Most Popular Baby Names of the 1970s

Across the 1970s, Jennifer was the most popular girls' name, given to 581,729 babies, and Michael led the boys with 707,327.

That's out of 15,452,187 girls and 16,516,151 boys counted between 1970 and 1979, under 20,297 different girls' names and 11,490 boys' names.

Number one, year by year

Most popular names each year, 1970 to 1979
Year	Girls	Boys
1970	Jennifer	Michael
1971	Jennifer	Michael
1972	Jennifer	Michael
1973	Jennifer	Michael
1974	Jennifer	Michael
1975	Jennifer	Michael
1976	Jennifer	Michael
1977	Jennifer	Michael
1978	Jennifer	Michael
1979	Jennifer	Michael

Top 100 names of the 1970s

Top girls' names, 1970–1979
Rank	Name	Babies	vs 1960s
1	Jennifer	581,729	up 19
2	Amy	268,994	up 33
3	Melissa	253,267	up 30
4	Michelle	249,130	up 5
5	Kimberly	229,097	same
6	Lisa	228,690	down 5
7	Angela	225,262	up 15
8	Heather	203,902	not top 100 in 1960s
9	Stephanie	160,468	up 36
10	Nicole	144,667	not top 100 in 1960s
11	Jessica	143,492	not top 100 in 1960s
12	Elizabeth	142,845	up 5
13	Rebecca	137,285	up 28
14	Kelly	133,545	up 16
15	Mary	126,254	down 13
16	Christina	125,747	up 56
17	Amanda	123,920	not top 100 in 1960s
18	Julie	121,919	same
19	Sarah	118,823	up 71
20	Laura	118,204	down 4
21	Shannon	113,793	not top 100 in 1960s
22	Christine	103,236	up 5
23	Tammy	98,830	down 10
24	Tracy	95,536	up 15
25	Karen	95,173	down 21
26	Dawn	92,446	up 11
27	Susan	88,308	down 24
28	Andrea	86,424	up 38
29	Tina	84,764	up 2
30	Patricia	81,111	down 24
31	Cynthia	80,196	down 21
32	Lori	77,777	down 17
33	Rachel	77,749	not top 100 in 1960s
34	April	76,946	not top 100 in 1960s
35	Maria	76,373	up 14
36	Wendy	74,185	up 12
37	Crystal	73,757	not top 100 in 1960s
38	Stacy	69,901	not top 100 in 1960s
39	Erin	67,888	not top 100 in 1960s
40	Jamie	67,845	not top 100 in 1960s
41	Carrie	66,825	not top 100 in 1960s
42	Tiffany	65,158	not top 100 in 1960s
43	Tara	65,072	not top 100 in 1960s
44	Sandra	64,340	down 33
45	Monica	61,680	up 41
46	Danielle	60,918	not top 100 in 1960s
47	Stacey	59,210	not top 100 in 1960s
48	Pamela	58,039	down 34
49	Tonya	57,789	not top 100 in 1960s
50	Sara	56,958	not top 100 in 1960s
51	Michele	56,560	down 1
52	Teresa	56,037	down 27
53	Denise	55,868	down 24
54	Jill	55,070	up 7
55	Katherine	54,048	up 22
56	Melanie	53,323	not top 100 in 1960s
57	Dana	51,358	up 25
58	Holly	50,464	not top 100 in 1960s
59	Erica	49,595	not top 100 in 1960s
60	Brenda	48,591	down 41
61	Deborah	47,855	down 49
62	Tanya	47,830	not top 100 in 1960s
63	Sharon	47,768	down 40
64	Donna	47,342	down 56
65	Amber	47,063	not top 100 in 1960s
66	Emily	46,839	not top 100 in 1960s
67	Robin	45,943	down 33
68	Linda	45,900	down 61
69	Kathleen	44,847	down 37
70	Leslie	44,839	up 1
71	Christy	44,592	not top 100 in 1960s
72	Kristen	44,206	not top 100 in 1960s
73	Catherine	43,864	down 17
74	Kristin	42,384	not top 100 in 1960s
75	Misty	42,375	not top 100 in 1960s
76	Barbara	42,237	down 55
77	Heidi	42,219	not top 100 in 1960s
78	Nancy	41,850	down 52
79	Cheryl	40,393	down 51
80	Theresa	40,076	down 38
81	Brandy	40,070	not top 100 in 1960s
82	Alicia	39,253	not top 100 in 1960s
83	Veronica	38,787	not top 100 in 1960s
84	Gina	38,120	down 11
85	Jacqueline	37,962	down 34
86	Rhonda	37,946	down 42
87	Anna	37,813	up 8
88	Renee	37,591	down 18
89	Megan	37,355	not top 100 in 1960s
90	Tamara	37,076	up 10
91	Melinda	36,438	not top 100 in 1960s
92	Kathryn	36,434	down 4
93	Debra	34,605	down 69
94	Sherry	34,204	down 39
95	Allison	34,158	not top 100 in 1960s
96	Valerie	33,810	down 27
97	Diana	33,348	down 34
98	Paula	32,724	down 44
99	Kristina	32,650	not top 100 in 1960s
100	Ann	32,030	down 40

Top boys' names, 1970–1979
Rank	Name	Babies	vs 1960s
1	Michael	707,327	same
2	Christopher	475,423	up 18
3	Jason	462,709	up 85
4	David	445,704	down 2
5	James	444,713	down 1
6	John	402,612	down 3
7	Robert	397,225	down 2
8	Brian	322,660	up 8
9	William	283,401	down 2
10	Matthew	277,727	up 26
11	Joseph	244,825	up 1
12	Daniel	244,454	up 7
13	Kevin	212,231	up 1
14	Eric	211,481	up 14
15	Jeffrey	202,850	down 5
16	Richard	202,804	down 8
17	Scott	194,520	down 2
18	Mark	194,260	down 12
19	Steven	188,078	down 8
20	Thomas	186,739	down 11
21	Timothy	181,260	down 8
22	Anthony	174,873	same
23	Charles	163,021	down 6
24	Joshua	140,318	not top 100 in 1960s
25	Ryan	139,635	not top 100 in 1960s
26	Jeremy	139,307	not top 100 in 1960s
27	Paul	136,390	down 9
28	Andrew	132,929	up 10
29	Gregory	115,563	down 6
30	Chad	113,534	not top 100 in 1960s
31	Kenneth	111,489	down 10
32	Jonathan	107,926	up 45
33	Stephen	107,804	down 6
34	Shawn	105,790	up 41
35	Aaron	101,487	not top 100 in 1960s
36	Adam	91,739	not top 100 in 1960s
37	Patrick	91,240	down 5
38	Justin	86,539	not top 100 in 1960s
39	Sean	83,819	up 39
40	Edward	83,425	down 11
41	Todd	83,319	down 10
42	Donald	82,435	down 17
43	Ronald	81,730	down 19
44	Benjamin	81,332	not top 100 in 1960s
45	Keith	76,689	down 11
46	Bryan	71,338	up 16
47	Gary	68,261	down 21
48	Jose	66,390	up 41
49	Nathan	65,857	not top 100 in 1960s
50	Douglas	65,155	down 20
51	Nicholas	65,068	not top 100 in 1960s
52	Brandon	65,047	not top 100 in 1960s
53	George	64,757	down 20
54	Travis	64,103	not top 100 in 1960s
55	Peter	62,320	down 13
56	Craig	58,787	down 12
57	Bradley	58,678	up 15
58	Larry	58,138	down 23
59	Dennis	50,552	down 20
60	Shane	50,279	not top 100 in 1960s
61	Raymond	49,332	down 16
62	Troy	48,852	down 7
63	Jerry	48,351	down 22
64	Samuel	48,099	up 21
65	Frank	46,917	down 22
66	Jesse	44,886	not top 100 in 1960s
67	Jeffery	44,565	down 21
68	Juan	43,404	not top 100 in 1960s
69	Terry	42,426	down 32
70	Corey	41,000	not top 100 in 1960s
71	Phillip	39,845	down 3
72	Marcus	39,464	not top 100 in 1960s
73	Derek	38,310	not top 100 in 1960s
74	Rodney	37,446	down 26
75	Joel	37,228	not top 100 in 1960s
76	Carlos	36,949	not top 100 in 1960s
77	Randy	36,545	down 37
78	Jacob	36,351	not top 100 in 1960s
79	Jamie	36,296	not top 100 in 1960s
80	Tony	35,676	down 29
81	Russell	35,469	down 22
82	Brent	35,380	not top 100 in 1960s
83	Antonio	33,280	not top 100 in 1960s
84	Billy	33,217	down 11
85	Derrick	32,860	not top 100 in 1960s
86	Kyle	32,645	not top 100 in 1960s
87	Erik	32,094	not top 100 in 1960s
88	Johnny	32,024	down 19
89	Marc	31,837	not top 100 in 1960s
90	Carl	31,370	down 33
91	Philip	31,367	down 7
92	Roger	29,714	down 42
93	Bobby	29,077	down 12
94	Brett	28,922	not top 100 in 1960s
95	Danny	28,863	down 37
96	Curtis	28,808	down 17
97	Jon	28,690	down 14
98	Vincent	27,640	down 28
99	Cory	27,509	not top 100 in 1960s
100	Jimmy	27,099	down 24

Names that peaked in the 1970s

These were among the decade's top 1,000 and reached their highest share of babies in a year between 1970 and 1979. The year each one peaked is in brackets.

Girls

Jennifer (1974)
Amy (1975)
Melissa (1979)
Angela (1975)
Heather (1975)
Rebecca (1974)
Kelly (1977)
Christina (1978)
Shannon (1976)
Tracy (1970)

Boys

Jason (1974)
Brian (1973)
Eric (1976)
Scott (1971)
Jeremy (1977)
Chad (1973)
Shawn (1973)
Bryan (1977)
Travis (1979)
Craig (1970)

Source: Social Security Administration, national baby name data, data through 2025. Names given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year aren't published, so totals are a little lower than actual births.