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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#1,394Rodrigo Rodrigo is a Spanish and Portuguese boy's name meaning "famous ruler."2,093 in the 1980s
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#1,398Elsa Elsa is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath," a German short form of Elisabeth.2,083 in the 1980s
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#1,401Hugh Hugh is a boy's name from a Germanic word for mind or spirit, brought to Britain by the Normans.2,080 in the 1980s
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#1,414Bo Bo is a boy's name of Scandinavian origin meaning "to live" or "to dwell".2,052 in the 1980s
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#1,420Zoe Zoe is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "life," taken directly from the Greek word zoe.2,033 in the 1980s
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#1,421Sunny Sunny is a unisex name taken from the English word, from the Old English sunne.2,031 in the 1980s
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#1,427Royce Royce is a boy's name from an English surname meaning "son of Roy" or "son of Rose."2,020 in the 1980s
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#1,440Darla Darla is a girl's name coined in twentieth-century America from the word darling.1,996 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 The statistics offices do not publish names given to very few children in a year, so a gap can also mean the count dropped below the threshold rather than to nothing.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.