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

#337
Jessie Jessie is a name that arrives from two unrelated directions — the Scottish pet form of Janet, and a feminine of the Hebrew Jesse.
19,440 in the 1990s
#338
Alejandra Alejandra means defender of men, and the Spanish form lost a consonant Greek never had trouble with — Alexandros became Alejandro because Spanish shifted the sh sound to the throaty j it uses today.
19,272 in the 1990s
#339
Gary Gary is a boy's name that reached the charts by an unusually traceable route: a surname became a steel town in Indiana, the town's name was given to an actor, and the actor made it a first name.
19,266 in the 1990s
#340
Curtis Curtis is a boy's name from a Norman French nickname meaning courteous, and it is one of very few names that describes manners rather than birth, appearance or trade.
19,250 in the 1990s
#341
Krystal Krystal means ice, and the Greeks believed rock crystal was water frozen so hard it could never melt — which is why the same word names both the mineral and the frost.
19,115 in the 1990s
#342
Ariana Ariana is a girl's name of Greek origin, from Ariadne — the Cretan princess who gave Theseus the thread to escape the labyrinth.
18,913 in the 1990s
#343
Summer Summer is a girl's name of Old English origin taken from the season, from sumor.
18,836 in the 1990s
#344
Isabella Isabella is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath," a Spanish and Italian form of Elizabeth that developed through Occitan and Old Spanish in the medieval period.
18,774 in the 1990s
#345
Mikayla Mikayla respells Michaela, and the Hebrew behind both is a question — who is like God — whose expected answer is nobody.
18,746 in the 1990s
#346
Johnny Johnny is a boy's name, the pet form of John, meaning God is gracious.
18,611 in the 1990s
#347
Katrina Katrina has no securely known meaning, because Catherine does not — the Greek original has never been derived, and the pure reading was attached centuries later by a false association.
18,424 in the 1990s
#348
Max Max is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "greatest."
18,291 in the 1990s
#349
Dennis Dennis is a boy's name that traces back to Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and ecstatic release — one of the few widely used Christian names derived from a pagan deity.
18,270 in the 1990s
#350
Malik Malik means king, and the Arabic distinguishes two words a single letter apart — malik is a king, mālik an owner, and one of God's names in the Qur'an is the second rather than the first.
18,081 in the 1990s
#351
Wyatt Wyatt is a boy's name of English origin meaning "brave in war," from the medieval given name Wyot, itself from Old English elements meaning war and hardy.
17,978 in the 1990s
#352
Cesar Cesar is a boy's name from the Roman family name Caesar, whose own meaning the Romans could not agree on.
17,955 in the 1990s
#353
Hayden Hayden is a name of Old English origin meaning "hay valley" or "hedged hill."
17,920 in the 1990s
#354
Kiara Kiara is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "bright" or "clear."
17,897 in the 1990s
#355
Skyler Skyler is Dutch and means a scholar — it respells Schuyler, a surname carried by one of New York's founding families, and it has nothing to do with the sky despite the spelling.
17,753 in the 1990s
#356
Sandra Sandra is a girl's name that began as an Italian short form of Alessandra and became independent in the twentieth century.
17,736 in the 1990s
#357
Edwin Edwin is a boy's name from Old English meaning rich friend, borne by a Northumbrian king whose fortress may have given Edinburgh its name.
17,587 in the 1990s
#358
Chandler Chandler means a candle maker, and the trade left a grander word behind — the same French root gives chandelier, so the humblest medieval occupation names the most ornate fitting in the house.
17,396 in the 1990s
#359
Gavin Gavin is a boy's name from the Arthurian Gawain, whose meaning has never been established.
17,324 in the 1990s
#360
Preston Preston means the priest's settlement — land held by the church rather than by a lord, which is why so many English places carry the name.
17,201 in the 1990s
#361
Parker Parker is a name of English origin meaning "park keeper."
17,180 in the 1990s
#362
Meagan Meagan means pearl at four removes — Welsh Megan shortens Marged, which is Margaret, which is the Greek margarites, which is probably a loan from further east than Greece.
17,124 in the 1990s
#363
Marco Marco means dedicated to Mars, and it has the tightest seven-market spread on this site — the United States 370th, Ireland and England both 467th, Scotland 477th, Northern Ireland 501st and France 502nd, all inside 132 places.
17,087 in the 1990s
#364
Allen Allen is a boy's name whose meaning is genuinely unknown — rock, handsome and deer have all been proposed from an unidentified Breton source.
17,045 in the 1990s
#365
Ruben Ruben is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "behold, a son."
17,025 in the 1990s
#366
Lydia Lydia is a girl's name meaning "woman from Lydia," an ancient kingdom in what is now western Turkey.
16,991 in the 1990s
#367
Randy Randy is a boy's name, the short form of Randall or Randolph, meaning shield-wolf.
16,971 in the 1990s
#368
Micah Micah is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "who is like Yahweh?" — a rhetorical question expecting the answer that nobody is.
16,967 in the 1990s
#369
Zoe Zoe is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "life," taken directly from the Greek word zoe.
16,919 in the 1990s
#370
Kirsten Kirsten means a follower of the anointed one, and the anointing is literal — Christ translates the Hebrew mashiach, and both words describe someone smeared with oil at a coronation rather than a divine title.
16,919 in the 1990s
#371
Calvin Calvin is a boy's name of French origin meaning "little bald one," from the Latin calvus, bald.
16,899 in the 1990s
#372
Chelsey
16,853 in the 1990s
#373
Mathew Mathew drops a t from Matthew, and the doubled t was never in the Hebrew — it entered through the Greek and Latin spellings, so the shorter form is arguably closer to the original.
16,842 in the 1990s
#374
Monique Monique is a girl's name, the French form of Monica, whose meaning is genuinely unknown despite the confident answers usually given for it.
16,811 in the 1990s
#375
Jerry Jerry is a name that serves as the short form of at least three unrelated names — Jeremiah from Hebrew, Gerald and Gerard from Germanic — so its meaning depends entirely on which one a family had in mind.
16,727 in the 1990s
#376
Brent Brent means burned land, from ground cleared by fire — a place name recording a specific agricultural practice rather than a hill or a holy site, which are the two readings usually offered for it.
16,645 in the 1990s
#377
Ashton Ashton is a name of Old English origin meaning "ash tree settlement."
16,639 in the 1990s
#378
Brady Brady means descendant of Brádach, an Irish byname whose own meaning is not settled — spirited, large-chested and broad-eyed are all proposed, and none is established.
16,620 in the 1990s
#379
Claudia Claudia means lame, and it comes from one of Rome's most powerful families.
16,607 in the 1990s
#380
Mallory Mallory means unlucky, and it is one of very few names built on an insult — the Norman malheuré described someone ill-fated, and it became a surname before anyone used it as a first name.
16,562 in the 1990s
#381
Joanna Joanna means God is gracious, and it charts in all seven markets we track — the United States 306th, Ireland 367th, Scotland 395th, Northern Ireland 432nd, England and Wales 514th and France 721st.
16,356 in the 1990s
#382
Tony Tony is a boy's name from the Roman family name Antonius, whose meaning has never been established.
16,298 in the 1990s
#383
Isabel Isabel is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath."
16,246 in the 1990s
#384
Pedro Pedro means stone, and the name records a nickname Jesus gave — Simon was renamed Cephas in Aramaic, which Greek translated as Petros, so the pun on rock survives through three languages.
16,237 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.