Girls' name · peaked in 1977

Misty name popularity since 1925

84,891 babies born in the US from 1925 to 2025 were named Misty. Half of them were born in 1979 or earlier, so the typical Misty is about 47 years old in 2026. Misty peaked in 1977 as the #40 name for girls, and it was outside the top 1,000 in 2025.

US babies since 1925: 84,891; Named Misty, 1925–2025
Peak year: 1977; #40 for girls that year
Typical age: About 47; Median birth year 1979
In 2025: Not top 1,000; #4,140 for girls in 2025
Girls / boys: 99.7% girls; 84,654 girls · 237 boys
Most popular in: Wyoming; 3.69× its national share

Peak year is the year Misty made up the largest share of US girls, in records going back to 1880. Typical age is based on births from 1925 on, not on who is living today.

Misty births per year, 1925–2025

1977 was the biggest year for Misty both by count and as a share of all babies.

Fastest rise: Between 1970 and 1975, Misty became 5.8× more common, from 1 in 1,520 baby girls to 1 in 263.
Steepest fall: Between 1985 and 1990, its share of baby girls fell by 63%, from 1 in 713 to 1 in 1,910.

Shaded on the chart. Both compare Misty's share of all US girls five years apart, counting only years with at least 100 babies named Misty.

Decade by decade

Babies named Misty in each decade, and its rank among girls' names in the middle year of the decade (1935, 1945 … 2025).

Decade	Girls	Boys	Rank
1925–29	0	0	–
1930s	0	0	Under 5
1940s	40	0	#5,036
1950s	276	0	#1,869
1960s	5,294	0	#422
1970s	42,375	137	#47
1980s	29,114	100	#121
1990s	5,419	0	#562
2000s	1,428	0	#1,522
2010s	520	0	#3,202
2020–25	188	0	#4,140

Ranks count every name given to at least 5 girls that year, so they can go past 1,000. "Under 5" means fewer than 5 girls got the name.

Generation fingerprint

61.0% of babies named Misty from 1925 to 2025 were born in the Gen X years (1965–1980). The full split by generation:

Where Misty is most popular

The index compares Misty's share of babies in each state with its share nationwide, 1925–2025 (1.50× = 50% more common). States with at least 300 babies named Misty.

State	Index	Babies
Wyoming	3.69×	415
Oklahoma	2.83×	3,073
Arkansas	2.56×	2,193
West Virginia	2.52×	1,845
Tennessee	2.46×	4,317

Other spellings

Spellings that sound like Misty and were given to at least 1,000 girls from 1925 to 2025, with the year each one was most popular.

Spelling	Girls	Peak year
Misty (this page)	84,654	1977
Misti	8,324	1975
Mistie	2,240	1975

Names with a similar story

Of the other 1999 names on this site, these six had the share of babies closest in shape to Misty's from 1925 to 2025, however common each one got. Each line is scaled to its own high; the dashed line is Misty.

Names from the same era

Other common names that peaked within two years of Misty (1977).

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration national and state baby-name data, which covers names given to at least 5 babies of one sex in a year. About the data