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

#97
Heather Heather is a girl's name taken directly from the flowering shrub that covers Scottish and northern English moorland.
71,757 in the 1990s
#98
Maria Maria is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, the Latin and Greek form of Miryam.
71,444 in the 1990s
#99
Haley Haley means hay meadow, from an English place name.
71,437 in the 1990s
#100
Juan Juan is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious."
71,328 in the 1990s
#101
Travis Travis is a boy's name from an occupational surname meaning a toll collector, one who worked at a crossing.
68,364 in the 1990s
#102
Kaitlyn Kaitlyn is a girl's name that respells the Irish Caitlín — which came into Irish from French, and into French from Greek.
67,649 in the 1990s
#103
Laura Laura is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "laurel," the tree whose leaves crowned Roman victors and poets.
67,445 in the 1990s
#104
Jeffrey Jeffrey is a boy's name from Germanic roots whose first element is genuinely disputed, though the second means peace.
67,170 in the 1990s
#105
Ethan Ethan is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "firm," "enduring," or "strong."
67,058 in the 1990s
#106
Erin Erin is a girl's name of Irish origin meaning "Ireland."
66,970 in the 1990s
#107
Caleb Caleb is a boy's name of Hebrew origin whose root is debated.
66,446 in the 1990s
#108
Hunter Hunter is a name of English origin meaning "one who hunts."
66,137 in the 1990s
#109
Andrea Andrea is a name meaning "manly" or "brave," from the Greek aner.
65,889 in the 1990s
#110
Luis Luis is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior."
65,123 in the 1990s
#111
Jared Jared is a boy's name from Hebrew meaning descent, borne by the father of Enoch — the one man in Genesis who does not die but is taken.
63,965 in the 1990s
#112
Natalie Natalie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "birthday of the Lord," from natalis.
63,516 in the 1990s
#113
Devin Devin is a name from an Irish surname, and its meanings are contested — poet, and a word for a stag, are both proposed from different Irish originals.
62,849 in the 1990s
#114
Brooke Brooke is a girl's name from the English word for a small stream.
60,825 in the 1990s
#115
Evan Evan is a boy's name of Welsh origin meaning "God is gracious."
60,404 in the 1990s
#116
Trevor Trevor is a Welsh place name meaning big settlement, and the first element is the tre that begins a great many Cornish and Welsh place names — Tregaron, Trelawney, Treharris and several hundred others besides.
60,112 in the 1990s
#117
Julia Julia is a girl's name of Latin origin, the feminine of the Roman family name Julius.
60,112 in the 1990s
#118
Bryan Bryan is a boy's name of Irish origin whose meaning is unsettled — noble and high are both proposed.
59,993 in the 1990s
#119
Kelly Kelly is a name from the Irish surname Ó Ceallaigh, borne almost entirely by men for most of its history and now 86 percent female in our data.
59,862 in the 1990s
#120
Paul Paul is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "small" or "humble," borne by the apostle whose letters shaped Christian doctrine.
59,077 in the 1990s
#121
Kenneth Kenneth is a boy's name anglicizing two separate Gaelic names, one meaning born of fire and one meaning handsome.
58,443 in the 1990s
#122
Connor Connor is a boy's name of Irish origin meaning "lover of hounds."
58,389 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
#125
Gabriel Gabriel is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my strength," from Gavri'el.
57,262 in the 1990s
#126
Dustin Dustin is a boy's name from the Old Norse Thorstein, meaning Thor's stone — the dust in the spelling is pure coincidence.
56,935 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
#128
Noah Noah is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "rest" or "comfort," from Noach.
56,578 in the 1990s
#129
Angel Angel is a name of Greek origin meaning "messenger," from angelos.
56,491 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
#131
Dakota Dakota means friend or ally in the Dakota language, and it is one of very few widely used names taken from an Indigenous North American language.
55,800 in the 1990s
#132
Carlos Carlos is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "free man."
55,461 in the 1990s
#133
Casey Casey is a name of Irish origin meaning "vigilant" or "watchful."
55,154 in the 1990s
#134
Ian Ian is a boy's name of Scottish origin meaning "Yahweh is gracious," the Scottish Gaelic form of John.
54,153 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 1078th, the reverse of how its sister spelling Kaitlyn behaves.
52,863 in the 1990s
#137
Nathaniel Nathaniel is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "gift of God."
52,681 in the 1990s
#138
Corey Corey is a boy's name from an Irish surname, generally given as dweller near a hollow.
52,247 in the 1990s
#139
Gregory Gregory is a boy's name from the Greek for watchful or alert.
52,221 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
#143
Derek Derek is a boy's name from the Germanic Theodoric, meaning ruler of the people — and it is the same name as Terry and Thierry, three forms of one original that no longer resemble each other.
50,878 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

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.