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

#577
Leticia Leticia means joy, and Napoleon's mother carried it — Letizia Ramolino outlived her son and was styled Madame Mère de l'Empereur, a title created for her alone.
8,239 in the 1980s
#578
Charity
8,228 in the 1980s
#579
Angelina Angelina means little angel, and the Greek root behind it means a messenger — the winged being is a later idea layered onto a word for someone carrying news.
8,227 in the 1980s
#580
Alissa Alissa means noble, and the flower it resembles was named for rabies — alyssum joins the Greek negative to lyssa, madness, because the plant was believed to cure the bite of a mad dog.
8,222 in the 1980s
#581
Terrell
8,169 in the 1980s
#582
Kristie
8,150 in the 1980s
#583
Dean Dean is a boy's name with two English origins.
8,139 in the 1980s
#584
Brianne
8,122 in the 1980s
#585
Marshall Marshall began as a stable hand — the word meant a horse servant, and it climbed to become the highest rank in several armies.
8,092 in the 1980s
#586
Cedric Cedric was invented by Walter Scott in Ivanhoe in 1819, and it appears to be a misspelling — he took the Anglo-Saxon Cerdic and transposed the letters.
8,071 in the 1980s
#587
Ralph Ralph is a boy's name of Norse origin meaning "wolf counsel."
8,050 in the 1980s
#588
Jade Jade is a girl's name from the gemstone, and its origin is unexpectedly medical: the Spanish called it piedra de la ijada, "stone of the flank," because it was believed to cure kidney and abdominal ailments.
8,028 in the 1980s
#589
Tamika
7,987 in the 1980s
#590
Ray Ray is a boy's name that serves as a short form of Raymond and as the English word for a beam of light.
7,947 in the 1980s
#591
Gabriela Gabriela means God is my strength, and the archangel behind it is the one who announces rather than fights — Gabriel delivers the message in both Daniel and Luke, and in Islamic tradition brings the Qur'an.
7,937 in the 1980s
#592
Alfredo Alfredo means counsel of the elves, and the elves were taken seriously — Anglo-Saxon naming treated them as beings whose advice was worth invoking, not as decoration for a children's story.
7,914 in the 1980s
#593
Eva Eva is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "life" or "living."
7,899 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
#595
Katharine Katharine is the spelling closest to the Greek, and that Greek has never been explained — the pure gloss comes from a later association with katharos, clean, applied long after the name existed.
7,871 in the 1980s
#596
Arturo Arturo means bear, probably — but Arthur is one of the unsolved names, with a Celtic word for bear and a Roman family name both proposed and neither established.
7,857 in the 1980s
#597
Terri Terri shortens Teresa, whose meaning has never been established — harvester, summer and a Greek island are all proposed and none of them is settled.
7,839 in the 1980s
#598
Miriam Miriam is the origin of Mary, Maria, Marie, Maureen, Marion and Molly — the largest name family in Europe — and it still charts in all seven markets, with its top four inside 46 places of each other.
7,793 in the 1980s
#599
Warren Warren is a boy's name from a Norman place name, and it is the second-strongest revival on record — it peaked in 1921 and now ranks 240th in the United States on 1,493 births, a century later.
7,783 in the 1980s
#600
Elise Elise is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath," a short form of Elizabeth.
7,779 in the 1980s
#601
Yvette Yvette is a girl's name from a Germanic word for the yew tree, by way of Breton.
7,764 in the 1980s
#602
Antoine Antoine is a boy's name from the Roman family name Antonius, the French form of Anthony.
7,752 in the 1980s
#603
Colby Colby is a boy's name of Norse origin meaning "Koli's farm," from villages in the English Danelaw.
7,749 in the 1980s
#604
Orlando Orlando is Roland with its consonants swapped — Italian moved the r, and the hero of the Song of Roland became the hero of Orlando Furioso, the same man under a rearranged name.
7,711 in the 1980s
#605
Enrique Enrique means ruler of the estate, and the home in it is territorial rather than domestic — the Germanic element named the land a lord held, not the house he lived in.
7,708 in the 1980s
#606
Leon Leon is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "lion."
7,700 in the 1980s
#607
Brady Brady means descendant of Brádach, an Irish byname whose own meaning is not settled — spirited, large-chested and broad-eyed are all proposed, and none is established.
7,696 in the 1980s
#608
Elijah Elijah is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "my God is Yahweh," from Eliyahu.
7,652 in the 1980s
#609
Hope Hope is a girl's name of Old English origin taken from the virtue, from hopian.
7,641 in the 1980s
#610
Carissa
7,639 in the 1980s
#611
Demetrius
7,631 in the 1980s
#612
Latisha
7,628 in the 1980s
#613
Gilbert Gilbert is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning bright pledge, and it founded the only medieval religious order native to England.
7,621 in the 1980s
#614
Branden
7,617 in the 1980s
#615
Harry Harry is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "home ruler."
7,584 in the 1980s
#616
Alvin Alvin means elf-friend, from an Old English name that treats elves as beings whose favor was worth having.
7,561 in the 1980s
#617
Elisabeth Elisabeth is a girl's name meaning God is my oath, and the s-spelling is the older one — it follows the Greek and German, while the English z is a later change.
7,532 in the 1980s
#618
Janice Janice is a girl's name usually credited to a 1899 novel, though it is on record from 1894 — five years before the book.
7,529 in the 1980s
#619
Maggie Maggie is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "pearl."
7,514 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
#621
Clint
7,510 in the 1980s
#622
Alfred Alfred is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "elf counsel."
7,509 in the 1980s
#623
Jane Jane is a girl's name from the Hebrew for God is gracious, the English feminine of John.
7,503 in the 1980s
#624
Jean Jean is a unisex name on record: the French form of John, meaning "God is gracious," and separately a Scottish feminine form of Jane.
7,475 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.