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

54 names, uncommon — 100 to 499 a year, in United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Ronald Ronald is a boy's name from the Old Norse Rögnvaldr, meaning ruler's counsel, brought to Scotland by Norse settlement.
Boy Norse 438 in 2025
Wayne Wayne is an occupational surname meaning a wagon maker, and its life as a given name follows one man — John Wayne, who was born Marion Robert Morrison and renamed by a studio.
Boy English 422 in 2025
Dennis Dennis is a boy's name that traces back to Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and ecstatic release — one of the few widely used Christian names derived from a pagan deity.
Boy Greek 381 in 2025
Marilyn Marilyn is a girl's name usually read as a blend of Mary and Lyn.
Girl English 356 in 2025
Keith Keith is a boy's name from a Scottish place name, probably from a Brittonic word for a wood.
Boy Scottish 311 in 2025
Roger Roger is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning famous spear.
Boy Germanic 297 in 2025
Paula Paula is a girl's name from the Latin for small or humble, the feminine of Paul.
Girl Latin 318 in 2025
Deborah Deborah is a girl's name from the Hebrew for bee, borne by the only woman to lead Israel as a judge.
Girl Hebrew 313 in 2025
Linda Linda is a girl's name usually read as beautiful in Spanish or as a Germanic element meaning soft or tender.
Girl Spanish 294 in 2025
Jerry Jerry is a name that serves as the short form of at least three unrelated names — Jeremiah from Hebrew, Gerald and Gerard from Germanic — so its meaning depends entirely on which one a family had in mind.
Boy English 262 in 2025
Darla Darla is a girl's name coined in twentieth-century America from the word darling.
Girl English 275 in 2025
Ricky Ricky is a boy's name, the pet form of Richard or Ricardo, meaning strong ruler.
Boy Germanic 263 in 2025
Barbara Barbara is a girl's name from the Greek for foreign or strange, the feminine of the word that gives us barbarian.
Girl Greek 264 in 2025
Curtis Curtis is a boy's name from a Norman French nickname meaning courteous, and it is one of very few names that describes manners rather than birth, appearance or trade.
Boy French 232 in 2025
Cynthia Cynthia is a girl's name that began as a title for the moon goddess — it means she of Mount Cynthus, the peak on Delos where Artemis was said to have been born.
Girl Greek 247 in 2025
Kelvin Kelvin is the only name on this site that is also an SI unit, and the order runs river to man to measurement — a Glasgow river gave a physicist his title, and the title was given to the scale of absolute temperature.
Boy Scottish 214 in 2025
Gary Gary is a boy's name that reached the charts by an unusually traceable route: a surname became a steel town in Indiana, the town's name was given to an actor, and the actor made it a first name.
Boy English 201 in 2025
Randy Randy is a boy's name, the short form of Randall or Randolph, meaning shield-wolf.
Boy Germanic 198 in 2025
Susan Susan is a girl's name from a Hebrew word for lily, taken in turn from an Egyptian word for lotus.
Girl Hebrew 222 in 2025
Larry Larry is a boy's name, the short form of Lawrence, from a Roman name meaning of Laurentum.
Boy Latin 198 in 2025
Rodney Rodney is a boy's name from an English place name, and its rise as a given name follows a single admiral — George Rodney, who broke the French line at the Saintes in 1782.
Boy English 197 in 2025
Renee Renee is a girl's name from the Latin for reborn, given at baptism to mark spiritual rebirth.
Girl French 223 in 2025
Terry Terry is a name serving as a short form of Terence and of the Germanic Theodoric, two unrelated names, and it is genuinely mixed — about 18 percent of the births in our records are female.
Unisex English 202 in 2025
Kathleen Kathleen is a girl's name anglicizing the Irish Caitlín, a form of Catherine, and it inherits that name's genuinely unknown meaning.
Girl Irish 201 in 2025
Sandra Sandra is a girl's name that began as an Italian short form of Alessandra and became independent in the twentieth century.
Girl Italian 188 in 2025
Gerald Gerald is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning rule of the spear, and it gave Ireland one of its great Norman dynasties, the FitzGeralds.
Boy Germanic 168 in 2025
Carolyn Carolyn is a girl's name, an English elaboration of Caroline meaning free man through Charles.
Girl English 185 in 2025
Mike Mike is a boy's name, the short form of Michael, from a Hebrew question meaning who is like God.
Boy Hebrew 163 in 2025
Sharon Sharon is a girl's name taken from a place rather than a person — the fertile coastal plain of Sharon in Israel, known from the rose of Sharon in the Song of Songs.
Girl Hebrew 179 in 2025
Kenny Kenny sits on top of two different Gaelic names that English collapsed into one — Cináed, born of fire, and Coinneach, handsome.
Boy Scottish 161 in 2025
Christine Christine is a girl's name from the Latin for a follower of Christ, the French form of Christina.
Girl Latin 176 in 2025
Karen Karen is a girl's name, the Danish form of Katherine, and it inherits that name's genuinely unknown meaning.
Girl Danish 175 in 2025
Patricia Patricia is a girl's name from the Latin for noble or patrician, the feminine of Patrick.
Girl Latin 167 in 2025
Wendy Wendy is usually credited to J.
Girl English 165 in 2025
Anita Anita is a girl's name, the Spanish diminutive of Ana, meaning grace.
Girl Spanish 165 in 2025
Dale Dale is a name from the Old English word for a valley, and like Craig and Heather it is a plain landscape noun rather than a compound.
Boy English 134 in 2025
Annette Annette is a girl's name meaning grace, a French diminutive of Anne.
Girl French 149 in 2025
Randall Randall is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning shield-wolf.
Boy Germanic 117 in 2025
Barry Barry is a boy's name from an Irish surname generally traced to a word for a spear, though a Welsh island gives a competing route.
Boy Irish 114 in 2025
Brenda Brenda is a girl's name from an Old Norse word for a sword or a torch, and it appears to have been invented for a novel — Walter Scott used it in The Pirate in 1822, and no earlier use is recorded.
Girl Norse 139 in 2025
Daryl Daryl completes a set of three — Darrell, Darryl and Daryl are one Norman place name split across three spellings, and all three appear in our gap band, carrying about 328,000 births between them.
Boy French 113 in 2025
Jeffery Jeffery is a boy's name whose first element is genuinely disputed, though the second means peace.
Boy Germanic 110 in 2025
Terrence Terrence descends from a Roman playwright who was born enslaved in North Africa — Terence was freed by his owner, wrote six comedies that survive complete, and shaped Latin prose style for centuries.
Boy Latin 107 in 2025
Steve Steve is a boy's name, the short form of Steven or Stephen, meaning crown or garland.
Boy Greek 105 in 2025
Todd Todd is a boy's name from a northern English dialect word for a fox, given as a nickname to someone crafty or red-haired.
Boy English 105 in 2025
Kent Kent is the oldest recorded place name in England — Cantium appears in Greek writing before the Roman invasion, and its meaning was already uncertain to the Romans who wrote it down.
Boy English 101 in 2025
Denise Denise is a girl's name, the French feminine of Denis, and like it traces to Dionysus, the Greek god of wine.
Girl French 123 in 2025
Lori Lori is a girl's name, a short form of Laura meaning laurel.
Girl Latin 118 in 2025

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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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