The most popular baby names in the U.S. tend to remain the same from one year to the next, but some interesting trends tend emerge over longer periods of time.
Each year, the Social Security Administration uses data from the previous year’s births to put together an official list of the most popular baby names in the U.S. We decided to look back at the most popular names 35 years ago to see how parents’ choices in 1982 compare to today’s trends.
Some names remain popular today (Matthew, James, Elizabeth and co.), but others have fallen out of fashion (shout-out to classics like Crystal and Tiffany). And the top names were favorites for many years. Jennifer stayed at No. 1 from 1970 to 1984; Michael, which has been on the top 10 list since 1943, was the leading choice for boys from 1961 to 1998.
Without further ado, here are the 35 most popular baby names in 1982:
Girls
- Jennifer
- Jessica
- Amanda
- Sarah
- Melissa
- Nicole
- Stephanie
- Elizabeth
- Crystal
- Amy
- Michelle
- Heather
- Tiffany
- Kimberly
- Rebecca
- Angela
- Ashley
- Amber
- Christina
- Erin
- Rachel
- Laura
- Lisa
- Emily
- Kelly
- Lauren
- Andrea
- Sara
- Jamie
- Mary
- Danielle
- April
- Kristen
- Megan
- Erica
Boys
- Michael
- Christopher
- Matthew
- Jason
- David
- James
- Joshua
- John
- Robert
- Daniel
- Joseph
- Justin
- Ryan
- Brian
- William
- Jonathan
- Andrew
- Brandon
- Adam
- Eric
- Nicholas
- Anthony
- Thomas
- Kevin
- Timothy
- Steven
- Richard
- Jeremy
- Jeffrey
- Aaron
- Charles
- Mark
- Benjamin
- Scott
- Paul
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