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.
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#1,259Pauline Pauline is a girl's name from the Latin for small or humble, the feminine of Paul.2,486 in the 1980s
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#1,274Fatima Fatima is a girl's name of Arabic origin meaning "one who weans" or "one who abstains."2,444 in the 1980s
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#1,277Joaquin Joaquin is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "established by God".2,433 in the 1980s
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#1,288Sonny Sonny is a boy's name of English origin meaning exactly what it looks like — son.2,409 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 The statistics offices do not publish names given to very few children in a year, so a gap can also mean the count dropped below the threshold rather than to nothing.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.