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

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 #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.
Girl 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.
Girl 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.
Girl English #4,078 in US
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 #4,263 in US
Cheryl Cheryl is a girl's name coined in twentieth-century America, probably by blending Cherie with Beryl.
Girl English #4,386 in US
Maureen Maureen is the Irish Máirín, a diminutive of Máire, which is itself the Irish form of Mary.
Girl Irish #4,441 in US
Debra Debra is a girl's name, the phonetic respelling of Deborah, from the Hebrew for bee.
Girl 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.
Girl 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.
Girl French #4,814 in US
Randolph Randolph means shield-wolf, and the shield in it is specifically the rim — the Germanic rand names the edge of the shield rather than the whole thing, which is the part that met an enemy's blade.
Boy English #5,043 in US
Thierry Thierry is a boy's name meaning ruler of the people, the French form of the Germanic Theodoric — and it is the same name as Terry, which reached English by a different route.
Boy French #5,106 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.
Girl Irish #5,130 in US
Jean-Luc Jean-Luc joins God is gracious to a name meaning from Lucania, an Italian region — so the second half is a place, not the light it is usually said to mean.
Boy French #5,132 in US
Debbie Debbie is a girl's name meaning bee, a pet form of Deborah.
Girl Hebrew #5,246 in US
Bill Bill comes from William, and the B is the point — medieval English made pet names by rhyming, which is why Will became Bill, Rob became Bob and Rick became Dick.
Boy English #5,272 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.
Girl 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.
Girl 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.
Girl 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.
Girl 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.
Girl Welsh #6,044 in US
Garry Garry means spear, and it reached English through a steel town — Gary, Indiana was named for a US Steel chairman, and the place name did more for the given name than any of its Germanic ancestors.
Boy English #6,104 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.
Girl 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.
Girl 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.
Girl French #6,227 in US
Didier Didier is a boy's name from a Latin name meaning longed for — and the Latin word behind it originally meant to await what the stars bring, which is where the English desire comes from.
Boy French #6,687 in US
Jean-Paul Jean-Paul joins God is gracious to a name meaning small — Paul was a Roman cognomen for a short man, so the compound sets a statement about God beside a physical nickname.
Boy French #6,807 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.
Girl 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.
Girl American #8,014 in US
Jean-Pierre Jean-Pierre is a boy's name joining John and Peter, and it is the most-used hyphenated compound on this site — a French naming pattern treated as one indivisible name, with no real equivalent in English.
Boy French #8,099 in US
Serge Serge is a boy's name from a Roman family name of unknown meaning, and it is also a cloth — the twilled fabric is named from the same Latin word for silk, by a separate route.
Boy French #8,422 in US
Gail Gail is a girl's name meaning my father rejoices, clipped from Abigail.
Girl Hebrew #8,620 in US
Cathy Cathy is a girl's name, a pet form of Catherine whose meaning has never been established.
Girl 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.
Girl 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.
Girl 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.
Girl 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.
Girl American #10,064 in US
Carole Carole is a girl's name meaning free man, the French spelling of Carol.
Girl French #10,350 in US
Bob Bob comes from Robert, and the B is not a corruption but a system — medieval English made pet names by rhyming, which is why Rob gave Bob, Will gave Bill and Rick gave Dick.
Boy English #10,578 in US
Jacky Jacky is 98 percent male in our records, which is the reverse of the English Jackie — France took it as a boy's name and kept it, while English-speaking countries made it a woman's.
Boy French #11,096 in US
Martine Martine is a girl's name meaning of Mars, the French feminine of Martin.
Girl 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.
Girl 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.
Girl 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.
Girl 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.
Girl 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.
Girl 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.
Girl 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.
Girl French #14,472 in US

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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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