1990s Baby Names

22,091 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

#989
Mollie Mollie is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, a diminutive of Mary reached through a chain of medieval sound shifts.
4,659 in the 1990s
#991
Sheila Sheila is the Irish form of Cecilia, meaning blind — and parents outside Ireland should know it became Australian slang for a woman in the nineteenth century, which is why it barely charts there.
4,646 in the 1990s
#993
Paulina
4,639 in the 1990s
#994
Yolanda Yolanda means violet, and the flower reaches it through a chain of respellings — the Greek Iolanthe became Violante in Italian by association with viola, and Spanish then rendered that form as the Yolanda we know.
4,638 in the 1990s
#995
Moriah
4,627 in the 1990s
#996
Emilie Emilie is a girl's name, the French and Danish form of Latin Aemilia, usually given as rival.
4,624 in the 1990s
#998
Desirae
4,613 in the 1990s
#999
Perla
4,611 in the 1990s
#1,001
Casandra
4,605 in the 1990s
#1,004
Hilary
4,578 in the 1990s
#1,005
Anita Anita is a girl's name, the Spanish diminutive of Ana, meaning grace.
4,577 in the 1990s
#1,006
Kaylie
4,575 in the 1990s
#1,009
Genevieve Genevieve is a girl's name of Gaulish origin whose meaning is not settled.
4,567 in the 1990s
#1,010
Tess Tess is a girl's name of Greek origin, a short form of Theresa whose meaning has never been established despite centuries of attempts.
4,559 in the 1990s
#1,014
Stephany
4,524 in the 1990s
#1,017
Trinity Trinity means threefold, and our data pins its rise to The Matrix with unusual precision — the film opened on 31 March 1999, and American births went 557 in 1998, 1,571 in 1999 and 4,386 in 2000, a partial year followed by a full one.
4,507 in the 1990s
#1,019
Maranda
4,502 in the 1990s
#1,020
Skye Skye is a girl's name taken from the Hebridean island, whose own name is disputed between a Gaelic root meaning "winged" and a Norse one meaning "cloud."
4,495 in the 1990s
#1,022
Edith Edith is a girl's name of Old English origin meaning "prosperous in war."
4,489 in the 1990s
#1,023
Lena Lena is a girl's name used as a short form of Helena, Magdalena and Elena, so it usually carries the sense "light" or "torch."
4,484 in the 1990s
#1,026
Bonnie Bonnie is a girl's name of Scots origin meaning "pretty" or "fine."
4,452 in the 1990s
#1,027
Iesha
4,452 in the 1990s
#1,028
Yasmine Yasmine is a girl's name of Persian origin meaning "jasmine," the flower.
4,448 in the 1990s
#1,029
Fatima Fatima is a girl's name of Arabic origin meaning "one who weans" or "one who abstains."
4,446 in the 1990s
#1,030
Shana
4,431 in the 1990s
#1,031
Alisa
4,425 in the 1990s
#1,033
Beatriz
4,402 in the 1990s
#1,034
Georgia Georgia is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "farmer" or "worker of the earth," the feminine of George, from ge, earth, and ergon, work.
4,388 in the 1990s
#1,035
Laurel Laurel names the plant directly, which sets it apart from Lora and Loren on this site — those reach the laurel through a Roman town, while this one is simply the tree.
4,379 in the 1990s
#1,041
Cayla
4,359 in the 1990s
#1,042
Micaela
4,359 in the 1990s
#1,043
Dawn Dawn is a girl's name taken directly from the English word for daybreak, and it is the English counterpart of Aurora rather than a translation of it.
4,334 in the 1990s
#1,044
Antonia Antonia has no known meaning, and the flower reading given everywhere is a Renaissance invention — humanists attached the Greek anthos to a Roman family name that has never been explained.
4,321 in the 1990s
#1,045
Kacie
4,319 in the 1990s
#1,047
Kathy Kathy is a girl's name, the pet form of Katherine, and it inherits that name's genuinely unknown meaning.
4,312 in the 1990s
#1,048
Alina Alina is a girl's name with several origins. It functions as a short form of Adelina and so means "noble," from the Germanic adal; a Slavic line connects it to light or bright; and an Arabic reading gives "noble" from a different root entirely.
4,302 in the 1990s
#1,050
Bridgette
4,288 in the 1990s
#1,051
Roxanne Roxanne means dawn or bright, and it is Persian rather than Greek — Alexander married Roxana in Bactria, and she and their son were murdered after his death.
4,287 in the 1990s
#1,052
Antoinette Antoinette means little Antoine, and the meaning usually given for the parent name — flower — is a false etymology.
4,286 in the 1990s
#1,053
Heaven
4,284 in the 1990s
#1,055
Carlie
4,281 in the 1990s
#1,059
Rochelle Rochelle means little rock, and it is a place rather than a person — La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast was a Huguenot stronghold, and the name reached English through the town rather than any saint.
4,260 in the 1990s
#1,061
Suzanne Suzanne is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "lily," from shoshannah.
4,248 in the 1990s
#1,062
Alexandrea
4,243 in the 1990s
#1,066
Dorothy Dorothy is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "gift of God."
4,211 in the 1990s
#1,067
Araceli
4,209 in the 1990s
#1,068
Ava Ava is a girl's name with several proposed origins rather than one settled root.
4,207 in the 1990s
#1,071
Sally Sally is a girl's name meaning princess, a pet form of Sarah reached by medieval rhyming.
4,183 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.