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

Yolande Yolande has no settled origin, and the violet reading most sources give is a guess — it may be a French reshaping of the Italian Violante, or a Germanic name reworked to look like one.
Girl French 55,374 births
Frédérique Frédérique means peaceful ruler, and the pairing is not the contradiction it looks — a medieval ruler's job was to impose the peace, so power and quiet were the same undertaking.
Girl French 55,027 births
Gabin Gabin is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "from Gabii," an ancient town near Rome.
Boy French 54,596 births
Marie-France Marie-France peaked in 1948, three years after the Liberation, and its second half is the country itself — one of very few given names anywhere that takes a nation as an element.
Girl French 54,486 births
Gaëtan Gaëtan names an Italian coastal town, and it reaches French through a saint rather than through Italy — Cajetan of Thiene founded an order in the sixteenth century, and the name followed the order into France.
Boy French 54,390 births
Jean-Jacques Jean-Jacques joins the French forms of John and James, and the second half is the more interesting — Jacques is Jacob, whose Hebrew name refers to grabbing a heel, because he was born holding his twin's.
Boy French 54,127 births
Sylviane Sylviane means of the forest, and Rome had a god for exactly that — Silvanus presided over woodland and field boundaries, and Rhea Silvia, mother of Romulus and Remus, carries the same root.
Girl French 53,090 births
Mauricette Mauricette means little dark one, and the root is an ethnic label — Maurus meant a Moor, a North African, so the name records complexion as Romans classified it rather than as a description.
Girl French 52,760 births
Maud Maud is the same name as Maude and peaked ninety-three years later — the e-less spelling belongs to France, which set its high in 1981 while the American form was already a century past its own.
Girl French 51,526 births
Jean-Baptiste Jean-Baptiste means John the dipper, and the second half is a job description — baptizein is the ordinary Greek for dipping something in liquid, so the title says plainly what he did in the river.
Boy French 49,373 births
Marie-Louise Marie-Louise means famous in battle on one side and nothing certain on the other — Louise is a solid Germanic compound, while Marie descends from a name that has never been securely translated.
Girl French 49,216 births
Nadege Nadege means hope, and it belongs to a set of three — Russian tradition names girls Vera, Nadezhda and Lyubov for faith, hope and love, and Vera is written up separately on this site.
Girl French 49,061 births
Jean-Philippe Jean-Philippe means God is gracious and lover of horses, and the second half is aristocratic by design — owning horses marked a Greek man as wealthy enough to fight mounted.
Boy French 48,567 births
Shelia Shelia is Cecilia with two letters swapped and four languages in between — Cecilia became the Irish Síle, Síle was written Sheila in English, and Sheila was misspelled into Shelia often enough to become its own name.
Girl Irish 47,946 births
Norbert Norbert means bright north, and the north in it is the direction rather than a place — Germanic naming used compass points as elements, which is rare in any other European naming tradition.
Boy German 47,560 births
Paule Paule means small, and the apostle chose it — Saul of Tarsus took the Roman cognomen Paulus, a word meaning little, in place of a name that meant asked for.
Girl French 46,364 births
Emilienne Emilienne descends from a Roman family name nobody can translate — Aemilius is usually given as rival, from aemulus, but that is a resemblance rather than a derivation.
Girl French 45,358 births
Antonin Antonin descends from a Roman family name nobody can translate — Antonius is probably Etruscan, and the praiseworthy and flower readings were both attached by Renaissance humanists.
Boy French 43,090 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
Ludivine Ludivine may have been invented for television — the name has almost no record before a French series used it in the 1970s, and its rise begins immediately afterward.
Girl French 42,149 births
Carroll Carroll is one of the more evenly divided names on this site — 14 percent of recorded births are female, and it belonged to the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence.
Unisex Irish 41,350 births
Yvon Yvon means yew, and the tree armed medieval Europe — the English longbow was cut from yew, so a name meaning yew is closer to a name meaning bow than to a name meaning tree.
Boy French 40,818 births
Rolande Rolande means famous land, and the man behind it died in a skirmish that became an epic — Roland fell at Roncevaux against Basques, and the Song of Roland turned them into a Saracen army.
Girl French 40,372 births
Marie-Hélène Peaked in 1959 · 38,522 births since 1900
Girl French 38,522 births
Cyrille Peaked in 1973 · 38,481 births since 1900
Boy 38,481 births
Martial Peaked in 1969 · 36,913 births since 1900
Boy French 36,913 births
Marie-Claire Peaked in 1954 · 36,535 births since 1900
Girl 36,535 births
Marie-Laure Peaked in 1970 · 35,599 births since 1900
Girl French 35,599 births
Benedicte Peaked in 1972 · 35,255 births since 1900
Girl 35,255 births
Deloris Peaked in 1947 · 34,781 births since 1899
Girl 34,781 births
Ronda Peaked in 1965 · 34,686 births since 1915
Girl 34,686 births
Raoul Peaked in 1912 · 34,407 births since 1900
Boy French 34,407 births
Claudie Peaked in 1953 · 32,401 births since 1902
Girl French 32,401 births
Myrna Peaked in 1938 · 32,078 births since 1885
Girl 32,078 births
Aude Peaked in 1979 · 31,982 births since 1904
Girl 31,982 births
France Peaked in 1915 · 31,847 births since 1900
Girl Arabic 31,847 births
Albertine Peaked in 1908 · 30,449 births since 1900
Girl Dutch 30,449 births
Dick Peaked in 1934 · 29,326 births since 1880
Boy Dutch 29,326 births
Magalie Peaked in 1981 · 29,001 births since 1906
Girl 29,001 births
Clotilde Peaked in 1902 · 28,606 births since 1900
Girl 28,606 births
Grégoire Peaked in 1998 · 28,352 births since 1900
Boy French 28,352 births
Marie-Françoise Peaked in 1949 · 28,190 births since 1900
Girl French 28,190 births
Blandine Peaked in 1986 · 27,958 births since 1900
Girl 27,958 births
Armelle Peaked in 1972 · 26,535 births since 1900
Girl 26,535 births
Ed Peaked in 1959 · 26,520 births since 1880
Boy 26,520 births
Hugues Peaked in 1965 · 26,053 births since 1900
Boy French 26,053 births
Renaud Peaked in 1986 · 25,973 births since 1900
Boy French 25,973 births
Nannie Peaked in 1920 · 25,580 births since 1880
Girl 25,580 births

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Enduring Names

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