Stacey

The name arose in medieval England as a diminutive form of names like Eustace and Anastasia, before spending centuries primarily as a surname. It crossed into American records around 1913 as an occasional entry for both boys and girls. By the late 1960s, parents detached the name from its family-tree origins, launching it as an independent first name that climbed rapidly toward the top fifty.

The name reads as unmistakable shorthand for the 1970s, carrying the punchy cadence of a decade that loved two syllables ending in a high vowel. It belongs to the era of wood-paneled station wagons, cassette decks, and spiral-bound day planners. With the average bearer now fifty years old and sixty-one percent of living holders belonging to Generation X, the name has largely migrated into conference rooms and organized carpools. In 2025, fifty-nine American newborns received the name, making an infant Stacey about as common in modern nurseries as a rotary phone.