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 the United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

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.
Girl English #16,459 in US
Françoise Françoise is a girl's name meaning a Frenchwoman, the feminine of François.
Girl French 402,296 births
Stéphane Stéphane is a boy's name meaning crown or garland, the French form of Stephen.
Boy French 313,262 births
Christiane Christiane is a girl's name meaning a follower of Christ, the French and German form of Christina.
Girl French 261,903 births
Gilles Gilles is a French boy's name from a Greek word for a young goat — by way of the aegis, the goatskin shield of Athena.
Boy French 176,246 births
Jean-Claude Jean-Claude is a French compound of two names, God is gracious and lame.
Boy French 174,748 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.
Girl 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 6,405th in a market it was never native to.
Girl 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.
Girl 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.
Girl French 89,388 births
Jean-Michel Jean-Michel joins God is gracious to a question — Michel means who is like God, expecting the answer nobody, so the compound is a statement followed by a challenge.
Boy French 88,012 births
Jean-Louis Jean-Louis joins God is gracious to famous in battle — and Louis is the same name as Clovis, so the compound contains the first and last forms of one word that named eighteen French kings.
Boy French 80,833 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.
Girl French 76,221 births
Gayle Gayle carries 67,694 lifetime births and now charts in no market — one of the largest names on this site to have fallen entirely out of current use.
Girl 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.
Girl 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.
Girl 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.
Girl French 58,495 births
Marie-France Marie-France peaked in 1948, three years after the Liberation, and its second half is the country itself — one of very few given names anywhere that takes a nation as an element.
Girl French 54,486 births
Jean-Jacques Jean-Jacques joins the French forms of John and James, and the second half is the more interesting — Jacques is Jacob, whose Hebrew name refers to grabbing a heel, because he was born holding his twin's.
Boy French 54,127 births
Jean-Philippe Jean-Philippe means God is gracious and lover of horses, and the second half is aristocratic by design — owning horses marked a Greek man as wealthy enough to fight mounted.
Boy French 48,567 births
Shelia Shelia is Cecilia with two letters swapped and four languages in between — Cecilia became the Irish Síle, Síle was written Sheila in English, and Sheila was misspelled into Shelia often enough to become its own name.
Girl Irish 47,946 births
Yvon Yvon means yew, and the tree armed medieval Europe — the English longbow was cut from yew, so a name meaning yew is closer to a name meaning bow than to a name meaning tree.
Boy French 40,818 births

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