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

#385
Autumn Autumn is a girl's name taken from the English word for the season, which comes through French from the Latin autumnus.
13,891 in the 1980s
#386
Omar Omar is a boy's name of Arabic origin meaning "flourishing" or "long-lived."
13,809 in the 1980s
#387
Nina Nina is a girl's name with several unrelated origins.
13,713 in the 1980s
#388
Janet Janet is a girl's name, a Scottish diminutive of Jane meaning God is gracious.
13,671 in the 1980s
#389
Reginald Reginald means counsel-power, and England and Wales ranks it 229th on 217 births against 1285th in the United States — one of the sharpest British-versus-American splits in this group.
13,670 in the 1980s
#390
Brad Brad means broad clearing, shortened from Bradley — and the broad element is the same word as the modern English broad, one of the few Old English place-name terms still transparent.
13,643 in the 1980s
#391
Kristine Kristine means a follower of Christ, and it is the fourth spelling of this name to appear in our gap band — after Kristin, Kristen and Kristina, all four of them American-led rather than Scandinavian.
13,628 in the 1980s
#392
Kate Kate is a girl's name of Greek origin, a short form of Katherine whose meaning has never actually been established.
13,618 in the 1980s
#393
Jacquelyn Jacquelyn means supplanter, and the chain is long — it is an American respelling of Jacqueline, the French feminine of Jacques, which is James, which is Jacob.
13,448 in the 1980s
#394
Carmen Carmen has two unrelated sources — the Latin word for a song, and a Spanish Marian title from Mount Carmel in Israel.
13,436 in the 1980s
#395
Julian Julian is a boy's name of Latin origin, derived from the Roman family name Julius.
13,410 in the 1980s
#396
Fernando Fernando means bold journey, and it is Germanic rather than Spanish — the Visigoths brought it to Iberia, where it became the royal name of Castile and Aragon and then traveled to the Americas.
13,355 in the 1980s
#397
Cara Cara is a girl's name with two independent sources: the Italian cara, meaning "dear" or "beloved," and the Irish cara, meaning "friend."
13,317 in the 1980s
#398
Sergio Sergio means servant, from a Roman family name that is probably Etruscan — and Virgil gave the Sergii a Trojan ancestor, which is the Aeneid doing genealogical work for Rome's aristocracy.
13,294 in the 1980s
#399
Darrell Darrell does not mean beloved.
13,291 in the 1980s
#400
Aimee Aimee means beloved, and it is grammatically passive — the French past participle of aimer, to love, so the name says she who is loved rather than she who loves.
13,225 in the 1980s
#401
Mandy Mandy means she who must be loved, and the grammar matters — Amanda is a Latin gerundive, a form expressing obligation, so the name is closer to an instruction than a description.
13,192 in the 1980s
#402
Martha Martha is a girl's name of Aramaic origin meaning "lady" or "mistress of the house."
13,187 in the 1980s
#403
Frederick Frederick is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "peaceful ruler."
13,182 in the 1980s
#404
Donna Donna is a girl's name from the Italian word for a lady, a title used as a name.
13,117 in the 1980s
#405
Jermaine Jermaine means brother, and it is French rather than Germanic — germain is the ordinary word for a full brother, and it has nothing to do with Germany despite appearances.
13,091 in the 1980s
#406
Suzanne Suzanne is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "lily," from shoshannah.
13,040 in the 1980s
#407
Shawna Shawna means God is gracious, and it reaches English from Hebrew through four languages — Yochanan to Greek to Latin to Irish Seán, respelled Shawn and then given an American feminine ending.
13,010 in the 1980s
#408
Haley Haley means hay meadow, from an English place name.
12,918 in the 1980s
#409
Trisha Trisha is the fourth spelling of Patricia on this site, and England now ranks it above America — 1123rd in England and Wales against 3484th in the United States, having set its English peak this year.
12,841 in the 1980s
#410
Adriana Adriana means from Hadria, a small town in northern Italy that also named the Adriatic Sea — so both the name and the sea are called after a settlement most people have never heard of.
12,804 in the 1980s
#411
Geoffrey Geoffrey means peace, and only half of it is settled — the second element is agreed, while the first is disputed between three unrelated Germanic words, so the name is half-translatable.
12,797 in the 1980s
#412
Levi Levi is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "joined" or "attached."
12,775 in the 1980s
#413
Micah Micah is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "who is like Yahweh?" — a rhetorical question expecting the answer that nobody is.
12,747 in the 1980s
#414
Kasey Kasey means vigilant, and it is one of the more evenly divided names on this site — 73 percent of the births in our records are female, against an Irish surname that was of course carried by both.
12,721 in the 1980s
#415
Terrance Terrance respells Terrence, and the name descends from a Roman playwright born enslaved in North Africa — Terence was freed by his owner and his Latin became a school text for centuries.
12,713 in the 1980s
#416
Mindy Mindy has no source of its own — it shortens Melinda, whose second half is transparent and whose first half nobody has explained, so the name inherits half a meaning.
12,685 in the 1980s
#417
Dominic Dominic is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "of the Lord," from dominus.
12,646 in the 1980s
#418
Janelle Janelle is an American elaboration rather than an inherited name — Jane with a French-looking ending attached, built in the twentieth century by the same habit that produced Danielle, Rochelle and Michelle.
12,637 in the 1980s
#419
Bianca Bianca means white, and France ranks it 242nd — ahead of Ireland at 373rd, the United States at 501st, England and Wales at 548th and Scotland at 742nd.
12,554 in the 1980s
#420
Carly Carly means free man, and the Germanic word named a free peasant rather than a lord — so a name that now reads as light and modern began at the bottom of the free classes.
12,548 in the 1980s
#421
Kaitlin Kaitlin reached English through Irish, not from it — Catherine went into Old French as Cateline, into Irish as Caitlín, and back out again respelled.
12,498 in the 1980s
#422
Noah Noah is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "rest" or "comfort," from Noach.
12,488 in the 1980s
#423
Rafael Rafael is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God heals."
12,431 in the 1980s
#424
Jerome Jerome is a boy's name meaning sacred name, and it belongs to the scholar who translated the Bible into Latin — the version Western Europe read for over a thousand years.
12,309 in the 1980s
#425
Pedro Pedro means stone, and the name records a nickname Jesus gave — Simon was renamed Cephas in Aramaic, which Greek translated as Petros, so the pun on rock survives through three languages.
12,295 in the 1980s
#426
Raul Raul means wolf counsel, and it is the same name as Ralph and Rudolph — one Norse compound that entered Spanish, English and German separately and ended up looking like three different names.
12,242 in the 1980s
#427
Toni Toni has no established meaning, because Antonia does not — the Roman family name Antonius is probably Etruscan, and the flower reading attached to Anthony is a Renaissance invention.
12,229 in the 1980s
#428
Summer Summer is a girl's name of Old English origin taken from the season, from sumor.
12,227 in the 1980s
#429
Bonnie Bonnie is a girl's name of Scots origin meaning "pretty" or "fine."
12,213 in the 1980s
#430
Eddie Eddie is a boy's name, the pet form of Edward or Edwin, meaning wealth.
12,198 in the 1980s
#431
Ronnie Ronnie is a name of Old Norse origin meaning "ruler's counsel."
12,091 in the 1980s
#432
Theodore Theodore is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "gift of God," formed from theos, meaning god, and doron, meaning gift.
12,046 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.