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

#817
Jarrett
4,955 in the 1980s
#818
Jayson
4,940 in the 1980s
#819
Tiffani
4,934 in the 1980s
#820
Bridgette
4,908 in the 1980s
#821
Judy Judy is a girl's name, the pet form of Judith, from a Hebrew word meaning a woman of Judea.
4,903 in the 1980s
#822
Emanuel Emanuel began as a sign rather than a name — Isaiah tells Ahaz that a child will be called God with us as proof of a prophecy, and the phrase became a personal name only afterward.
4,896 in the 1980s
#823
Fredrick Fredrick is an American respelling that ranks higher in England and Wales than in the United States — 934th against 1730th, which reverses the usual direction for a respelling.
4,892 in the 1980s
#824
Gustavo Gustavo has no settled meaning, and the two accounts disagree on the language — a Norse staff of the Geats, or a Slavic name reshaped by Swedish, and neither has carried the field.
4,881 in the 1980s
#825
Kurtis
4,874 in the 1980s
#826
Lakisha
4,869 in the 1980s
#827
Fred Fred is a boy's name, the short form of Frederick meaning peaceful ruler.
4,851 in the 1980s
#828
Chance Chance means a falling, and the falling was dice — the Old French cheance describes how they land, from the Latin cadere, to fall, which also gives cadence, decay and accident.
4,850 in the 1980s
#829
Esmeralda Esmeralda is not the character's name in the novel — Hugo's girl is christened Agnès and called Esmeralda for the green amulet she wears, so the name most readers know her by is a nickname.
4,845 in the 1980s
#830
Elliott Elliott is a name of Hebrew origin meaning "the Lord is my God."
4,844 in the 1980s
#831
Anastasia Anastasia is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "resurrection."
4,844 in the 1980s
#832
Jarvis
4,839 in the 1980s
#833
Tatiana Tatiana descends from a Roman family name of Sabine origin, and Shakespeare's fairy queen is a different word — Titania comes from the Titans, so the two are unrelated despite constant confusion.
4,826 in the 1980s
#834
Perry Perry means at the pear tree, from an English place name — and our data marks it reviving, at 1373rd in the United States and 1681st in England and Wales.
4,823 in the 1980s
#835
Carolina Carolina means free man, and two American states carry it — both Carolinas are named for Charles I in Latin, so a Germanic word for a peasant ended up on the map through a king.
4,821 in the 1980s
#836
Larissa
4,819 in the 1980s
#837
Alexa Alexa did not simply collapse when Amazon launched the Echo — it rose first.
4,817 in the 1980s
#838
Marlene Marlene was invented by the woman who made it famous — Marie Magdalene Dietrich contracted her own two names into one.
4,799 in the 1980s
#839
Iris Iris is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "rainbow."
4,798 in the 1980s
#840
Bobbi
4,785 in the 1980s
#841
Abel Abel is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "breath" or "vapour."
4,773 in the 1980s
#842
Genevieve Genevieve is a girl's name of Gaulish origin whose meaning is not settled.
4,764 in the 1980s
#843
Lucy Lucy is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "light," from lux.
4,751 in the 1980s
#844
Bradford
4,750 in the 1980s
#845
Josephine Josephine is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he will add," the French feminine form of Joseph.
4,746 in the 1980s
#846
Ariana Ariana is a girl's name of Greek origin, from Ariadne — the Cretan princess who gave Theseus the thread to escape the labyrinth.
4,732 in the 1980s
#847
Kim Kim is a name that arrives from three unrelated directions — an English place name, Kipling's 1901 novel, and the most common Korean surname in the world.
4,727 in the 1980s
#848
Brittani
4,727 in the 1980s
#849
Nolan Nolan is a boy's name of Irish origin, anglicized from Ó Nualláin.
4,709 in the 1980s
#850
Lloyd Lloyd is a boy's name from the Welsh word for gray, and the double L is a genuine Welsh consonant that English has no letter for.
4,643 in the 1980s
#851
Terra
4,641 in the 1980s
#852
Blanca
4,635 in the 1980s
#853
Michaela Michaela is a question, not a statement — the Hebrew behind it asks who is like God, which was a rhetorical challenge rather than a claim, and the answer it expects is nobody.
4,626 in the 1980s
#854
Julianne
4,606 in the 1980s
#855
Chantel
4,605 in the 1980s
#856
Noelle Noelle is a girl's name of French origin meaning "Christmas."
4,602 in the 1980s
#857
Donovan Donovan means dark brown, and the Irish surname behind it belonged to a king who backed the wrong side — the Uí Donnabháin lost their lands after opposing Brian Boru in the tenth century.
4,599 in the 1980s
#858
Marlon
4,588 in the 1980s
#859
Lena Lena is a girl's name used as a short form of Helena, Magdalena and Elena, so it usually carries the sense "light" or "torch."
4,583 in the 1980s
#860
Leo Leo is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "lion."
4,583 in the 1980s
#861
Josue Josue is the same name as Jesus, not merely a relative of it — both descend from the Hebrew Yehoshua, and Greek translators simply rendered it two different ways in two different books.
4,562 in the 1980s
#862
Alfonso Alfonso completes a set on this site — Alphonse in French, Alonzo in Spanish and Italian, and Alfonso the Iberian dynastic form, all descending from one Visigothic compound.
4,559 in the 1980s
#863
Bailey Bailey is a name of Old French origin meaning "bailiff" or "steward."
4,559 in the 1980s
#864
Mercedes Mercedes is a plural, and it means wages before it means mercies — the Latin merces is payment, and the Spanish title Our Lady of Mercies turned a commercial word into a devotional one.
4,556 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.