Classic Names

Names that have never really left. They rise and fall within a band rather than disappearing, which makes them the safest choice on the site and the hardest to say anything surprising about.

Rankings for

530 names, most popular first in United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Rupert Rupert is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "bright fame."
Boy Germanic #3,828 in US
Auguste Auguste is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "great" or "venerable," the French form of Augustus.
Boy French #3,857 in US
Armand Armand is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "army man," the French form of Herman, borne by the cardinal who built the centralized French state.
Boy French #3,934 in US
Etienne Etienne means crown, and the Greek behind it is the wreath given to victors — so a name now read as saintly began as a prize handed to the winner of a race.
Boy French #3,966 in US
Rudolph Rudolph means famous wolf, and the reindeer was invented to sell things — a Montgomery Ward copywriter wrote him for a giveaway booklet in 1939, which makes him a corporate creation rather than a folk one.
Boy German #4,168 in US
Amaury Amaury is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "work-ruler," and two crusader kings of Jerusalem carried it.
Boy French #4,432 in US
Jeanne Jeanne is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is gracious," the French feminine of Jean.
Girl French #4,565 in US
Bertha Bertha is a girl's name from a Germanic word meaning bright, and it was Charlemagne's mother's name.
Girl Germanic #4,570 in US
Michel Michel is a boy's name, the French form of Michael, from a Hebrew question meaning who is like God.
Boy French #4,687 in US
Maxime Maxime is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "greatest," the French form of the Roman cognomen Maximus.
Boy French #4,791 in US
Myriam Myriam is the French spelling of Miriam, and France ranks it 287th while ranking Miriam itself 816th — so in its own market the respelling substantially outsells the original biblical form.
Girl French #4,914 in US
Katharine Katharine is the spelling closest to the Greek, and that Greek has never been explained — the pure gloss comes from a later association with katharos, clean, applied long after the name existed.
Girl Greek #4,978 in US
Wilbert Wilbert means bright will, and it is one of a small set of names joining desire to brightness — the same beorht that ends Albert, Robert and Gilbert, on a first element meaning wanting something.
Boy German #4,990 in US
François François is a boy's name meaning a Frenchman, or a Frank — and it is the name that gives France its own.
Boy French #5,324 in US
Yves Yves is a boy's name from a Germanic word for the yew tree, the wood the longbow was made from.
Boy French #5,567 in US
Mathilde Mathilde is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "mighty in battle," and its bearer commissioned the Bayeux Tapestry by tradition.
Girl French #5,823 in US
Laurent Laurent is a boy's name meaning from Laurentum, the French form of Lawrence.
Boy French #6,082 in US
Héloïse Héloïse is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "healthy" and "wide," carried by the twelfth-century scholar whose letters to Abelard are among the most famous correspondence in Europe.
Girl French #6,369 in US
Ariane Ariane is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "most holy," borne by the woman whose thread got Theseus out of the labyrinth.
Girl French #6,375 in US
Philippe Philippe is a boy's name, the French form of Philip, from Greek elements meaning lover of horses.
Boy French #6,393 in US
Soline Soline is a girl's name of Latin origin, a French form of Solange, and its saint was a shepherdess beheaded for refusing a nobleman.
Girl French #6,816 in US
Georges Georges is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "farmer," the French form of George, and the s is part of the name rather than a plural.
Boy French #6,909 in US
Eline Eline is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "torch" or "bright," a Dutch and Scandinavian form of Helen.
Girl French #7,559 in US
Éabha Éabha is a girl's name of Irish origin, the Irish form of Eve, meaning "life" or "living one."
Girl Irish #7,560 in US
Éléonore Éléonore is a girl's name whose origin is genuinely disputed, most often explained as "the other Aenor" from a medieval Aquitaine tradition.
Girl French #7,899 in US
Gustave Gustave is a boy's name of Old Norse origin whose meaning is disputed, and the man who built the Eiffel Tower carried it.
Boy French #8,016 in US
Maxence Maxence is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "greatest," the French form of the Roman Maxentius.
Boy French #8,087 in US
Aloïs Aloïs is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "famous warrior" — the same name as Louis, arrived at through a Latinized form rather than the French one.
Boy French #9,029 in US
Victoire Victoire is a girl's name meaning "victory," the French form of the Latin Victoria.
Girl French #10,378 in US
Clémence Clémence is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "mercy" or "mildness," one of the Roman virtue names.
Girl French #10,820 in US
Alban Alban is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "white" or "of Alba," and its saint was the first Christian martyr in Britain.
Boy French #10,884 in US
Eugénie Eugénie means well-born, and its most famous bearer lost an empire — Empress Eugénie was the last French empress, fled Paris in 1870 and died in Madrid in 1920 having outlived the regime by fifty years.
Girl French #11,114 in US
Raphaëlle Raphaëlle is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God heals," the French feminine of Raphaël, and the archangel it names is the one who travels in disguise.
Girl French #12,560 in US
Roxane Roxane is a girl's name of Persian origin meaning "bright" or "dawn," borne by the Bactrian noblewoman who married Alexander the Great.
Girl French #13,935 in US
Christophe Christophe is a boy's name meaning bearer of Christ, and the legend behind it explains the saint who carries travelers across a river on his shoulders.
Boy French 383,600 births
Guillaume Guillaume is a boy's name meaning resolute protector, the French form of William — and the man who conquered England in 1066 bore this form of it, not the English one.
Boy French 232,219 births
Baptiste Baptiste is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "one who immerses," taken from the title of John the Baptist rather than from a name.
Boy French 108,549 births
Edouard Edouard means wealthy guardian, and it is Old English wearing French dress — the cult of Edward the Confessor carried an Anglo-Saxon compound across Catholic Europe without any English speakers going with it.
Boy French 90,790 births
Angèle Angèle means angelic, and the Greek root behind it means a messenger — the wings and hierarchies of later Christianity all grew from an ordinary word for someone carrying news.
Girl French 74,505 births
Bertrand Bertrand means bright raven, and the raven is deliberate — Germanic naming treated it as the bird of the battlefield and of Odin, so the compound is martial rather than ornithological.
Boy French 71,464 births
Aurore Aurore is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "dawn," the French form of Aurora and the name of the Roman goddess of daybreak.
Girl French 68,485 births
Lise Lise is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "my God is an oath," a short form of Elisabeth used across France and Scandinavia.
Girl French 42,481 births
Ange Ange is a unisex name of Greek origin meaning "messenger," which is what the word angel originally meant.
Unisex French 23,703 births
Octave Octave is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "eighth," the French form of the family name Octavius that Augustus was born with.
Boy French 14,800 births
Ulysse Ulysse is a boy's name of Greek origin, the French form of Odysseus, whose own name is glossed in the Odyssey as "the one who is hated."
Boy French 13,554 births
Ambroise Ambroise is a boy's name of Greek origin meaning "immortal," from the food of the gods.
Boy French 9,103 births
Olympe Olympe is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "of Olympus," and in France it belongs above all to the woman who wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Woman.
Girl French 7,663 births
Isaure Isaure is a girl's name from Isauria, a mountainous region of ancient Anatolia whose people were known for resisting Rome.
Girl French 5,449 births

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A style is our reading of a name. A decade is the register — the names children were actually given, in order, with the counts.

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