Enduring Names

Names whose curve barely moves across the whole series. The rarest movement category, and the only one that is a genuine achievement rather than a phase.

Rankings for

8,721 names, most popular first in the United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Stéphane Stéphane is a boy's name meaning crown or garland, the French form of Stephen.
Boy French 313,262 births
Christiane Christiane is a girl's name meaning a follower of Christ, the French and German form of Christina.
Girl French 261,903 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
Romain Romain is a French boy's name meaning a Roman, from the Latin word for a citizen of Rome.
Boy French 194,729 births
Franck Franck is the French spelling of Frank, and the tribe it names is the reason France is called France — the Franks gave their name to the country, and the word came to mean free.
Boy French 178,077 births
Gilles Gilles is a French boy's name from a Greek word for a young goat — by way of the aegis, the goatskin shield of Athena.
Boy French 176,246 births
Jean-Claude Jean-Claude is a French compound of two names, God is gracious and lame.
Boy French 174,748 births
Virginie Virginie does not mean maiden.
Girl French 173,498 births
Claudine Claudine is a French girl's name meaning lame, from a Roman family name.
Girl French 170,774 births
Raymonde Raymonde is the French feminine of Raymond, meaning protecting counsel.
Girl French 164,932 births
Vicki Vicki means victory, shortened from Victoria — and Victoria was a rare name in Britain before the queen, not a traditional one she happened to carry.
Girl English 155,049 births
Laetitia Laetitia means joy, and it is the Latin original standing behind the far more common Letitia and Lettice.
Girl French 144,722 births
Hervé Hervé means battle-worthy, and it is Breton rather than French — a Brittonic name closer in ancestry to Welsh than to anything Latin.
Boy Breton 140,182 births
Arnaud Arnaud means eagle-power, built from two Germanic words, and it is the French form of the name English knows as Arnold.
Boy French 139,847 births
Annick Annick is the Breton form of Anne, meaning grace, and the -ick ending is a Breton diminutive rather than a French one.
Girl Breton 132,124 births
Ludovic Ludovic means famous in battle, and it is the same name as Louis and Ludwig — eighteen French kings and the composer all carry one Germanic compound in different national dress.
Boy French 131,146 births
Henriette Henriette means home ruler, and the home in question is an estate rather than a house — the Germanic element meant an enclosure or domain, so the name describes holding territory, not housekeeping.
Girl French 128,291 births
Marthe Marthe means the lady, and it is one of very few widely used names that came into European use from Aramaic rather than Hebrew, Greek or Latin.
Girl French 123,291 births
Fernand Fernand means bold journey, and it is Germanic rather than Spanish despite having arrived through Spain — the Visigoths carried it there, and it went on to become the royal name of both Castile and Aragon.
Boy French 120,178 births
Micheline Micheline is the French feminine of Michel, and the name underneath is a question — Michael means who is like God, expecting the answer nobody.
Girl French 113,160 births
Vickie Vickie is an American name that now charts only in France — it peaked at 6,957 US births in 1956 and has left the American rankings entirely, surviving at 6,405th in a market it was never native to.
Girl English 111,330 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
Fabienne Fabienne is the French feminine of Fabien, meaning bean grower, and it peaked in France at 6,850 births in 1965 before leaving every ranking we track — it charts in no market now.
Girl French 105,993 births
Pascale Pascale means Passover, not Easter — the Hebrew pesach came into Greek and Latin unchanged, and Christian use attached it to a different festival that happened to fall at the same point in the calendar.
Girl French 104,744 births
Jean-François Jean-François joins God is gracious to a name meaning Frenchman — and the second half was itself a nickname, since Saint Francis was baptized Giovanni and called the little Frenchman by his father.
Boy French 101,775 births
Amandine Amandine means worthy of love, and the grammar is unusual — the Latin is a gerundive, a form expressing obligation, so the name means one who must be loved rather than one who happens to be.
Girl French 96,616 births
Severine Severine means stern, from a Roman family name — and the emperor who carried it died at York in 211, which is the furthest north any Roman emperor ever got and the reason the name reached Britain at all.
Girl French 95,444 births
Odile Odile means wealth, from a Germanic word for inherited property — and her saint was born blind, abandoned for it, and became patron of Alsace and of people with poor eyesight.
Girl French 94,576 births
Maryse Maryse is a French elaboration of Marie, so it inherits a meaning nobody can establish — Mary's derivation has never been settled, and the star of the sea reading is a medieval mistranslation.
Girl French 92,522 births
Jean-Marc Jean-Marc joins God is gracious to a name dedicated to the god of war — Marc descends from Mars, so the compound sets a Hebrew statement about grace directly against a Roman war god.
Boy French 91,528 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
Huguette Huguette means mind or spirit, from a Germanic word — and the Huguenots take their name from the same root by a disputed route, though the connection is argued rather than established.
Girl French 90,172 births
Marie-Thérèse Marie-Thérèse joins a name nobody can translate to another nobody can translate — Marie descends from Miriam and Thérèse from a Greek original, and neither derivation has ever been established.
Girl French 89,388 births
Jean-Michel Jean-Michel joins God is gracious to a question — Michel means who is like God, expecting the answer nobody, so the compound is a statement followed by a challenge.
Boy French 88,012 births
Laure Laure means laurel, and the wreath was a prize rather than an ornament — Roman victors and poets wore it, which is where laureate and baccalaureate both come from.
Girl French 85,898 births
Pierrette Pierrette means little stone, and the name records a nickname Jesus gave — Simon was renamed Cephas in Aramaic, rendered as Petros in Greek to keep the pun on rock intact.
Girl French 82,160 births
Jean-Louis Jean-Louis joins God is gracious to famous in battle — and Louis is the same name as Clovis, so the compound contains the first and last forms of one word that named eighteen French kings.
Boy French 80,833 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
Florent Florent means flowering, and it ranks in France alone at 1,358th — one of the most tightly national names in this band, with no measured presence in the five other markets.
Boy French 70,948 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
Gayle Gayle carries 67,694 lifetime births and now charts in no market — one of the largest names on this site to have fallen entirely out of current use.
Girl English 67,716 births
Pat Pat is one of the most evenly divided names on this site — about 60 percent of recorded births are female, because it shortens both Patricia and Patrick and neither side ever won.
Unisex English 66,955 births
Ghislaine Ghislaine means a pledge, and the pledge was a person — the Germanic word named a hostage handed over as security for a treaty, which is how the name entered European royalty.
Girl French 64,537 births
Régine Régine means queen, and it completes a set — Rex is the Latin nominative, Regis the genitive, Régine the feminine, and all three are large enough to hold their own page on this site.
Girl French 64,525 births
Agathe Agathe is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning simply "good," from agathos.
Girl French 63,897 births
Ernestine Ernestine is the feminine of the same Germanic word as Earnest in this group — eornost, the vigor of a fight.
Girl French 59,749 births
Corentin Corentin has no settled meaning, and the tempest gloss offered by most sources is unsupported — what survives is the Breton saint, and a legend about a fish that regrew itself every day.
Boy French 59,671 births

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