Top 10 Baby Names From the 1980s

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The 80s were an awesome decade. I can speak from experience. I wore jelly sandals, pegged jeans, and LOTS of neon. I watched the Gummi Bears on Saturday mornings, ate Count Choculafor breakfast, and jumped on my Pogo Ball during recess.

And when my three friends also named Lindsay and I got together we played Atari, My Little Pony, and Transformers. So what else did we do when we weren’t baking our Shrinky Dinks or slapping Colorforms onto pieces of cardboard? We thought up names for our future children, of course. Here are the top 10 baby names we considered in the 80s:

Top Ten 80’s Baby Names

10. Stephanie

Because all the cool girls at school were named Stephanie. Did you have a friend named Stephanie in the 80s? She and the other 218k girls named Stephanie were all great. And let’s face it, we all want our babies to grow up to be a cool kid so this name would have definitely been considered.

9. Huey

Not only was I hip to be square, I also loved Donald Duck cartoons. Fore! was one of the first cassette tapes I ever purchased with my own money, and I played that tape until it snapped. “Stuck with You” and “Hip to be Square” were anthems, and anyone who loves Back to the Future, knows that film would not be the same without “The Power of Love”. And as the kid who happily sported her Donald Duck hat outside of Disney World, I knew that Huey had the best name of all of Donald’s nephews.

8. Janine

Because she kept the Ghostbusters bustin’. Because she got to say stuff like, “I’ve quit better jobs than this!” Because she was played by Annie Potts (possibly the coolest person in all of the 80’s) Janine Melnitz was totally rad. If I wanted my daughter to grow up to be sassy, smart, and to tell-it-like-it-is, I would have definitely named her Janine.

7. Corey

Corey Feldman. Corey Haim. That kid in my 2nd grade class. All the cute guys in the 80’s were named Corey. A cute guy name ensures my kid would be adorable, and of course I’d have hoped that he would become the third Corey, though he’d have been competing with 53k other boys named Corey.

6. Andy

“Andy! You Goonie!” The ultimate compliment. Who wouldn’t want their kid to be a Goonie? And as a bonus, my favorite Molly Ringwald character of all time was Andie from Pretty in Pink. It sounds like a boy’s name, but its girly all at the same time. What could be better than that?

5. Alex

Was there a cooler actor in the 80’s than Michael J. Fox? I certainly can’t think of one. Anyone who could make me have a crush on a Young Republican must have been something special. Although Michael was a very popular name in the 80’s, I would have gone with Alex, in honor ofAlex P. Keaton. And Flashdance fans out there know that Alex makes an awesome girl’s name, too.

4. Maria

Maria got to live on Sesame Street. She got to hang out with Grover and Big Bird and even Kermit the Frog. (Sorry kids, there was no Elmo on my Sesame Street). If there is any one program that shaped my whole young life, it was Sesame Street. Maria was cool, smart, and had an exotic name (well, at least I thought so…. I’m from Ohio!) and therefore Maria makes it into the top of my favorite 80’s baby names.

3. Harrison

Han Solo. Indiana Jones. The undercover cop pretending to be Amish from Witness. Harrison Ford was the ultimate 80’s tough guy. He was also super hunky and could make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. With a name like Harrison, a kid’s got to be off to a great start. I’d have given that one some serious thought.

2. Elliott

If it’s good enough for E.T., it’s good enough for me. Also one of my favorite characters of all time is Elliot the dragon from Pete’s Dragon. Two great movie characters equals one awesome baby name.

1. Annie

The sun will come out tomorrow, and I wanted to be Annie so bad I dreamed at night I would wake up the morning with a curly red afro and a rascally dog named Sandy. I bet your bottom dollar if I had somehow managed to have a baby girl in 1982, her name would have been Annie.

Source: Preseed

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