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 in our records, 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 genuinely 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 3738th 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

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.