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

49 names, rare — 25 to 99 a year, in United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Darrell Darrell does not mean beloved.
Boy French 97 in 2025
Don Don is a boy's name shortened from Donald, meaning world ruler.
Boy Scottish 89 in 2025
Neal Neal has no agreed meaning — champion, cloud and passionate are all proposed for the Irish Niall and none is established.
Boy Irish 82 in 2025
Charlene Charlene is a girl's name meaning free man, a feminine of Charles.
Girl English 99 in 2025
Donna Donna is a girl's name from the Italian word for a lady, a title used as a name.
Girl Italian 98 in 2025
Deanna Deanna was popularized by a stage name — the actress born Edna Mae Durbin was renamed Deanna Durbin in 1936, and American births rose from almost nothing to a peak of 4,331 in 1970.
Girl English 85 in 2025
Carol Carol is a girl's name with two independent sources: a short form of Caroline, and the word for a joyful song.
Girl English 82 in 2025
Pamela Pamela is a girl's name invented by a poet: Sir Philip Sidney coined it for his Arcadia around 1580, apparently from Greek elements meaning all sweetness.
Girl English 82 in 2025
Toni Toni has no established meaning, because Antonia does not — the Roman family name Antonius is probably Etruscan, and the flower reading attached to Anthony is a Renaissance invention.
Girl English 89 in 2025
Jacquelyn Jacquelyn means supplanter, and the chain is long — it is an American respelling of Jacqueline, the French feminine of Jacques, which is James, which is Jacob.
Girl American 80 in 2025
Pete Pete means rock, and it began as a joke about a man's character — Jesus renames Simon as Cephas, the Aramaic for a stone, and the pun works in Greek but not in English.
Boy English 58 in 2025
Dave Dave ranks 2217th in England and Wales and 2469th in the United States, so the short form outranks its American peak market in a country that never recorded more than fifteen in a year.
Boy Hebrew 55 in 2025
Janice Janice is a girl's name usually credited to a 1899 novel, though our records carry it from 1894 — five years before the book.
Girl English 70 in 2025
Kirk Kirk means church, and it is Norse rather than English — the Vikings brought the word to northern England and Scotland, which is why Scots say kirk where English says church.
Boy Scottish 52 in 2025
Dianna Dianna means the shining one, and the root is the same one behind Zeus and Jupiter — an Indo-European word for the bright daytime sky that also gives us the ordinary word day.
Girl Latin 68 in 2025
Duane Duane means the little dark one, from an Irish surname built on the word for black — and that same root also gives us Dublin, which means the black pool that the city originally grew up around.
Boy Irish 51 in 2025
Lynette Lynette entered English through Tennyson, who reshaped a Welsh name for the Idylls of the King — Luned became Lynette, and the spelling he used is the one that survived.
Girl Welsh 66 in 2025
Joanne Joanne is a girl's name meaning God is gracious, one of the many feminines of John.
Girl English 66 in 2025
Sheila Sheila is the Irish form of Cecilia, meaning blind — and parents outside Ireland should know it became Australian slang for a woman in the nineteenth century, which is why it barely charts there.
Girl Irish 65 in 2025
Terence Terence has no known meaning, and its most famous bearer was a slave — the playwright Terence was North African, brought to Rome, freed, and became one of the two Latin comic dramatists whose work survives.
Boy Latin 47 in 2025
Dwight Dwight descends from Dionysus, the Greek god of wine — through the medieval woman's name Diot, a pet form of Dionysia, which is an unusually indirect route for a masculine surname.
Boy English 46 in 2025
Janet Janet is a girl's name, a Scottish diminutive of Jane meaning God is gracious.
Girl Scottish 61 in 2025
Tina Tina is a girl's name that serves as the tail end of several unrelated names — Christina, Martina, Valentina and Bettina — so its meaning depends entirely on which one a family had in mind.
Girl Latin 61 in 2025
Roberta Roberta is a girl's name meaning bright fame, the feminine of Robert.
Girl Germanic 61 in 2025
Rickey Rickey means strong ruler, and its peak is the largest in this group — 3,818 American births in 1958, against 45 in the most recent year we have.
Boy English 45 in 2025
Alain Alain is a boy's name, the French form of Alan, and its meaning is genuinely unknown — rock, handsome and deer have all been proposed from a Breton source that has never been identified.
Boy French 44 in 2025
Carlton Carlton means the settlement of the free peasants, and the word for those peasants became an insult — ceorl gave English churl and churlish, so the name preserves a class that the language later turned against.
Boy English 43 in 2025
Lora Lora means from Laurentum, and the laurel is one step removed — the Roman town was named for its bay trees, and the personal name says which town you came from rather than which plant crowned you.
Girl Latin 58 in 2025
Anne-Marie Anne-Marie joins grace to a name nobody can translate — Anne means favor, and Mary's meaning has never been established, so only half of this compound has a settled sense at all.
Girl French 57 in 2025
Brice Brice means speckled, and the fourth-century saint who carried it was a difficult man — Brictius succeeded Martin of Tours after years of insulting him publicly, and was driven out before being restored.
Boy French 42 in 2025
Loren Loren means from Laurentum, a town rather than a plant — the laurel reading came second, and the town itself was probably named for its laurels, so the connection is real but runs the long way round.
Unisex Latin 95 in 2025
Rick Rick means brave ruler, shortened from Richard — and the medieval habit of rhyming pet names is why Rick also produced Dick, which is the same name with a different first letter.
Boy English 40 in 2025
Jim Jim is a boy's name meaning supplanter, shortened from James — which is the same name as Jacob, split into two by Latin.
Boy English 38 in 2025
Tim Tim means honoring God, and France ranks it 277th — far above the United States at 3221st, which is the reverse of what an English short form would normally do.
Boy English 37 in 2025
Kathy Kathy is a girl's name, the pet form of Katherine, and it inherits that name's genuinely unknown meaning.
Girl Greek 48 in 2025
Monique Monique is a girl's name, the French form of Monica, whose meaning is genuinely unknown despite the confident answers usually given for it.
Girl French 46 in 2025
Marcia Marcia means dedicated to Mars, and that god's name is also where the month of March comes from — the Roman year began in March, because that was when the campaigning season opened up again after the winter.
Girl Latin 45 in 2025
Tammy Tammy is a girl's name meaning palm tree, a pet form of Tamara.
Girl Hebrew 41 in 2025
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.
Girl English 47 in 2025
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.
Girl Scandinavian 37 in 2025
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.
Girl English 36 in 2025
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.
Girl English 35 in 2025
Kim Kim is a name that arrives from three unrelated directions — an English place name, Kipling's 1901 novel, and the most common Korean surname in the world.
Unisex English 40 in 2025
Cheryl Cheryl is a girl's name coined in twentieth-century America, probably by blending Cherie with Beryl.
Girl English 32 in 2025
Maureen Maureen is the Irish Máirín, a diminutive of Máire, which is itself the Irish form of Mary.
Girl Irish 32 in 2025
Debra Debra is a girl's name, the phonetic respelling of Deborah, from the Hebrew for bee.
Girl Hebrew 31 in 2025
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.
Girl American 30 in 2025
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.
Girl French 28 in 2025

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Midcentury Names

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