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

#289
Ricky Ricky is a boy's name, the pet form of Richard or Ricardo, meaning strong ruler.
20,397 in the 1980s
#290
Christy Christy serves both Christine and Christopher, so it is used for both sexes — 98 percent of recorded births are female, but the masculine use remains ordinary in Ireland.
20,350 in the 1980s
#291
Francisco Francisco means Frenchman, and Saint Francis was given it as a nickname — his father traded in France and called him the little Frenchman.
20,293 in the 1980s
#292
Kristopher Kristopher means Christ-bearer, and the legend built the meaning backward — a giant who carried a child across a river turned out to be carrying Christ, which is the story explaining the name.
20,229 in the 1980s
#293
Danny Danny is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my judge," a diminutive of Daniel.
20,196 in the 1980s
#294
Dominique Dominique is a French name meaning of the Lord, given to children born on a Sunday.
20,182 in the 1980s
#295
Manuel Manuel is a boy's name meaning God is with us, the Spanish short form of Emmanuel.
20,180 in the 1980s
#296
Jenny Jenny began as a pet form of Jane, not Jennifer — the two attached to each other only in the twentieth century, and Jennifer was almost unknown outside Cornwall before 1900.
19,851 in the 1980s
#297
Lawrence Lawrence is a boy's name meaning from Laurentum, an ancient Italian town linked to the laurel.
19,815 in the 1980s
#298
Jonathon Jonathon respells Jonathan, and the original names a gift — Yahweh has given, borne in scripture by the friend whose bond with David the text describes in terms it uses nowhere else.
19,711 in the 1980s
#299
Jimmy Jimmy is a boy's name, the pet form of James, meaning supplanter.
19,711 in the 1980s
#300
Randall Randall is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning shield-wolf.
19,675 in the 1980s
#301
Tabitha Tabitha means gazelle, and it is Aramaic rather than Hebrew — one of a small set of New Testament names from the everyday language of first-century Judaea.
19,660 in the 1980s
#302
Lance Lance does not mean a spear.
19,573 in the 1980s
#303
Colleen Colleen means girl in Irish, and it is barely used in Ireland — it is an Irish-American name rather than an Irish one.
19,562 in the 1980s
#304
Meredith Meredith is a Welsh man's name that turned female in America — 95 percent of recorded births are female, and the Welsh Maredudd it comes from was borne by princes of Deheubarth.
19,392 in the 1980s
#305
Barbara Barbara is a girl's name from the Greek for foreign or strange, the feminine of the word that gives us barbarian.
19,252 in the 1980s
#306
Angelica Angelica is both a name and a plant, and the plant is named for the angel — a medieval legend has one reveal it as a cure during plague, which is why it was grown in monastery gardens.
19,234 in the 1980s
#307
Micheal Micheal is a boy's name of Hebrew origin whose full form is a rhetorical question — who is like God?
19,108 in the 1980s
#308
Carolyn Carolyn is a girl's name, an English elaboration of Caroline meaning free man through Charles.
18,729 in the 1980s
#309
Mathew Mathew drops a t from Matthew, and the doubled t was never in the Hebrew — it entered through the Greek and Latin spellings, so the shorter form is arguably closer to the original.
18,725 in the 1980s
#310
Albert Albert is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble and bright."
18,634 in the 1980s
#311
Isaac Isaac is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he laughs," from Yitzhak.
18,518 in the 1980s
#312
Ebony Ebony reached English from ancient Egyptian, which makes it one of the oldest borrowings in the language — hbny passed into Greek and Latin with the timber itself, and English kept both the wood and the word.
18,464 in the 1980s
#313
Rebekah Rebekah is the spelling the King James Bible uses for the Old Testament, while the New Testament in the same book uses Rebecca — one translation, two spellings, and English inherited both.
18,402 in the 1980s
#314
Deanna Deanna was popularized by a stage name — the actress born Edna Mae Durbin was renamed Deanna Durbin in 1936, and American births rose from almost nothing to a peak of 4,331 in 1970.
18,209 in the 1980s
#315
Roger Roger is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning famous spear.
18,129 in the 1980s
#316
Tonya Tonya is a short form of Antonia, and its meaning is unknown — the Roman family name Antonius has no established derivation, and the flower reading widely given for it is a Renaissance invention.
18,044 in the 1980s
#317
Rodney Rodney is a boy's name from an English place name, and its rise as a given name follows a single admiral — George Rodney, who broke the French line at the Saintes in 1782.
18,043 in the 1980s
#318
Caroline Caroline is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "free man," the French feminine of Charles by way of the Latin Carolus.
18,033 in the 1980s
#319
Roberto Roberto means bright fame, the Italian and Spanish form of Robert, and both halves of the compound mean roughly the same thing — which is normal in Germanic naming rather than a redundancy.
17,973 in the 1980s
#320
Jon Jon is a boy's name meaning God is gracious, and it is both an English shortening of Jonathan and the standard Scandinavian and Catalan form of John — two routes to the same three letters.
17,858 in the 1980s
#321
Colin Colin has two entirely separate origins — a French pet form of Nicolas, and the Scottish Gaelic Cailean.
17,822 in the 1980s
#322
Kristi Kristi is the fifth spelling of this name to appear in this group — after Kristin, Kristen, Kristina and Kristine, all of them American-led despite the form being Scandinavian.
17,749 in the 1980s
#323
Walter Walter is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning ruler of the army.
17,718 in the 1980s
#324
Kari Kari descends from the same unexplained Greek root as Kaitlin in this group, but by a Scandinavian route — through Karen and Katarina rather than through Irish, and the pure gloss is equally unproven on both paths.
17,681 in the 1980s
#325
Clinton Clinton means the settlement on the hill, from an English place name — and the two American presidents who carried it did so by adoption and by surname, not by descent from the place.
17,642 in the 1980s
#326
Michele Michele is a girl's name, the single-l spelling of Michelle, from a Hebrew question meaning who is like God.
17,636 in the 1980s
#327
Louis Louis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior."
17,531 in the 1980s
#328
Willie Willie is a pet form of William meaning resolute protector, and one of the more mixed names on record — a quarter of the births we hold are female, which is unusual for a name read today as male.
17,350 in the 1980s
#329
Brianna Brianna is a girl's name, the feminine of Brian, whose Irish meaning has never been securely established.
17,172 in the 1980s
#330
Bridget Bridget means exalted one, and it belonged to a goddess before a saint — Brigid was the Irish deity of poetry, smithcraft and healing, and the saint absorbed her feast, her fire and her attributes.
17,160 in the 1980s
#331
Clayton Clayton means the settlement on clay, from an English place name that describes the ground it stood on.
17,041 in the 1980s
#332
Arthur Arthur is a boy's name of disputed origin.
16,951 in the 1980s
#333
Chase Chase is a boy's name of Old French origin meaning "huntsman."
16,802 in the 1980s
#334
Sharon Sharon is a girl's name taken from a place rather than a person — the fertile coastal plain of Sharon in Israel, known from the rose of Sharon in the Song of Songs.
16,780 in the 1980s
#335
Marie Marie is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, the French form of Mary, and the largest name in the birth records with more than 2.8 million births on record.
16,737 in the 1980s
#336
Joe Joe is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he will add," a short form of Joseph that has become the English word for an ordinary person.
16,727 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.