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

#225
Cynthia Cynthia is a girl's name that began as a title for the moon goddess — it means she of Mount Cynthus, the peak on Delos where Artemis was said to have been born.
31,471 in the 1990s
#226
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.
31,426 in the 1990s
#227
Margaret Margaret is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "pearl," from margarites.
31,360 in the 1990s
#228
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.
30,852 in the 1990s
#230
Alexa Alexa did not simply collapse when Amazon launched the Echo — it rose first.
30,368 in the 1990s
#231
Hailey Hailey is a girl's name of English origin meaning "hay clearing," from the Old English heg, hay, and leah, a woodland clearing.
30,362 in the 1990s
#232
Veronica Veronica is a girl's name from a Latin phrase meaning true image, and the saint behind it was invented to explain a relic — the cloth came first, and the woman was named after it.
29,963 in the 1990s
#234
Melanie Melanie is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "black" or "dark."
29,444 in the 1990s
#239
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.
28,634 in the 1990s
#244
Autumn Autumn is a girl's name taken from the English word for the season, which comes through French from the Latin autumnus.
28,193 in the 1990s
#247
Kristin Kristin is a girl's name meaning a follower of Christ, and it is the smaller of a pair — Kristen holds 222,720 recorded births to its 181,344, and both charted only ever in America.
27,976 in the 1990s
#248
Bethany Bethany is a village outside Jerusalem, and its meaning is contested — house of figs and house of the poor are both proposed.
27,790 in the 1990s
#250
Lisa Lisa is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath," a short form of Elisabeth that became a name in its own right.
27,499 in the 1990s
#253
Kristina Kristina means a follower of Christ, the Scandinavian and Slavic form of Christina.
27,275 in the 1990s
#255
Holly Holly is a girl's name of Old English origin taken from the tree, from holegn.
27,115 in the 1990s
#260
Chloe Chloe is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "green shoot" or "young growth," referring to the first green of new crops.
25,878 in the 1990s
#262
April April is a girl's name taken from the month, whose Latin name probably means to open — the month when buds open.
25,833 in the 1990s
#263
Julie Julie is a girl's name, the French form of Julia, from a Roman family name of uncertain origin.
25,507 in the 1990s
#266
Claire Claire is a girl's name of French origin meaning "clear" or "bright," from the Latin clarus.
25,354 in the 1990s
#268
Kaylee Kaylee is an invented name with no single source — it fuses the Kay and Lee sounds that were already everywhere, and the meanings assigned to it afterwards were reverse-engineered.
25,228 in the 1990s
#269
Brenda Brenda is a girl's name from an Old Norse word for a sword or a torch, and it appears to have been invented for a novel — Walter Scott used it in The Pirate in 1822, and no earlier use is recorded.
25,156 in the 1990s
#270
Kathleen Kathleen is a girl's name anglicizing the Irish Caitlín, a form of Catherine, and it inherits that name's genuinely unknown meaning.
24,865 in the 1990s
#272
Karen Karen is a girl's name, the Danish form of Katherine, and it inherits that name's genuinely unknown meaning.
24,694 in the 1990s
#274
Sophia Sophia is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "wisdom," taken directly from the Greek word sophía.
24,537 in the 1990s
#275
Rachael Rachael respells Rachel, meaning ewe, and the animal is the point — Rachel is a shepherd in Genesis, and Jacob works fourteen years for her, which is one of the longest courtships in scripture.
24,527 in the 1990s
#277
Gabriela Gabriela means God is my strength, and the archangel behind it is the one who announces rather than fights — Gabriel delivers the message in both Daniel and Luke, and in Islamic tradition brings the Qur'an.
24,251 in the 1990s
#278
Patricia Patricia is a girl's name from the Latin for noble or patrician, the feminine of Patrick.
24,248 in the 1990s
#282
Kendra Kendra has no settled origin — a feminine of Kenneth, a Welsh compound meaning greatest champion, and an invention from Ken plus a fashionable ending are all proposed, and none is established.
24,035 in the 1990s
#286
Ana Ana is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "favor" or "grace," and it is the form of Anna used across Spanish, Portuguese and Slavic Europe.
23,715 in the 1990s
#288
Kara Kara means beloved, from the Italian and Latin for dear — and a separate Norse Kara exists as the name of a valkyrie, so the same spelling covers two entirely unrelated names.
23,538 in the 1990s
#289
Desiree Desiree means desired, and it began as a Puritan virtue name rather than a French one — Desiderius was a late Roman Christian name for a longed-for child, and French inherited it before English did.
23,527 in the 1990s
#290
Tara Tara is a girl's name from the hill in County Meath where the High Kings were inaugurated, and its meaning is a place of assembly.
23,421 in the 1990s
#291
Michaela Michaela is a question, not a statement — the Hebrew behind it asks who is like God, which was a rhetorical challenge rather than a claim, and the answer it expects is nobody.
23,218 in the 1990s
#292
Brandi Brandi respells Brandy, and the drink behind it means burned wine — the Dutch brandewijn described wine heated to distill it.
23,007 in the 1990s
#294
Kylie Kylie is a girl's name usually said to mean "boomerang" in an Australian Aboriginal language.
22,849 in the 1990s
#295
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.
22,843 in the 1990s
#296
Karina Karina means pure or beloved depending on which parent it takes, and neither has a settled meaning — Catherine's Greek original was never derived, and the Latin route gives a different sense entirely.
22,724 in the 1990s
#297
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.
22,469 in the 1990s
#300
Valerie Valerie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "strong" or "healthy," from the verb valere, meaning to be strong or to be well.
22,051 in the 1990s
#301
Jade Jade is a girl's name from the gemstone, and its origin is unexpectedly medical: the Spanish called it piedra de la ijada, "stone of the flank," because it was believed to cure kidney and abdominal ailments.
22,029 in the 1990s
#303
Natasha Natasha means born on Christmas day, and it is a Russian pet form rather than a full name — Natalya is the formal version, and Russians would not use Natasha on a document.
22,006 in the 1990s
#304
Caitlyn Caitlyn is the third spelling of one name on this site, alongside Caitlin and Kaitlin — all descend from Catherine by way of Old French and Irish, and all three are large enough to hold separate pages.
22,003 in the 1990s
#305
Hayley Hayley is a girl's name from an English place name meaning "hay clearing," and it became a girl's name because of one child actress.
21,881 in the 1990s
#307
Cassidy Cassidy means curly-haired, from an Irish surname — and Scotland ranks it 416th, above Northern Ireland at 464th and the United States at 541st, with Ireland itself back at 807th.
21,559 in the 1990s
#315
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.
20,934 in the 1990s
#321
Gabriella Gabriella is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my strength," the Italian feminine of Gabriel.
20,192 in the 1990s
#323
Makayla Makayla is one of a large family of respellings of Michaela, and the name underneath is a question — Michael means who is like God, expecting the answer nobody.
20,109 in the 1990s
#325
Daisy Daisy is a girl's name of English origin naming the flower, and its meaning is unusually literal: daisy comes from the Old English dægesege, "day's eye," because the flower opens its petals at dawn and closes them at dusk.
20,096 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.