in the 1980s
#489
Alberto Alberto means bright nobility, and both halves are compliments — the Germanic joins a word for noble descent to one meaning bright or famous, with nothing descriptive about the person at all.
10,171 in the 1980s
#490
Shanna
10,166 in the 1980s
#491
Justine Justine means just or fair, from the Latin word behind justice — and it ranks 407th in France against 3,738th in the United States, which is one of the widest market splits anywhere in this group.
10,114 in the 1980s
#492
Britney
10,070 in the 1980s
#493
Jeanette Jeanette means God is gracious, a French double diminutive of Jeanne.
10,011 in the 1980s
#494
Shana
10,011 in the 1980s
#495
Barry Barry is a boy's name from an Irish surname generally traced to a word for a spear, though a Welsh island gives a competing route.
10,005 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
#497
Randi
9,960 in the 1980s
#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
#499
Marco Marco means dedicated to Mars, and it has the tightest seven-market spread on this site — the United States 370th, Ireland and England both 467th, Scotland 477th, Northern Ireland 501st and France 502nd, all inside 132 places.
9,921 in the 1980s
#500
Rose Rose is a girl's name of Latin origin naming the flower, from rosa.
9,909 in the 1980s
#501
Emmanuel Emmanuel is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is with us."
9,879 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
#506
Bryant Bryant means noble or high, and the t is a French accident — Norman scribes added it to the Irish Brian, so the surname carries a letter the original name never had.
9,748 in the 1980s
#507
Byron Byron means at the cattle sheds — a working place name that became shorthand for romantic poetry, which is a longer journey than most names make.
9,730 in the 1980s
#508
Hillary Hillary is a girl's name meaning "cheerful" or "happy," from the Latin hilaris.
9,709 in the 1980s
#509
Clifford Clifford is a boy's name from an English place name meaning a ford by a cliff — a river crossing below a steep bank.
9,650 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
#511
Karl Karl means free man, and it is the original German spelling behind Charles — the word named a free peasant, so it began at the bottom of the free classes and rose to name emperors.
9,622 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
#514
Melvin Melvin is a boy's name from a Scottish place name, and the gentle chieftain reading usually given for it is an invention — the source is a Norman family who took their name from Malleville in France.
9,540 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
#516
Julio Julio means downy-bearded, and France ranks it 517th — above the United States at 641st, which is not where a Spanish form of a Roman family name would be expected to lead.
9,454 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
#518
Rene Rene is a name from the Latin for reborn, given at baptism to mark spiritual rebirth.
9,416 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
#520
Ariel Ariel means lion of God, and The Little Mermaid moved it hard and briefly.
9,330 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
#522
Stanley Stanley is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "stony clearing."
9,297 in the 1980s
#523
Harold Harold is a boy's name from Norse and Old English elements meaning army ruler, and it belongs to the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, killed at Hastings in 1066.
9,277 in the 1980s
#524
Jackie Jackie is the third most evenly divided name on this site — 48.9 percent of recorded births are female, behind only Emerson and Riley among names with more than 50,000 births.
9,253 in the 1980s
#525
Cesar Cesar is a boy's name from the Roman family name Caesar, whose own meaning the Romans could not agree on.
9,245 in the 1980s
#526
Jarrod
9,229 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
#528
Dwayne Dwayne means the little dark one, from an Irish surname built on the word for black — the same root that gives Dublin its name, which means the black pool the city grew around.
9,172 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.