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

166 names, most popular first in United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

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 #1,619 in US
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 #1,658 in US
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 #1,681 in US
Darrell Darrell does not mean beloved.
Boy French #1,698 in US
Lori Lori is a girl's name, a short form of Laura meaning laurel.
Girl Latin #1,732 in US
Don Don is a boy's name shortened from Donald, meaning world ruler.
Boy Scottish #1,794 in US
Josette Josette is the only faded name in this group — it peaked in France at 6,650 births in 1946 and now ranks nowhere in France at all, surviving only in the United States at 1837th.
Girl French #1,837 in US
Darlene Darlene is a girl's name built from the English word darling, and it is one of a small group of American twentieth-century coinages that used the -ene ending.
Girl English #1,846 in US
Lonnie Lonnie shortens Alonzo and Alphonso, meaning noble and ready — and the Germanic original reached Spain with the Visigoths, so a name that reads as American South is Gothic by descent.
Boy Spanish #1,846 in US
Francine Francine means Frenchwoman, and it is a French diminutive of a name that already means French — so it reads as a small French person, which is circular in a way few names manage.
Girl French #1,849 in US
Neal Neal has no agreed meaning — champion, cloud and passionate are all proposed for the Irish Niall and none is established.
Boy Irish #1,909 in US
Cindy Cindy is a girl's name, a pet form of Cynthia, which was a title of the moon goddess Artemis.
Girl Greek #1,929 in US
Charlene Charlene is a girl's name meaning free man, a feminine of Charles.
Girl English #1,951 in US
Donna Donna is a girl's name from the Italian word for a lady, a title used as a name.
Girl Italian #1,969 in US
Jackie Jackie is the third most evenly divided name on this site — 48.9 percent of the births in our records are female, behind only Emerson and Riley among names with more than 50,000 births.
Unisex English #2,166 in US
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 #2,188 in US
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 #2,239 in US
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 #2,248 in US
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 #2,265 in US
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 #2,277 in US
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 #2,371 in US
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 #2,469 in US
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 #2,520 in US
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 #2,568 in US
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 #2,574 in US
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 #2,603 in US
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 #2,608 in US
Joanne Joanne is a girl's name meaning God is gracious, one of the many feminines of John.
Girl English #2,618 in US
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 #2,680 in US
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 #2,763 in US
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 #2,766 in US
Janet Janet is a girl's name, a Scottish diminutive of Jane meaning God is gracious.
Girl Scottish #2,797 in US
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 #2,804 in US
Roberta Roberta is a girl's name meaning bright fame, the feminine of Robert.
Girl Germanic #2,813 in US
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 #2,829 in US
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 #2,862 in US
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 #2,898 in US
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 #2,927 in US
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 #2,949 in US
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 #2,982 in US
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 #3,011 in US
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 #3,075 in US
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 #3,160 in US
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 #3,221 in US
Kathy Kathy is a girl's name, the pet form of Katherine, and it inherits that name's genuinely unknown meaning.
Girl Greek #3,262 in US
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 #3,356 in US
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 #3,419 in US
Tammy Tammy is a girl's name meaning palm tree, a pet form of Tamara.
Girl Hebrew #3,678 in US

Or Browse by Decade

A style is our reading of a name. A decade is the register — the names children were actually given, in order, with the counts.

Search Names

Midcentury Names

Or Browse by Decade

Related Styles