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

#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
#1,011
Clarence Clarence is a boy's name taken from an English dukedom, itself named for a Suffolk town.
4,548 in the 1990s
#1,012
Lacy
4,533 in the 1990s
#1,013
Lewis Lewis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior," the English form of Louis.
4,533 in the 1990s
#1,014
Stephany
4,524 in the 1990s
#1,015
Julius Julius means downy-bearded, and the family claimed descent from Venus — the Julii traced themselves to Iulus, son of Aeneas, which is the genealogy Virgil wrote the Aeneid to dignify.
4,522 in the 1990s
#1,016
Tomas Tomas is a boy's name of Aramaic origin meaning "twin," a form of Thomas used across Ireland, Scandinavia and the Hispanic world.
4,520 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
#1,018
Shea Shea is a unisex name of Irish origin from the surname Ó Séaghdha, whose root means "hawk-like" or "stately."
4,505 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
#1,021
Garret
4,492 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
#1,024
Regan
4,482 in the 1990s
#1,025
Ralph Ralph is a boy's name of Norse origin meaning "wolf counsel."
4,479 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
#1,032
Elisha
4,420 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
#1,036
Stuart Stuart means steward, and the office was literally the sty warden — keeper of the pigs — which rose to run the royal household and then supplied the name of a dynasty.
4,377 in the 1990s
#1,037
Brad Brad means broad clearing, shortened from Bradley — and the broad element is the same word as the modern English broad, one of the few Old English place-name terms still transparent.
4,375 in the 1990s
#1,038
Stephan Stephan means a wreath, not a crown — stephanos was the woven victor's garland at the Greek games, which is why the first Christian martyr's name reads as a prize rather than a rank.
4,367 in the 1990s
#1,039
Jaquan
4,365 in the 1990s
#1,040
Frankie Frankie is a name of Germanic origin meaning "free man" or "Frenchman."
4,364 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
#1,046
Roderick Roderick means famous ruler, and its most consequential bearer lost a country — Roderic was the last Visigothic king of Spain, defeated in 711 by the Arab and Berber force that then held most of the peninsula for centuries.
4,315 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
#1,049
Clifford Clifford is a boy's name from an English place name meaning a ford by a cliff — a river crossing below a steep bank.
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
#1,054
Santiago Santiago is a boy's name of Spanish origin meaning "Saint James."
4,283 in the 1990s
#1,055
Carlie
4,281 in the 1990s
#1,056
Daquan
4,275 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.