Reviving Names

Names with a clear peak long ago and a clear climb now — the shape that proves the hundred-year rule rather than merely illustrating it.

Every name here is placed by how its recent years in the birth records compare with its earlier ones — so the list moves as the records do.

Rankings for

764 names, most popular first in United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Robin Robin is a name of Germanic origin meaning "bright fame."
Unisex Germanic #704 in US
Ila Peaked in 1925 · 25,814 births since 1880
Girl Indian #721 in US
Gwen Peaked in 1959 · 36,352 births since 1890
Girl #725 in US
Marcel Marcel is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "little warrior," a diminutive of Marcus and so ultimately from Mars.
Boy French #730 in US
Amos Peaked in 1922 · 38,799 births since 1880
Boy Hebrew #731 in US
Hugh Hugh is a boy's name from a Germanic word for mind or spirit, brought to Britain by the Normans.
Boy Germanic #732 in US
Ramona Ramona means protecting counsel, and a novel made it — Helen Hunt Jackson wrote Ramona in 1884 to expose the treatment of Native Californians, and readers took the romance and ignored the argument.
Girl Spanish #733 in US
Laurel Laurel names the plant directly, which sets it apart from Lora and Loren on this site — those reach the laurel through a Roman town, while this one is simply the tree.
Girl English #735 in US
Penny Penny is a girl's name of Greek origin, a diminutive of Penelope, whose own name is bound up with a duck.
Girl English #740 in US
Clyde Clyde took nothing from Bonnie and Clyde.
Boy Scottish #742 in US
Forest Peaked in 2022 · 19,306 births since 1880
Boy #751 in US
Lettie Peaked in 2025 · 11,586 births since 1880
Girl #757 in US
Pearl Pearl is a girl's name taken from the gem, and it charts in all seven markets we track.
Girl English #777 in US
Fallon Peaked in 1982 · 14,440 births since 1972
Girl #778 in US
Ruthie Peaked in 1927 · 22,759 births since 1880
Girl #780 in US
Luella Peaked in 1918 · 33,623 births since 1880
Girl #781 in US
Elouise Peaked in 2025 · 12,957 births since 1889
Girl #788 in US
Ira Ira means watchful, and it is 12 percent female in our records despite being a man's name in the Hebrew Bible — one of David's priests carries it in Samuel.
Unisex Hebrew #819 in US
Teddy Teddy is a boy's name that shortens either Edward, meaning "wealthy guardian," or Theodore, meaning "gift of God."
Boy English #823 in US
Benny Benny means son of the right hand, and Jacob overruled the name at the deathbed — Rachel called the child son of my sorrow as she died, and his father renamed him on the spot.
Boy Hebrew #842 in US
Darcy Darcy is a name of Norman French origin meaning "from Arcy," a place in Normandy.
Unisex French #858 in US
Odette Odette is a girl's name meaning wealth, a French diminutive of Oda — and it is the white swan in Swan Lake, opposite her black double Odile, both traditionally danced by the same ballerina.
Girl French #881 in US
Leroy Leroy is a boy's name that is simply the French for the king, taken as one word.
Boy French #884 in US
Hollis Peaked in 2025 · 21,692 births since 1880
Unisex #893 in US
Lucien Lucien is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "light," the French form of Lucian.
Boy French #897 in US
Winifred Winifred is two names that English collapsed into one — the Welsh Gwenfrewi and the Anglo-Saxon Winfrid, unrelated in every element, and our data marks the result reviving with England setting its peak this year.
Girl Welsh #922 in US
Elisabeth Elisabeth is a girl's name meaning God is my oath, and the s-spelling is the older one — it follows the Greek and German, while the English z is a later change.
Girl Hebrew #926 in US
Etta Etta is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "home ruler."
Girl Germanic #931 in US
Darla Darla is a girl's name coined in twentieth-century America from the word darling.
Girl English #942 in US
Marcella Marcella means dedicated to Mars, and our data marks it reviving — 948th in the United States, 1386th in England and Wales, 1507th in Canada and 6569th in France, from a peak more than a century old.
Girl Latin #948 in US
Wallace Wallace means foreigner, and the irony is complete — it is the Anglo-Saxon word for the Britons who were there first, so Scotland's national hero carries a name meaning outsider in his own country.
Boy Scottish #961 in US
Mazie Peaked in 2023 · 10,378 births since 1880
Girl #965 in US
Joan Joan is a girl's name, the medieval English feminine of John meaning God is gracious, and it was once as common as Mary.
Girl English #986 in US
Simone Simone is a girl's name meaning he has heard, the French feminine of Simon.
Girl French #997 in US
Joelle Joelle is the only rising name in this group, and one of very few at this volume anywhere in our data — it peaked in 2017, while almost everything of comparable size peaked between 1950 and 1995.
Girl French #1,010 in US
Belle Peaked in 1915 · 23,442 births since 1880
Girl #1,015 in US
Agnes Agnes is a girl's name from the Greek for pure, and the reason its saint is shown with a lamb is a Latin pun — agnus, lamb, sounds like the Greek hagnos but is a completely different word.
Girl Greek #1,016 in US
Maurice Maurice is a boy's name from a Latin word meaning a Moor, originally describing someone from Roman North Africa. Our data marks it reviving, and it peaked in 1920 — a century-long gap of the same kind we see in Walter and Frances.
Boy Latin #1,019 in US
Lyle Lyle is a boy's name from the Norman French for "the island," and the l at the front is the definite article rather than part of the word.
Boy Scottish #1,047 in US
Rosalyn Peaked in 1955 · 24,236 births since 1899
Girl #1,047 in US
Gordon Gordon is a Scottish surname turned given name, from a place in Berwickshire whose meaning is not settled — spacious fort is the usual gloss but it is a guess.
Boy Scottish #1,052 in US
Ollie Ollie is a name of Norse origin meaning "ancestor's descendant."
Unisex Norse #1,059 in US
Harriet Harriet is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "home ruler."
Girl Germanic #1,071 in US
Edmund Edmund was England's patron saint before George — Edmund the Martyr, king of East Anglia, was killed by a Viking army in 869 and held that position for some three hundred years before a crusader saint displaced him.
Boy English #1,083 in US
Betty Betty is a girl's name that began as a short form of Elizabeth and is now used in its own right.
Girl Hebrew #1,115 in US
Ida Ida is a girl's name from a Germanic word for work or labor, and it charts in all seven markets we track.
Girl Germanic #1,123 in US
Dara Dara is a unisex name that arrives from at least three unconnected languages — Irish, Hebrew and Persian — and the reading depends entirely on which one a family has in mind.
Unisex uncertain #1,129 in US
Booker Peaked in 1916 · 12,288 births since 1882
Boy #1,160 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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Reviving Names

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