Eighties Names

Names that peaked in the 1980s, when the American charts turned over faster than at any point before. A large share are respellings and inventions rather than revivals, which is what makes the decade recognisable at a glance.

Rankings for

7 names, uncommon — 100 to 499 a year, in United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Dustin Dustin is a boy's name from the Old Norse Thorstein, meaning Thor's stone — the dust in the spelling is pure coincidence.
Norse 365 in 2025
Corey Corey is a boy's name from an Irish surname, generally given as dweller near a hollow.
Irish 351 in 2025
Derrick Derrick means ruler of the people, and the crane is named after a man — Thomas Derrick, an Elizabethan hangman whose gallows design was distinctive enough that his name became the word for it.
Germanic 288 in 2025
Cory Cory has at least three unrelated origins — a Norse island name, an Irish surname and a Greek word for a maiden — and English cannot distinguish them.
Scottish 174 in 2025
Bryant Bryant means noble or high, and the t is a French accident — Norman scribes added it to the Irish Brian, so the surname carries a letter the original name never had.
Irish 146 in 2025
Brett Brett means a Breton — someone from Brittany, which is named for the Britons who fled there when the Anglo-Saxons arrived.
English 144 in 2025
Terrance Terrance respells Terrence, and the name descends from a Roman playwright born enslaved in North Africa — Terence was freed by his owner and his Latin became a school text for centuries.
American 109 in 2025

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A style is our reading of a name. A decade is the register — the names children were actually given, in order, with the counts.

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Eighties Names

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