1990s Baby Names

22,219 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

#114
Brooke Brooke is a girl's name from the English word for a small stream.
60,825 in the 1990s
#116
Julia Julia is a girl's name of Latin origin, the feminine of the Roman family name Julius.
60,112 in the 1990s
#123
Emma Emma is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "whole" or "universal," from the element ermen, found in older names such as Ermintrude.
58,322 in the 1990s
#124
Vanessa Vanessa was invented by Jonathan Swift around 1713, built from the name of a woman he was writing to — and it later became the name of a genus of butterflies.
58,134 in the 1990s
#127
Sydney Sydney is a name from a French place name — Saint-Denis, contracted by English speakers — and the Australian city was named after a man who bore it.
56,774 in the 1990s
#130
Erica Erica is a girl's name with two independent sources: the feminine of Eric, meaning eternal ruler, and the botanical Latin name of heather.
55,950 in the 1990s
#135
Kristen Kristen is a girl's name meaning a follower of Christ, and in Denmark it is a man's name — the Danish Kristen is masculine and Kirsten the feminine.
53,413 in the 1990s
#136
Katelyn Katelyn is one of five respellings that divided the same sound in the 1990s, and Ireland ranks it 292nd — far above the United States at 1,078th, the reverse of how its sister spelling Kaitlyn behaves.
52,863 in the 1990s
#140
Marissa Marissa is usually explained as of the sea, but that reading comes from the Latin stella maris — a title of the Virgin built on a mistranslation of Miriam that scholars abandoned centuries ago.
51,314 in the 1990s
#141
Amy Amy is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "beloved," and unusually the name is a past participle — someone who has been loved rather than someone lovable.
51,282 in the 1990s
#142
Crystal Crystal is a girl's name from the Greek for ice, taken from the mineral rather than from any personal name.
51,251 in the 1990s
#144
Paige Paige is a girl's name from a medieval job title meaning a young male servant, and it reached women by way of a surname.
50,715 in the 1990s
#146
Cassandra Cassandra is a girl's name from Greek myth, borne by a prophet cursed to see the future and never be believed.
50,448 in the 1990s
#147
Gabrielle Gabrielle is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my strength," the French feminine of Gabriel.
50,049 in the 1990s
#150
Katie Katie is a girl's name of Greek origin, a diminutive of Katherine whose meaning has never been settled.
49,527 in the 1990s
#151
Lindsey Lindsey is a girl's name from a district of Lincolnshire, and it originally meant an island — Lindsey was cut off by marsh and river, so the wetland reading and the island reading describe the same place.
49,402 in the 1990s
#153
Caitlin Caitlin is a girl's name of Greek origin, the Irish form of Katherine, and its English mispronunciation generated a whole family of new names.
49,128 in the 1990s
#154
Destiny Destiny is a word name meaning a fixed future, and its root is a verb about standing firm — the Latin destinare means to make fast or fix in place, so the idea is settled rather than foreseen.
48,406 in the 1990s
#157
Kathryn Kathryn is a girl's name, the y-spelling of Katherine, and it inherits that name's unknown meaning.
47,237 in the 1990s
#160
Jacqueline Jacqueline is a girl's name, the French feminine of Jacques, and it inherits the meaning supplanter from Jacob.
46,108 in the 1990s
#161
Jenna Jenna is a girl's name that began as an elaboration of Jenny and is now used independently.
45,909 in the 1990s
#163
Angela Angela is a girl's name from the Greek for messenger, the word that also gives us angel.
45,312 in the 1990s
#165
Savannah Savannah is a girl's name of Taino origin meaning "treeless plain."
44,755 in the 1990s
#166
Mariah Mariah shows the sharpest single-artist effect on record.
44,684 in the 1990s
#169
Alexandria Alexandria is the city before it is the name — Alexander founded it in 331 BC, and the feminine given name was formed from the place rather than directly from Alexandra, which took a different route.
44,183 in the 1990s
#170
Sierra Sierra means a mountain range, and the Spanish word is literally a saw — ranges were named for the jagged sawtooth profile they cut against the sky.
43,746 in the 1990s
#171
Alicia Alicia is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble," a Latinate form of Alice.
43,592 in the 1990s
#173
Briana Briana is a feminine of Brian, and it first appears in Spenser's Faerie Queene in 1590 — which makes it one of very few names whose earliest recorded use is a specific poem.
42,904 in the 1990s
#176
Miranda Miranda was coined by Shakespeare for The Tempest around 1611, from the Latin for to be wondered at.
42,275 in the 1990s
#178
Bailey Bailey is a name of Old French origin meaning "bailiff" or "steward."
41,547 in the 1990s
#183
Catherine Catherine is a girl's name of Greek origin whose meaning is unknown — the familiar reading of pure is a later reshaping, not the original sense.
40,843 in the 1990s
#185
Brittney Brittney means from Brittany, and Brittany means from Britain — so the name records Britons who fled to France, making it a British name that came home by way of Normandy and a respelling.
40,100 in the 1990s
#186
Breanna Breanna is a feminine of Brian invented in twentieth-century America, and Brian's own meaning is not settled — high or noble is the usual reading and it has never been established.
40,056 in the 1990s
#187
Grace Grace is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "favor" or "blessing," from gratia.
39,925 in the 1990s
#189
Mackenzie Mackenzie means son of Coinneach, and the missing sound is the point — the Gaelic ends in a soft ch that English cannot spell, so the anglicized ending was written as a z that was never pronounced as one.
39,303 in the 1990s
#190
Monica Monica is a girl's name whose meaning is unknown, and whose saint — the mother of Augustine — came from Roman North Africa, so the name may be Berber rather than Latin or Greek at all.
39,060 in the 1990s
#191
Sabrina Sabrina is the Latin name of the River Severn, and the legend behind it is a drowning — a princess thrown into the river became its spirit.
38,747 in the 1990s
#195
Madeline Madeline is a girl's name meaning "of Magdala," a fishing town on the Sea of Galilee whose name comes from the Hebrew migdal, a tower.
37,004 in the 1990s
#196
Caroline Caroline is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "free man," the French feminine of Charles by way of the Latin Carolus.
36,872 in the 1990s
#199
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."
36,628 in the 1990s
#206
Erika Erika means ever-ruler, the feminine of Erik — and it is also the botanical name for heather, which is a separate Greek word that happens to match.
35,204 in the 1990s
#209
Leah Leah is a girl's name of Hebrew origin whose meaning is disputed, most often given as "weary" but also linked to a word for wild cow.
34,138 in the 1990s
#212
Diana Diana is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "divine" or "heavenly," the Roman goddess of the hunt and the moon.
33,996 in the 1990s
#216
Whitney Whitney was already climbing before Whitney Houston, and the debut album accelerated it rather than starting it — 1,632 births in 1982, 2,488 by 1984, then 4,068 in 1985 and 9,781 in 1986.
33,188 in the 1990s
#220
Cheyenne Cheyenne is not the Cheyenne people's own name for themselves — it is a Sioux word meaning red speakers, applied from outside.
32,754 in the 1990s
#222
Christine Christine is a girl's name from the Latin for a follower of Christ, the French form of Christina.
31,725 in the 1990s
#223
Lindsay Lindsay and Lindsey are the same place — a district of Lincolnshire that was effectively an island in fen.
31,594 in the 1990s
#224
Meghan Meghan means pearl, through Megan and Margaret, and the h is an American addition — Welsh spells it Megan, and the extra letter appeared in twentieth-century American use with no basis in the original.
31,528 in the 1990s

What Made a 1990s Name

Children in the United States were registered with it between 1990 and 1999. 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.