Vintage Girl 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

14,427 names, most popular first in the United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Tena Peaked in 1962 · 8,189 births since 1880
#16,907 in US
Thereza Peaked in 1902 · 30 births since 1902
#16,908 in US
Lucetta Peaked in 1916 · 563 births since 1882
Serbian #16,911 in US
Tari Peaked in 1959 · 2,320 births since 1943
Seediq #16,918 in US
Julieanne Peaked in 1987 · 2,834 births since 1940
#16,924 in US
Danette Peaked in 1966 · 10,398 births since 1930
French #16,952 in US
Wilhemina Peaked in 1960 · 959 births since 1886
Dutch #16,989 in US
Edyth Peaked in 1918 · 2,330 births since 1880
#17,002 in US
Avanell Peaked in 1921 · 659 births since 1909
#17,003 in US
Shasta Peaked in 1979 · 4,372 births since 1926
#17,014 in US
Rosamond Peaked in 1916 · 3,297 births since 1881
#17,019 in US
Fawzia Peaked in 1964 · 230 births since 1954
#17,064 in US
Alvena Peaked in 1920 · 1,606 births since 1880
#17,080 in US
Freeda Peaked in 1924 · 3,095 births since 1891
#17,099 in US
Mieke Peaked in 1972 · 302 births since 1969
Dutch #17,145 in US
Merrily Peaked in 1942 · 1,037 births since 1936
#17,149 in US
Belva Peaked in 1927 · 7,960 births since 1881
#17,162 in US
Bess Peaked in 1889 · 7,315 births since 1880
#17,168 in US
Luba Peaked in 1952 · 599 births since 1912
#17,178 in US
Carolann Peaked in 1946 · 7,061 births since 1932
#17,218 in US
Joselyne Peaked in 1947 · 4,693 births since 1928
#17,236 in US
Persis Peaked in 1918 · 582 births since 1884
#17,281 in US
Françoise Françoise is a girl's name meaning a Frenchwoman, the feminine of François.
French 402,296 births
Christiane Christiane is a girl's name meaning a follower of Christ, the French and German form of Christina.
French 261,903 births
Sandrine Sandrine is a girl's name meaning defender of men, a French diminutive of Sandra.
French 243,469 births
Virginie Virginie does not mean maiden.
French 173,498 births
Claudine Claudine is a French girl's name meaning lame, from a Roman family name.
French 170,774 births
Raymonde Raymonde is the French feminine of Raymond, meaning protecting counsel.
French 164,932 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.
English 155,049 births
Laetitia Laetitia means joy, and it is the Latin original standing behind the far more common Letitia and Lettice.
French 144,722 births
Ginette Ginette is a French diminutive of Geneviève, a name whose meaning is not settled.
French 132,372 births
Annick Annick is the Breton form of Anne, meaning grace, and the -ick ending is a Breton diminutive rather than a French one.
Breton 132,124 births
Henriette Henriette means home ruler, and the home in question is an estate rather than a house — the Germanic element meant an enclosure or domain, so the name describes holding territory, not housekeeping.
French 128,291 births
Marthe Marthe means the lady, and it is one of very few widely used names that came into European use from Aramaic rather than Hebrew, Greek or Latin.
French 123,291 births
Micheline Micheline is the French feminine of Michel, and the name underneath is a question — Michael means who is like God, expecting the answer nobody.
French 113,160 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.
English 111,330 births
Simonne Simonne means she has heard, and the Hebrew is a verb about listening rather than a description — Leah names her son in Genesis saying that God has heard she was unloved.
French 106,149 births
Fabienne Fabienne is the French feminine of Fabien, meaning bean grower, and it peaked in France at 6,850 births in 1965 before leaving every ranking we track — it charts in no market now.
French 105,993 births
Pascale Pascale means Passover, not Easter — the Hebrew pesach came into Greek and Latin unchanged, and Christian use attached it to a different festival that happened to fall at the same point in the calendar.
French 104,744 births
Severine Severine means stern, from a Roman family name — and the emperor who carried it died at York in 211, which is the furthest north any Roman emperor ever got and the reason the name reached Britain at all.
French 95,444 births
Odile Odile means wealth, from a Germanic word for inherited property — and her saint was born blind, abandoned for it, and became patron of Alsace and of people with poor eyesight.
French 94,576 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.
French 92,522 births
Huguette Huguette means mind or spirit, from a Germanic word — and the Huguenots take their name from the same root by a disputed route, though the connection is argued rather than established.
French 90,172 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.
French 89,388 births
Fernande Fernande is the French feminine of Ferdinand, meaning bold journey, and it is one of two faded names in this group — it peaked at 3,140 French births in 1920 and now ranks nowhere at all.
French 85,546 births
Pierrette Pierrette means little stone, and the name records a nickname Jesus gave — Simon was renamed Cephas in Aramaic, rendered as Petros in Greek to keep the pun on rock intact.
French 82,160 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.
French 76,221 births
Berthe Berthe means bright, and Charlemagne's mother carried it — Bertrada of Laon, known as Berthe au Grand Pied, is the reason the name runs through Frankish royalty at all.
French 70,955 births

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