1990s Baby Names

13,313 names were given to children in the United States between 1990 and 1999, 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

#285
Jeremiah Jeremiah is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "Yahweh exalts" or "Yahweh establishes," from Yirmeyahu.
23,738 in the 1990s
#287
Jackson Jackson is a boy's name of English origin meaning "son of Jack."
23,680 in the 1990s
#293
Troy Troy is a boy's name with two independent sources — an Irish surname meaning foot soldier, and the ancient city.
22,991 in the 1990s
#298
Edgar Edgar is a boy's name meaning wealthy spear, and it is one of very few Old English names still in wide use.
22,356 in the 1990s
#299
Javier Javier means the new house, and it is Basque rather than Spanish — Saint Francis Xavier was named for his family's castle at Xabier, so the name is a place that became a surname and then a first name.
22,269 in the 1990s
#302
Douglas Douglas is a boy's name from the Scottish Gaelic for dark water, originally a river and then a powerful border family.
22,022 in the 1990s
#306
Clayton Clayton means the settlement on clay, from an English place name that describes the ground it stood on.
21,864 in the 1990s
#308
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.
21,488 in the 1990s
#311
Andre Andre is a boy's name, the French form of Andrew, from the Greek for manly.
21,288 in the 1990s
#312
Nicolas Nicolas is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "victory of the people."
21,262 in the 1990s
#314
Maxwell Maxwell is a boy's name of Scottish origin meaning "Mack's pool."
20,955 in the 1990s
#316
Ivan Ivan is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious."
20,665 in the 1990s
#317
Levi Levi is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "joined" or "attached."
20,519 in the 1990s
#318
Philip Philip is a boy's name from Greek elements meaning lover of horses.
20,497 in the 1990s
#320
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.
20,254 in the 1990s
#322
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.
20,180 in the 1990s
#324
Cristian Cristian drops the h from Christian, and the h was never in the Greek pronunciation anyway — it marks a letter that Latin borrowed as a digraph, so the Spanish and Romanian spelling is the plainer one.
20,099 in the 1990s
#327
Andres Andres is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "manly" or "brave."
19,793 in the 1990s
#328
Darius Darius means holding firm the good, and we know that because the king said so — the Behistun inscription has Darius the Great explain his own name and reign in three languages, carved on a cliff face.
19,770 in the 1990s
#332
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.
19,601 in the 1990s
#333
Hector Hector is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "holding fast," borne by the Trojan prince who is the most sympathetic figure in the Iliad.
19,598 in the 1990s
#339
Gary Gary is a boy's name that reached the charts by an unusually traceable route: a surname became a steel town in Indiana, the town's name was given to an actor, and the actor made it a first name.
19,266 in the 1990s
#340
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.
19,250 in the 1990s
#346
Johnny Johnny is a boy's name, the pet form of John, meaning God is gracious.
18,611 in the 1990s
#348
Max Max is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "greatest."
18,291 in the 1990s
#349
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.
18,270 in the 1990s
#350
Malik Malik means king, and the Arabic distinguishes two words a single letter apart — malik is a king, mālik an owner, and one of God's names in the Qur'an is the second rather than the first.
18,081 in the 1990s
#351
Wyatt Wyatt is a boy's name of English origin meaning "brave in war," from the medieval given name Wyot, itself from Old English elements meaning war and hardy.
17,978 in the 1990s
#352
Cesar Cesar is a boy's name from the Roman family name Caesar, whose own meaning the Romans could not agree on.
17,955 in the 1990s
#357
Edwin Edwin is a boy's name from Old English meaning rich friend, borne by a Northumbrian king whose fortress may have given Edinburgh its name.
17,587 in the 1990s
#359
Gavin Gavin is a boy's name from the Arthurian Gawain, whose meaning has never been established.
17,324 in the 1990s
#360
Preston Preston means the priest's settlement — land held by the church rather than by a lord, which is why so many English places carry the name.
17,201 in the 1990s
#363
Marco Marco means dedicated to Mars, and it has the tightest seven-market spread on this site — the United States 370th, Ireland and England both 467th, Scotland 477th, Northern Ireland 501st and France 502nd, all inside 132 places.
17,087 in the 1990s
#364
Allen Allen is a boy's name whose meaning is genuinely unknown — rock, handsome and deer have all been proposed from an unidentified Breton source.
17,045 in the 1990s
#365
Ruben Ruben is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "behold, a son."
17,025 in the 1990s
#367
Randy Randy is a boy's name, the short form of Randall or Randolph, meaning shield-wolf.
16,971 in the 1990s
#371
Calvin Calvin is a boy's name of French origin meaning "little bald one," from the Latin calvus, bald.
16,899 in the 1990s
#373
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.
16,842 in the 1990s
#375
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.
16,727 in the 1990s
#376
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.
16,645 in the 1990s
#378
Brady Brady means descendant of Brádach, an Irish byname whose own meaning is not settled — spirited, large-chested and broad-eyed are all proposed, and none is established.
16,620 in the 1990s
#382
Tony Tony is a boy's name from the Roman family name Antonius, whose meaning has never been established.
16,298 in the 1990s
#384
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.
16,237 in the 1990s
#388
Craig Craig is a boy's name from the Gaelic word for a rock or crag, and one of the few names that is a plain landscape noun rather than a compound.
16,140 in the 1990s
#390
Larry Larry is a boy's name, the short form of Lawrence, from a Roman name meaning of Laurentum.
16,000 in the 1990s
#392
Erick Erick means ever-ruler, and the K-spelling is the Scandinavian one — Erik the Red named Greenland deliberately to attract settlers, which may be the earliest recorded use of a misleading brand name.
15,828 in the 1990s
#395
Colby Colby is a boy's name of Norse origin meaning "Koli's farm," from villages in the English Danelaw.
15,471 in the 1990s
#404
Kaleb Kaleb respells Caleb, and the Hebrew reads as dog — which was not an insult but a claim of loyalty, since Caleb is one of only two spies who trusted the report on Canaan.
14,973 in the 1990s

What made a 1990s name

Nothing about the sound of it. A name is on this page because children in the United States were registered with it between 1990 and 1999, and its position is simply how many. Every list of "1990s 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.