Vintage 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

22,357 names, most popular first in United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Kenya Peaked in 1973 · 28,593 births since 1952
Girl #2,496 in US
Marguerite Marguerite is a girl's name meaning pearl, and it is also the French word for the daisy — so the name carries a flower and a gemstone at once.
Girl French #2,497 in US
Janice Janice is a girl's name usually credited to a 1899 novel, though our records carry it from 1894 — five years before the book.
Girl English #2,520 in US
Bennie Bennie means son of the right hand, and Jacob renamed the child to get there — his dying mother called him son of my sorrow, and his father would not let the name stand.
Unisex Hebrew #2,528 in US
Imogene Peaked in 1927 · 28,049 births since 1880
Girl #2,539 in US
Willis Willis means son of Will, and the Will behind it is William — a name so common in medieval England that its diminutives generated a whole family of surnames, of which this is one.
Boy English #2,552 in US
Primrose Primrose is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "first rose."
Girl Latin #2,556 in US
Kirk Kirk means church, and it is Norse rather than English — the Vikings brought the word to northern England and Scotland, which is why Scots say kirk where English says church.
Boy Scottish #2,568 in US
Dolores Dolores is a girl's name meaning sorrows — taken from a title of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows, which counts seven specific griefs.
Girl Spanish #2,570 in US
Dianna Dianna means the shining one, and the root is the same one behind Zeus and Jupiter — an Indo-European word for the bright daytime sky that also gives us the ordinary word day.
Girl Latin #2,574 in US
Jacklyn Peaked in 1987 · 17,528 births since 1913
Girl #2,581 in US
Lacy Peaked in 1982 · 27,296 births since 1880
Unisex #2,583 in US
Hillary Peaked in 1992 · 32,283 births since 1888
Girl #2,586 in US
Duane Duane means the little dark one, from an Irish surname built on the word for black — and that same root also gives us Dublin, which means the black pool that the city originally grew up around.
Boy Irish #2,603 in US
Lynette Lynette entered English through Tennyson, who reshaped a Welsh name for the Idylls of the King — Luned became Lynette, and the spelling he used is the one that survived.
Girl Welsh #2,608 in US
Murray Murray is a boy's name of Scottish origin from Moray, the northern province, whose name means "sea settlement."
Boy Scottish #2,610 in US
Antwan Peaked in 1980 · 12,680 births since 1958
Boy #2,611 in US
Ina Peaked in 1921 · 35,371 births since 1880
Girl #2,612 in US
Ericka Peaked in 1971 · 25,368 births since 1945
Girl #2,643 in US
Nicolle Peaked in 1938 · 17,646 births since 1901
Girl #2,660 in US
Herbert Herbert is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning bright army.
Boy Germanic #2,661 in US
Sheila Sheila is the Irish form of Cecilia, meaning blind — and parents outside Ireland should know it became Australian slang for a woman in the nineteenth century, which is why it barely charts there.
Girl Irish #2,680 in US
Iona Iona is a girl's name taken from the Hebridean island where Columba founded his monastery — and the island's name exists because a medieval scribe misread a letter.
Girl Scottish #2,684 in US
Katy Peaked in 1987 · 34,941 births since 1880
Girl #2,691 in US
Maricela Peaked in 1977 · 13,133 births since 1944
Girl #2,706 in US
Hershel Peaked in 1924 · 10,395 births since 1880
Boy #2,712 in US
Carrie Carrie is a girl's name, a pet form of Caroline meaning free man through Charles.
Girl English #2,731 in US
Keisha Peaked in 1977 · 25,347 births since 1961
Girl #2,740 in US
Kurtis Peaked in 1989 · 23,217 births since 1934
Boy #2,742 in US
Lamont Peaked in 1972 · 24,198 births since 1888
Boy #2,746 in US
Betsy Betsy is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my oath."
Girl Hebrew #2,748 in US
Willard Willard means bold desire, and both halves are Germanic words about force of will — it is a surname from a personal name, and its American use is almost entirely nineteenth-century onward.
Boy English #2,761 in US
Dwight Dwight descends from Dionysus, the Greek god of wine — through the medieval woman's name Diot, a pet form of Dionysia, which is an unusually indirect route for a masculine surname.
Boy English #2,766 in US
Farid Peaked in 1975 · 19,630 births since 1947
Boy #2,774 in US
Jamel Peaked in 1988 · 16,239 births since 1950
Boy #2,778 in US
Jaclyn Jaclyn compresses Jacqueline, and the name underneath means heel-grabber — Jacob was born gripping his twin's heel, and every Jack, Jacques and Jacqueline descends from that description.
Girl American #2,790 in US
Janet Janet is a girl's name, a Scottish diminutive of Jane meaning God is gracious.
Girl Scottish #2,797 in US
Weldon Peaked in 1920 · 14,279 births since 1881
Boy #2,797 in US
Juanita Juanita is a girl's name meaning God is gracious, the Spanish diminutive of Juana.
Girl Spanish #2,798 in US
Dino Peaked in 1960 · 11,054 births since 1912
Boy #2,810 in US
Roberta Roberta is a girl's name meaning bright fame, the feminine of Robert.
Girl Germanic #2,813 in US
Eugenia Peaked in 1919 · 30,813 births since 1880
Girl #2,821 in US
Rickey Rickey means strong ruler, and its peak is the largest in this group — 3,818 American births in 1958, against 45 in the most recent year we have.
Boy English #2,829 in US
Jarvis Peaked in 1989 · 18,772 births since 1882
Boy #2,845 in US
Jayne Peaked in 1957 · 31,000 births since 1895
Girl #2,856 in US
Malinda Peaked in 1969 · 21,500 births since 1880
Girl Armenian #2,860 in US
Alain Alain is a boy's name, the French form of Alan, and its meaning is genuinely unknown — rock, handsome and deer have all been proposed from a Breton source that has never been identified.
Boy French #2,862 in US
Ward Peaked in 1961 · 15,247 births since 1880
Boy Dutch #2,863 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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