1990s Baby Names

38,764 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

#481
Britney
12,074 in the 1990s
#482
Walter Walter is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning ruler of the army.
12,058 in the 1990s
#483
Tessa Tessa is a girl's name that grew out of Theresa and is now used independently.
12,041 in the 1990s
#484
Payton Payton means Pæga's farm, from an English place name — and it is 71 percent female on record, having crossed over from an entirely masculine surname within a generation.
12,019 in the 1990s
#485
Joe Joe is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "he will add," a short form of Joseph that has become the English word for an ordinary person.
11,983 in the 1990s
#486
Teresa Teresa is a girl's name whose meaning is uncertain, though harvester is the usual reading.
11,980 in the 1990s
#487
Arianna Arianna is a girl's name, the Italian form of Ariadne, from a Greek name meaning most holy.
11,958 in the 1990s
#488
Liam Liam is a boy's name of Irish origin, a short form of Uilliam, the Irish version of William.
11,919 in the 1990s
#489
Marcos Marcos means dedicated to Mars, and the god behind it was not only a war god — Mars presided over agriculture too, which is coherent once you notice that farming and fighting were the same men's seasonal work.
11,856 in the 1990s
#490
Harley Harley is a name of Old English origin meaning "hare's meadow."
11,844 in the 1990s
#491
Enrique Enrique means ruler of the estate, and the home in it is territorial rather than domestic — the Germanic element named the land a lord held, not the house he lived in.
11,833 in the 1990s
#492
Arthur Arthur is a boy's name of disputed origin.
11,822 in the 1990s
#493
Nolan Nolan is a boy's name of Irish origin, anglicized from Ó Nualláin.
11,821 in the 1990s
#494
Carmen Carmen has two unrelated sources — the Latin word for a song, and a Spanish Marian title from Mount Carmel in Israel.
11,814 in the 1990s
#495
Jalen Jalen was invented for one child and spread from there — the usual account has a father building it from James and Leonard, and the calm and serenity meanings offered online are attached to that coinage.
11,709 in the 1990s
#496
Tatiana Tatiana descends from a Roman family name of Sabine origin, and Shakespeare's fairy queen is a different word — Titania comes from the Titans, so the two are unrelated despite constant confusion.
11,694 in the 1990s
#497
Todd Todd is a boy's name from a northern English dialect word for a fox, given as a nickname to someone crafty or red-haired.
11,631 in the 1990s
#498
Justine Justine means just or fair, from the Latin word behind justice — and it ranks 407th in France against 3,738th in the United States, which is one of the widest market splits anywhere in this group.
11,598 in the 1990s
#499
Bobby Bobby is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "bright fame."
11,594 in the 1990s
#500
Nina Nina is a girl's name with several unrelated origins.
11,567 in the 1990s
#501
Adrianna Adrianna means from Hadria, and the sea took its name from the town rather than the other way round — the Adriatic is called after a small Italian settlement that is now several miles inland.
11,566 in the 1990s
#502
Nichole Nichole means victory of the people, and the compound is political — the Greek joins a word for victory to one meaning the citizen body, so it describes a public triumph rather than a personal one.
11,546 in the 1990s
#503
Candace Candace is a job title mistaken for a name — Kandake was the word for the queen mother of Kush, and Acts uses it as though it were personal, so a Sudanese royal office became an American given name.
11,532 in the 1990s
#504
Trent Trent means the trespasser, and it is a warning rather than a description — the English river was named for its habit of flooding across its banks and cutting new channels.
11,503 in the 1990s
#505
Jada Jada appears once in the Hebrew Bible as a man's name, in a genealogy in Chronicles — the modern American name is effectively a separate creation that happens to match it.
11,462 in the 1990s
#506
Zackary
11,382 in the 1990s
#507
Ellen Ellen is a girl's name of Greek origin, a medieval English form of Helen whose meaning has never been settled.
11,359 in the 1990s
#508
Jordyn Jordyn respells Jordan, and the river came first — the name means flowing down, describing the Jordan's fall from the Galilee hills to the lowest exposed land on earth.
11,327 in the 1990s
#509
Katelynn
11,311 in the 1990s
#510
Renee Renee is a girl's name from the Latin for reborn, given at baptism to mark spiritual rebirth.
11,287 in the 1990s
#511
Mayra
11,262 in the 1990s
#512
Lillian Lillian is a girl's name usually explained as an elaboration of Lily, from the Latin lilium, and sometimes as a variant of Elizabeth by way of the medieval pet form Lilian.
11,242 in the 1990s
#513
Giovanni Giovanni is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious," the Italian form of John.
11,225 in the 1990s
#514
Wendy Wendy is usually credited to J.
11,172 in the 1990s
#515
Rosa Rosa is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "rose."
11,167 in the 1990s
#516
Maggie Maggie is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "pearl."
11,105 in the 1990s
#517
Billy Billy is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "resolute protector."
11,070 in the 1990s
#518
Raquel Raquel means ewe, and the animal is the point — Rachel is a shepherd in Genesis, met at a well while watering her father's flock, so the name and the story match exactly.
11,050 in the 1990s
#519
Josiah Josiah is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "Yahweh supports" or "Yahweh heals," from Yoshiyahu.
10,983 in the 1990s
#520
Susan Susan is a girl's name from a Hebrew word for lily, taken in turn from an Egyptian word for lotus.
10,921 in the 1990s
#521
Tiara
10,910 in the 1990s
#522
Josue Josue is the same name as Jesus, not merely a relative of it — both descend from the Hebrew Yehoshua, and Greek translators simply rendered it two different ways in two different books.
10,816 in the 1990s
#523
Robin Robin is a name of Germanic origin meaning "bright fame."
10,810 in the 1990s
#524
Heidi Heidi is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "noble one."
10,803 in the 1990s
#525
Alissa Alissa means noble, and the flower it resembles was named for rabies — alyssum joins the Greek negative to lyssa, madness, because the plant was believed to cure the bite of a mad dog.
10,803 in the 1990s
#526
Jay Jay is a name serving as an initial-letter shortening for any J name, as a bird name, and as an Indian name meaning victory.
10,794 in the 1990s
#527
Sidney Sidney is a name of Old English origin meaning "wide meadow."
10,793 in the 1990s
#528
Nickolas
10,729 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.