Vintage Boy Names

Names that were everywhere a century ago and then were not. The reliable pattern is the hundred-year rule: a name usually has to feel like a great-grandparent rather than a grandparent before it can come back, because the generation in between still hears it as merely old.

Rankings for

6,580 names, most popular first in the United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Harold Harold is a boy's name from Norse and Old English elements meaning army ruler, and it belongs to the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, killed at Hastings in 1066.
Germanic #992 in US
Howard Howard is a boy's name whose origin is contested — high guardian, brave heart and even a keeper of pigs have all been proposed.
English #1,003 in US
Allan Allan has no settled meaning at all — handsome, little rock and a deer are all proposed for the Breton original, and the name reached England through Brittany rather than through Ireland or Scotland at all.
Breton #1,013 in US
Maurice Maurice is a boy's name from a Latin word meaning a Moor, originally describing someone from Roman North Africa. It is reviving, and it peaked in 1920 — a century-long gap of the same kind we see in Walter and Frances.
Latin #1,019 in US
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.
Scottish #1,036 in US
Ernest Ernest is a boy's name from a Germanic word meaning serious or resolute, and it is far stronger in Europe than in America — 252nd in England and Wales and 276th in France against 1,042nd in the United States.
Germanic #1,042 in US
Ralph Ralph is a boy's name of Norse origin meaning "wolf counsel."
Norse #1,046 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.
Scottish #1,047 in US
Billy Billy is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "resolute protector."
Germanic #1,068 in US
Randy Randy is a boy's name, the short form of Randall or Randolph, meaning shield-wolf.
Germanic #1,088 in US
Larry Larry is a boy's name, the short form of Lawrence, from a Roman name meaning of Laurentum.
Latin #1,090 in US
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.
English #1,091 in US
Rene Rene is a name from the Latin for reborn, given at baptism to mark spiritual rebirth.
French #1,093 in US
Bobby Bobby is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "bright fame."
Germanic #1,101 in US
Rafe Rafe is a boy's name of Norse origin meaning "wolf counsel."
Norse #1,165 in US
Kristopher Kristopher means Christ-bearer, and the legend built the meaning backward — a giant who carried a child across a river turned out to be carrying Christ, which is the story explaining the name.
English #1,188 in US
Norman Norman means a Northman — a Viking.
English #1,197 in US
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.
Germanic #1,208 in US
Elmer Elmer means noble and famous, and its American popularity is traceable to two brothers — the Ebenezer and Jonathan Elmer who signed early revolutionary documents, after whom patriotic families went on to name sons.
English #1,223 in US
Willie Willie is a pet form of William meaning resolute protector, and one of the more mixed names on record — a quarter of the births we hold are female, which is unusual for a name read today as male.
Germanic #1,317 in US
Gilbert Gilbert is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning bright pledge, and it founded the only medieval religious order native to England.
Germanic #1,331 in US
Clifford Clifford is a boy's name from an English place name meaning a ford by a cliff — a river crossing below a steep bank.
English #1,352 in US
Vernon Vernon is a Norman place name meaning a place of alders, from a Gaulish word — so a French town gave England a surname that America turned into a first name, three languages deep.
French #1,383 in US
Brett Brett means a Breton — someone from Brittany, which is named for the Britons who fled there when the Anglo-Saxons arrived.
English #1,385 in US
Tyrone Tyrone means Eoghan's land, an Irish county, and it reached American use almost entirely through one actor — Tyrone Power, whose grandfather took the name from the county his family came from.
Irish #1,391 in US
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.
English #1,409 in US
Virgil Virgil is misspelled and always has been — the poet's name was Vergilius, and medieval scribes changed the e to an i by association with virgo, which is how a Roman family name acquired a meaning it never had.
Latin #1,412 in US
Milton Milton means the mill settlement, and there is a second and quite separate source meaning the middle settlement — two entirely different Old English place names that ended up producing exactly the same modern spelling.
English #1,440 in US
Luther Luther means army of the people, and its weight comes from a surname rather than a saint — Martin Luther's family name became a given name across the Protestant world, and then across Black America.
German #1,463 in US
Monte Peaked in 1957 · 24,161 births since 1881
#1,470 in US
Arnold Arnold means eagle power, and England and Wales ranks it 631st on 59 births — well above the United States at 1,478th, which is not what the name's twentieth-century American associations would predict.
Germanic #1,478 in US
Cecil Cecil means blind, from a Roman family name, and the saint who made it famous is patron of music on the strength of one ambiguous line in her own account of her wedding day.
English #1,489 in US
Jermaine Jermaine means brother, and it is French rather than Germanic — germain is the ordinary word for a full brother, and it has nothing to do with Germany despite appearances.
French #1,494 in US
Randall Randall is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning shield-wolf.
Germanic #1,499 in US
Clarence Clarence is a boy's name taken from an English dukedom, itself named for a Suffolk town.
English #1,501 in US
Freddie Freddie is a name of Germanic origin meaning "peaceful ruler."
Germanic #1,509 in US
Brent Brent means burned land, from ground cleared by fire — a place name recording a specific agricultural practice rather than a hill or a holy site, which are the two readings usually offered for it.
English #1,510 in US
Terrell Peaked in 1989 · 38,808 births since 1885
#1,534 in US
Lloyd Lloyd is a boy's name from the Welsh word for gray, and the double L is a genuine Welsh consonant that English has no letter for.
Welsh #1,553 in US
Jeffery Jeffery is a boy's name whose first element is disputed, though the second means peace.
Germanic #1,562 in US
Terrance Terrance respells Terrence, and the name descends from a Roman playwright born enslaved in North Africa — Terence was freed by his owner and his Latin became a school text for centuries.
American #1,565 in US
Dwayne Dwayne means the little dark one, from an Irish surname built on the word for black — the same root that gives Dublin its name, which means the black pool the city grew around.
Irish #1,570 in US
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.
Latin #1,585 in US
Chester Chester is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "fortress" or "walled camp."
Latin #1,597 in US
Eddy Peaked in 1970 · 40,378 births since 1924
Dutch #1,604 in US
Alton Alton means the settlement at the river's source, and that is more specific than the old town reading usually given — the Old English element is a spring or wellhead, not age.
English #1,605 in US
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.
English #1,619 in US
Antony Peaked in 1988 · 33,436 births since 1900
Dutch #1,625 in US

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