Midcentury Names

The names of the 1940s, 50s and 60s — currently in the dead zone, too recent to read as vintage and too dated to read as current. This is the group to watch: the hundred-year rule says it is next.

Rankings for

98 names, most popular first in United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Kay Kay serves two unrelated sources — the initial of Katherine, and Sir Kay of Arthurian legend, who is Arthur's foster brother and one of the oldest figures in the whole cycle.
English #3,916 in US
Sonja Sonja means wisdom, and the great church of Constantinople carries the same word — Hagia Sophia was dedicated to Holy Wisdom as an aspect of God, not to any saint of that name.
Scandinavian #3,960 in US
Becky Becky means to bind, shortened from Rebecca, and the Hebrew is genuinely uncertain — a knotted cord and a snare are both proposed, and the reading has never been settled.
English #4,024 in US
Vicky Vicky means victory, and it is one of the clearest cases on this site of a monarch making a name — Victoria was rare in English before the queen and ordinary for a century afterward.
English #4,078 in US
Cheryl Cheryl is a girl's name coined in twentieth-century America, probably by blending Cherie with Beryl.
English #4,386 in US
Maureen Maureen is the Irish Máirín, a diminutive of Máire, which is itself the Irish form of Mary.
Irish #4,441 in US
Debra Debra is a girl's name, the phonetic respelling of Deborah, from the Hebrew for bee.
Hebrew #4,475 in US
Lynda Lynda means lime tree, from Spanish and Germanic roots that disagree — the pretty reading comes from the Spanish linda, and the tree from a Germanic element, and neither is settled.
American #4,568 in US
Eliane Eliane has two possible parents that disagree completely — a Roman family name connected to the sun, and a Hebrew compound meaning God has answered.
French #4,814 in US
Doreen Doreen has two possible parents and neither is settled — an Irish Doireann whose own meaning is disputed, or Dora with an Irish diminutive attached, which would make it a nineteenth-century construction.
Irish #5,130 in US
Debbie Debbie is a girl's name meaning bee, a pet form of Deborah.
Hebrew #5,246 in US
Sherry Sherry is a girl's name that appears to have been taken from the wine, whose own name is a corruption of the Spanish town Jerez.
English #5,486 in US
Jill Jill is a girl's name, a medieval short form of Gillian, and it is half of the oldest surviving English nursery rhyme pair.
English #5,795 in US
Janine Janine means God is gracious, a French elaboration of Jeanne, and it charts in three markets on very small numbers — 2683rd in Canada, 5880th in the United States, 7199th in France and 7480th in England and Wales.
French #5,880 in US
Dianne Dianne means divine, from the Roman goddess of the hunt — and Diana was originally a woodland deity of the Latin countryside, identified with the Greek Artemis only later and never completely.
English #5,893 in US
Glenda Glenda is a twentieth-century Welsh invention rather than a traditional name — it joins two ordinary Welsh adjectives, and it does not appear in the historical record before about 1900.
Welsh #6,044 in US
Rhonda Rhonda is a girl's name from a Welsh river valley, and the great spear reading usually given for it is wrong — the Rhondda is named for its own noisiness, not for a weapon.
Welsh #6,125 in US
Terri Terri shortens Teresa, whose meaning has never been established — harvester, summer and a Greek island are all proposed and none of them is settled.
English #6,184 in US
Chantal Chantal is a girl's name from an Occitan word for a stone or boulder, taken from a French place name — the singing reading everyone gives it comes from the French chanter and is wrong.
French #6,227 in US
Marsha Marsha is a phonetic respelling of Marcia, and the name underneath is dedicated to Mars — the same god who gives his name to March, when the Roman year and the campaigning season both began.
English #7,529 in US
Sheryl Sheryl respells Cheryl, which is itself a twentieth-century invention — it appears in American records around 1920 with no traceable parent, and the meanings offered for it were supplied afterwards.
American #8,014 in US
Gail Gail is a girl's name meaning my father rejoices, clipped from Abigail.
Hebrew #8,620 in US
Cathy Cathy is a girl's name, a pet form of Catherine whose meaning has never been established.
Greek #8,845 in US
Sue Sue means lily, shortened from Susan, and it is one of the steepest falls in our data — from 5,306 American births in 1947 to 11, a decline by a factor of roughly 482.
English #9,306 in US
Jocelyne Jocelyne is the French feminine of a name that began as a man's — the Germanic Gauzlin, built on the tribal name of the Gauts, the people Beowulf belongs to.
French #9,418 in US
Véronique Véronique is a girl's name meaning true image, the French form of Veronica. It holds 237,412 recorded births and does not currently chart in any of the six markets we track, while the English form still charts in four.
French #9,966 in US
Janis Janis fell further than any name in this sweep — 3,217 American births in 1947 down to 10 in the most recent year we hold, which is a fall of more than 99 percent.
American #10,064 in US
Carole Carole is a girl's name meaning free man, the French spelling of Carol.
French #10,350 in US
Martine Martine is a girl's name meaning of Mars, the French feminine of Martin.
French #11,505 in US
Shari Shari means a plain, if it comes from Sharon — the Hebrew names the fertile coastal strip of Israel, so the rose of Sharon is a region's flower rather than a person's.
Hebrew #11,850 in US
Teri Teri descends from a name with no agreed meaning — Theresa has been traced to a Greek island, to a word for summer and to one for hunting, and none of the three has carried the field.
English #12,606 in US
Patti Patti and Patty peaked one year apart at almost exactly the same size — 3,121 births in 1958 and 3,123 in 1959 — which is about as close as two spellings of one name get in our records.
English #13,503 in US
Sheri Sheri means darling, and it is French by way of a misreading — English took the adjective chérie as though it were a name, which is why it has no history as one in France itself.
American #13,527 in US
Daniele Daniele means God is my judge, and it is masculine in Italy and feminine in France — the same spelling, opposite sexes, and our records are 99 percent female because the French use dominates.
French #13,878 in US
Lynne Lynne now ranks 2155th in France and 14047th in the United States, so a name that peaked in America at 2,471 births ranks far higher in a country that barely used it.
Welsh #14,047 in US
Josiane Josiane means God will add, a French feminine built on Joseph, and its 1948 peak of 6,775 French births has left almost nothing behind — it now ranks 6905th in France.
French #14,472 in US
Patty Patty belonged to Martha before it belonged to Patricia — the pet form was reassigned in the twentieth century, one of several nicknames in English that quietly changed parents.
English #16,459 in US
Françoise Françoise is a girl's name meaning a Frenchwoman, the feminine of François.
French 402,296 births
Christiane Christiane is a girl's name meaning a follower of Christ, the French and German form of Christina.
French 261,903 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.
English 155,049 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 6405th in a market it was never native to.
English 111,330 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.
French 92,522 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.
French 89,388 births
Marie-Christine Marie-Christine joins a name nobody can translate to one that is a title — Marie descends from Miriam, whose meaning is unrecovered, and Christine from Christos, the anointed one.
French 76,221 births
Gayle Gayle carries 67,694 lifetime births and now charts in none of our six markets — one of the largest names on this site to have fallen entirely out of current use.
English 67,716 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.
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.
French 64,525 births
Marie-Claude Marie-Claude joins two names whose meanings pull in opposite directions — Marie's own sense has never been settled, while Claude's is uncomfortably plain, descending from the Latin for lame.
French 58,495 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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Midcentury Names

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