Names most associate with the 1970s and 1980s

[Kollamoolitumarellipawkyrollo]

A friend of mine (early 20s) has given names to her girls that I think are strongly linked to the 70s/80s and I found I really liked hearing them! Not sure if it is because they remind me of school days or because they sound refreshing as so rare to be heard on children atm.

What are your favourite distinctly 70s/80s names?

I like Lisa, Leanne and Stephanie!

I have an inexplicable fondness for Sarah and I’ve no idea why.

I like names with the "air" sound in them. Sarah, Mary, Clare

@PharrellHappy

Jennifer Alison Philippa Sue

Deborah, Annabel, too...

@Edenember

I have an inexplicable fondness for Sarah and I’ve no idea why.

Me too. And Peter.

Stephanie is beautiful. I love Claire/Clare. Sonia is another one I used to hear a bit when younger but not much now. Rebecca and Rachael I didn't like at the time but now appreciate. I find some of the boys' names of the time harder to love but the most popular were names like Robert, Daniel, Richard, Stephen, Matthew, Thomas, James, Ben, Sam. I find it interesting that Samuel, James, William and Thomas are very popular now, while Richard and Stephen are considered so dated. They're all true classics- nothing new or invented- so it's funny to see the gap in popularity.

There was definitely a class element to names even back then. Names like Kelly, Kerry, Kevin, Kelvin, Lisa, Jason, Karen, Dean, Lee, even to some extent Nicola and Gemma were in a very different social category to some of the others listed here, but also considered 'cool' at the time.

I was born in 1982 and most popular names in my year at school were:

Claire
Sarah
Emma
Louise
Gemma
Rachel

There were a couple of Cheryl/Sheryl's in my year too.

I went to an all girls school but of the boys I knew David was the most popular (I can think of three off the top of my head).
There was also
Shane
Lee
Darren
Ben(jamin)
Chris(topher)
Stuart
Phil(lip)
Stephen/Steven
Neil

@PetraRabbit, you've managed to list mine, DH and both our DCs name

Oh and Simon. Loads of Simon's.

My favourite pairing were best friends called Trevor and Simon, which in the 90s caused much hilarity.

Gemma, Deborah, Nicola, Rachel, Mark, Laura, Claire, Matthew, Richard, Stephen, Anthony, Christopher, Carl/Carly, Belinda, Joanne.

Not seen Natalie mentioned?

I went to school with loads of them (I am early 80's born)

Also a fair few Kelly's and Kerry's, Keely's and Samantha's (plus Claire's / Sarah's)

Never knew a Stephanie though, think that is a lovely name.

I like the name Natalie. My son's friend's sister is called that, it's a lovely name and it suits her (or did, haven't seen her for years and she's in her thirties now).

@Kollamoolitumarellipawkyrollo strange because it’s completely out of step with the rest of my taste. But I can’t fight it. I quite like the idea of family/friends being confused by my choice if I used it.

Samantha, Sandra, Sarah, Rebecca, Louise,
Christopher. And I tell you what - I really like the name Gary. And Scott.
Practically every boy I knew in the 1980s was called Simon or Matthew.

Ryan
Dean
Luke
Ben
Gary
Christopher
Matthew
Philip
Simon

Catherine and variants
Sara-Jane
Sarah
Nicole
Angela
Fleur
Claire / Clare
Rebecca
Abigail
Laura
Rachael
Caroline
Elizabeth
Tracey

80s school (so late 70s born)

Katherine
Sarah
Clare
Jo
Mark
Matthew
William

80s-
Nicola / Nikki (with a heart for the i !!)
Claire
Joanne
Samantha
Lisa
Sara /Sarah
Tracey
Rebecca

Samantha, Sandra, Sarah, Rebecca, Louise,
Christopher. And I tell you what - I really like the name Gary. And Scott.
Practically every boy I knew in the 1980s was called Simon or Matthew.

I suspect that some of this is a regional thing as well as an age thing. A lot of the names mentioned here, including mine, DSis, DH and his siblings' names, were bestowed on us in the 50's and 60's, so, although they were around in the 70's, ime, tended not to be names used at that time. And, I have to say, that there was a Brenda in my class and we all felt extremely sorry for her for having a name we considered more suited to our parents' generation. She would be around 60 now.

Claire/Clare well over due a come back.

According to sprocle it’s already coming back. I did a baby name quiz on the top 100 baby names of 2020 and apparently it was at number 44. Jane and Caroline were also there, too.

The only Brians I know are 19 and 80!
Brenda is more for 1930's-1960's babies I would think. The two I know were both born in the 30's.
I was an early 80's baby, graduated in 2003 and every other girl in the graduation list had Louise as a middle name. My school year had Susan, Jill, Carole, Amy, Sarah, Lisa, Helen, Laura, Rachel, Gemma, Paula, Anne-Marie, Kerry, Rebecca, Kate/Katie. There were no 'yoo-neek' names then. The boys were all Gareth, Phillip, Paul, Terry, Richard, James, Luke, Chris, Daniel. All very normal.

Annette

Typical 70s/80s for me are:
Stephanie
Pamela
Vivien
Hazel
Lisa
Rebecca
Rachel
Ruth
Wendy
Angela
Jacqueline
Carmel
Donna

Robert
Simon
Peter
Graham
Christopher
Jonathan
David
Neil
Paul
Jeffrey
Nicholas
Alan

Julie
Lisa
Pamela
Carol
Sharon
Tracey
Nicola
Alison
Paula
Jill

70's
Michelle
Julie
Carla
Karen
Joanne
Sarah
80's
Dawn
Amy
Katie
Danielle
Nicholl

70's
Kevin
David
Andrew
Stephen
Richard
80's
Lee
Tristan
Shaun
Bradley
Liam

Born late 70s (grew up in London)

Common boys names:
Paul
David
Richard
Mark
Jason
Nicky

Scott, Lee, Dean and Ashley were fashionable, modern sounding names .

Emma, Rachel & Michelle were by far the most common for girls. I think there were four of each in my year at school?! Also multiples of Tara, Rebecca, Kelly, Lisa and variations of Kayley/Keely and Chantelle/Chantelle.

Chanel/Chantelle