Mom Names: the New Generation

Updated Sun May 11 2025

Happy Mothers' Day!

Today’s Mom Names might be familiar to you as the names of the friends who came to your first sleepover or your roommates in college: forever young. But many of the 1980s names and 1990s names, once considered the cool girl names, have become today's new Mom Names.

It stands to reason that many names that peaked from the 80s through 2000 have crossed over into mom territory: girls born in those decades are now 25 to 45, the prime age for motherhood.

Of course, not every name of a twenty-or-thirty-something female automatically becomes a Mom Name. What does?

To qualify as a Mom Name, the name has to be emblematic of those late decades of the 1900s but to have since faded from popularity. Sure, there are definitely still babies named Ashley and Jessica, but those names are more likely to suggest a mom than a tiny child.

Some of the girls’ names popular at the end of the last century are too classic to be typified as Mom Names. Sarah and Elizabeth, for instance, defy a connection to any one moment in time.

Other names widely used in the 80s and 90s were already past their peak and so are really more Grandma Names than Mom Names: Donna, for instance, or Debra or, yes, Karen.

And that’s the reason you may not want to give one of the new Mom Names to a baby. As appealing as many of them are in so many ways, Mom Names belong to the last generation, not the next one.

Today's Mom Names

For background, here are the top girl names of the 1980s and 1990s, along with data on which names reached their highest points in the years when many of today’s new moms were born.

Top Girl Names of the 1980s

Top Girl Names of the 1990s

Girl names that peaked in 1985

In 1985, parents loved names beginning with Kr- like Krystal and Kristina, as well as Shira and Stephanie, Cara and Kandice, and five spellings of Megan. These women turn 40 this year.

Girl names that peaked in 1990

In 1990 Queen Latifah was dubbed the Queen of Rap, Martika was a fixture on the Billboard charts, and Ivana Trump was granted her divorce. The babies of 1990 are 35 years old now.

Girl names that peaked in 1995

By 1995, gender-neutral names for girls like Taylor, Blake, and Alex were fully mainstream. The death of Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla spurred a generation of girls with her name, as well as alternate spelling Selina. And Kayla, influenced by the 80s soap opera Days of Our Lives, finally reached its full potential. People born when these names were at their most popular are turning 30.

Girl names that peaked in 2000

The turn of the millennium ushered in an era of Emily and Hannah, of Kaitlyn and Sydney. Venus and Serena Williams won titles at Wimbleton and the Olympics, and Nia Long secured multiple awards for her role in The Best Man. Babies born in 2000 celebrate their 25th birthdays this year.

Read next: the most popular girl names today.

About the Author

Pamela Redmond

Pamela Redmond on Facebook

Pamela Redmond on Twitter

Pamela Redmond's Personal Website

Pamela Redmond is the cocreator and CEO of Nameberry and Baby Name DNA. The coauthor of ten groundbreaking books on names, Redmond is an internationally-recognized baby name expert, quoted and published widely in such media outlets as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Today Show, CNN, and the BBC. She has written about baby names for The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, and People.

Redmond is also a New York Times bestselling novelist whose books include Younger, the basis for the hit television show, and its sequel, Older. She has three new books in the works.