babynamepicker

Boy Names of the 1980s

The 100 most common boy names given in the United States during the 1980s, by the number of children recorded with each name across those years.

All 100 names

  1. Michael 663,807
  2. Christopher 554,863
  3. Matthew 458,951
  4. Joshua 396,524
  5. David 383,687
  6. James 356,491
  7. Daniel 345,537
  8. Robert 321,655
  9. John 321,150
  10. Joseph 299,411
  11. Jason 292,120
  12. Justin 289,825
  13. Andrew 285,074
  14. Ryan 278,938
  15. William 248,277
  16. Brian 233,993
  17. Brandon 232,206
  18. Jonathan 229,953
  19. Nicholas 223,308
  20. Anthony 211,861
  21. Eric 204,230
  22. Adam 195,086
  23. Kevin 188,670
  24. Thomas 177,817
  25. Steven 177,454
  26. Timothy 172,835
  27. Richard 154,745
  28. Jeremy 153,413
  29. Jeffrey 144,789
  30. Kyle 141,947
  31. Benjamin 141,366
  32. Aaron 138,357
  33. Charles 131,902
  34. Mark 129,442
  35. Jacob 124,254
  36. Stephen 113,631
  37. Patrick 111,408
  38. Scott 108,144
  39. Nathan 105,987
  40. Paul 104,397
  41. Sean 103,870
  42. Travis 102,927
  43. Zachary 101,818
  44. Dustin 97,314
  45. Gregory 93,655
  46. Kenneth 89,110
  47. Jose 86,647
  48. Tyler 86,451
  49. Jesse 85,908
  50. Alexander 82,010
  51. Bryan 80,502
  52. Samuel 73,456
  53. Derek 72,923
  54. Bradley 69,352
  55. Chad 69,051
  56. Shawn 65,598
  57. Edward 60,832
  58. Jared 60,308
  59. Cody 60,289
  60. Jordan 57,172
  61. Peter 56,713
  62. Corey 53,598
  63. Keith 52,647
  64. Marcus 51,807
  65. Juan 51,447
  66. Donald 50,843
  67. Ronald 46,670
  68. George 45,712
  69. Phillip 45,707
  70. Cory 44,358
  71. Joel 43,566
  72. Shane 43,169
  73. Douglas 41,746
  74. Antonio 41,616
  75. Carlos 41,506
  76. Raymond 41,504
  77. Brett 41,289
  78. Gary 40,230
  79. Alex 38,712
  80. Nathaniel 38,652
  81. Craig 38,095
  82. Ian 37,770
  83. Luis 37,447
  84. Erik 36,350
  85. Derrick 36,342
  86. Casey 35,968
  87. Philip 35,733
  88. Frank 33,590
  89. Evan 32,484
  90. Gabriel 32,320
  91. Victor 32,286
  92. Vincent 32,054
  93. Austin 31,307
  94. Brent 31,279
  95. Larry 31,278
  96. Seth 31,129
  97. Wesley 31,088
  98. Dennis 30,463
  99. Todd 30,325
  100. Christian 30,289

How 1980s boy names compare

Michael was the most common boy name of the 1980s, given to 663,807 boys across those years, with Christopher, Matthew, Joshua and David behind it. The hundredth name on the list, Christian, accounts for 30,289. Between them the hundred names cover 12,725,787 births. Michael was number one in every one of those ten years.

81 of these names were also in the 1970s top 100, and 19 were not. 28 are still in the 2025 top 100 — Michael, Christopher, Matthew, Joshua, David, James, Daniel and Robert, among others — and 73 are inside the top 500.

Those hundred names cover 68.9% of all boys born in the 1980s — 12,725,787 of 18,458,907 — and Michael alone accounts for 3.6% of them. The hundred most common names of 2025 take 38.0% between them, so naming has spread wider since. Every one of the hundred was already in the record before the 1980s began.

Questions about 1980s boy names

What was the most popular boy name of the 1980s?

Michael, given to 663,807 boys across those years. The next two were Christopher and Matthew.

Are 1980s boy names still used today?

28 of the hundred are in the 2025 top 100: Michael, Christopher, Matthew, Joshua, David, James, Daniel and Robert, among others.