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

#193
Larry Larry is a boy's name, the short form of Lawrence, from a Roman name meaning of Laurentum.
31,562 in the 1980s
#194
Morgan Morgan is a Welsh name meaning sea-born, and it charts in all seven markets we track within a range of just over three hundred places — one of the most evenly distributed names on this site.
31,493 in the 1980s
#195
Brent Brent means burned land, from ground cleared by fire — a place name recording a specific agricultural practice rather than a hill or a holy site, which are the two readings usually offered for it.
31,491 in the 1980s
#196
Alexis Alexis is a Greek name meaning helper or defender, and it is genuinely split by country: a boys' name in France, where it ranks 256th, and majority female in the United States.
31,363 in the 1980s
#197
Seth Seth is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "appointed" or "placed," given to Adam and Eve's third son after Cain killed Abel.
31,318 in the 1980s
#198
Dennis Dennis is a boy's name that traces back to Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and ecstatic release — one of the few widely used Christian names derived from a pagan deity.
30,712 in the 1980s
#199
Susan Susan is a girl's name from a Hebrew word for lily, taken in turn from an Egyptian word for lotus.
30,706 in the 1980s
#200
Todd Todd is a boy's name from a northern English dialect word for a fox, given as a nickname to someone crafty or red-haired.
30,523 in the 1980s
#201
Margaret Margaret is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "pearl," from margarites.
30,512 in the 1980s
#202
Sandra Sandra is a girl's name that began as an Italian short form of Alessandra and became independent in the twentieth century.
30,331 in the 1980s
#203
Curtis Curtis is a boy's name from a Norman French nickname meaning courteous, and it is one of very few names that describes manners rather than birth, appearance or trade.
30,166 in the 1980s
#204
Candice Candice is not a name but a title — Kandake was the word for the queen mother of Kush, and Acts records one without naming her, so a royal office became a personal name by misreading.
29,966 in the 1980s
#205
Randy Randy is a boy's name, the short form of Randall or Randolph, meaning shield-wolf.
29,935 in the 1980s
#206
Jeffery Jeffery is a boy's name whose first element is genuinely disputed, though the second means peace.
29,792 in the 1980s
#207
Latoya Latoya is an American invention with no source language, and its 1984 peak of 5,069 births is the largest single-year figure in this group — the victory gloss offered for it is attached to a coinage.
29,658 in the 1980s
#208
Bethany Bethany is a village outside Jerusalem, and its meaning is contested — house of figs and house of the poor are both proposed.
29,435 in the 1980s
#209
Misty Misty is a word name with no older root — it is the English weather word used directly, appearing in American records only from the 1940s and peaking within a single generation.
29,214 in the 1980s
#210
Kelsey Kelsey is a girl's name from an English place name, and its two proposed meanings — ship's victory and Cenel's island — have nothing in common.
29,180 in the 1980s
#211
Jaime Jaime is 41 percent female in our records, one of the most genuinely divided names on this site — Spanish reads it as James, and English hears it as a spelling of Jamie.
29,065 in the 1980s
#212
Katrina Katrina has no securely known meaning, because Catherine does not — the Greek original has never been derived, and the pure reading was attached centuries later by a false association.
28,952 in the 1980s
#213
Jeremiah Jeremiah is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "Yahweh exalts" or "Yahweh establishes," from Yirmeyahu.
28,535 in the 1980s
#214
Jesus Jesus is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "the Lord is salvation."
27,843 in the 1980s
#215
Kara Kara means beloved, from the Italian and Latin for dear — and a separate Norse Kara exists as the name of a valkyrie, so the same spelling covers two entirely unrelated names.
27,629 in the 1980s
#216
Nichole Nichole means victory of the people, and the compound is political — the Greek joins a word for victory to one meaning the citizen body, so it describes a public triumph rather than a personal one.
27,342 in the 1980s
#217
Luke Luke is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "man from Lucania," a region of southern Italy.
27,222 in the 1980s
#218
Alison Alison means little Alice, and Alice means noble — but the Norman name behind it is a heavy compression of the Germanic Adalheidis, so the noble is all that survived of a longer compound.
27,181 in the 1980s
#219
Alan Alan is a boy's name of Breton origin whose meaning has never been established.
26,997 in the 1980s
#220
Russell Russell is a boy's name from a Norman nickname meaning little red, given to someone red-haired or ruddy.
26,866 in the 1980s
#221
Trevor Trevor is a Welsh place name meaning big settlement, and the first element is the tre that begins a great many Cornish and Welsh place names — Tregaron, Trelawney, Treharris and several hundred others besides.
26,858 in the 1980s
#222
Cameron Cameron is a name of Scottish origin meaning "crooked nose," from the Gaelic cam, crooked, and sròn, nose.
26,721 in the 1980s
#223
Mario Mario is a boy's name from a Roman family name of uncertain meaning, and the video game character was named after a real landlord — Mario Segale, who owned the warehouse Nintendo rented in Seattle.
26,707 in the 1980s
#224
Robin Robin is a name of Germanic origin meaning "bright fame."
26,526 in the 1980s
#225
Heidi Heidi is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble one."
26,500 in the 1980s
#226
Lucas Lucas is a boy's name of Latin origin, the Latin form of Luke.
26,214 in the 1980s
#227
Jerry Jerry is a name that serves as the short form of at least three unrelated names — Jeremiah from Hebrew, Gerald and Gerard from Germanic — so its meaning depends entirely on which one a family had in mind.
26,149 in the 1980s
#228
Blake Blake is a name of Old English origin with two opposite meanings.
26,145 in the 1980s
#229
Terry Terry is a name serving as a short form of Terence and of the Germanic Theodoric, two unrelated names, and it is genuinely mixed — about 18 percent of the births in our records are female.
26,108 in the 1980s
#230
Molly Molly is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, a pet form of Mary whose meaning has never been settled — the candidates are "bitter" and "beloved."
26,042 in the 1980s
#231
Tina Tina is a girl's name that serves as the tail end of several unrelated names — Christina, Martina, Valentina and Bettina — so its meaning depends entirely on which one a family had in mind.
25,957 in the 1980s
#232
Pamela Pamela is a girl's name invented by a poet: Sir Philip Sidney coined it for his Arcadia around 1580, apparently from Greek elements meaning all sweetness.
25,841 in the 1980s
#233
Miguel Miguel is a boy's name meaning who is like God, the Spanish and Portuguese form of Michael.
25,830 in the 1980s
#234
Rachael Rachael respells Rachel, meaning ewe, and the animal is the point — Rachel is a shepherd in Genesis, and Jacob works fourteen years for her, which is one of the longest courtships in scripture.
25,788 in the 1980s
#235
Carl Carl is a boy's name from the Germanic word for a free man, the same root as Charles.
25,781 in the 1980s
#236
Nancy Nancy is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "grace."
25,753 in the 1980s
#237
Jillian Jillian means youthful, and it descends from the same Roman family name as July — Julius, Julia, Jill and Jillian all come from the gens that claimed descent from Venus.
25,574 in the 1980s
#238
Devin Devin is a name from an Irish surname, and its meanings are contested — poet, and a word for a stag, are both proposed from different Irish originals.
25,525 in the 1980s
#239
Denise Denise is a girl's name, the French feminine of Denis, and like it traces to Dionysus, the Greek god of wine.
25,318 in the 1980s
#240
Candace Candace is a job title mistaken for a name — Kandake was the word for the queen mother of Kush, and Acts uses it as though it were personal, so a Sudanese royal office became an American given name.
25,268 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.