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

Ethel Ethel is a girl's name from an Old English word meaning noble, and it is not a name in its own right in that language — it is the first half of longer names like Ethelred, cut off and used alone.
Girl English #4,259 in US
Brad Brad means broad clearing, shortened from Bradley — and the broad element is the same word as the modern English broad, one of the few Old English place-name terms still transparent.
Boy English #4,260 in US
Kim Kim is a name that arrives from three unrelated directions — an English place name, Kipling's 1901 novel, and the most common Korean surname in the world.
Unisex English #4,263 in US
Leeann Peaked in 1962 · 15,676 births since 1928
Girl #4,276 in US
Sallie Sallie means princess, and it reached English through a sound swap — Sarah became Sally the way Mary became Molly, with the r softening to an l in ordinary speech.
Girl English #4,280 in US
Noreen Peaked in 1948 · 23,259 births since 1892
Girl Irish #4,282 in US
Roosevelt Peaked in 1933 · 38,024 births since 1895
Boy #4,287 in US
Alta Peaked in 1918 · 29,048 births since 1880
Girl Latvian #4,290 in US
Jamey Peaked in 1976 · 9,934 births since 1944
Unisex #4,305 in US
Ferdinand Peaked in 1903 · 25,633 births since 1900
Boy #4,316 in US
Gretchen Gretchen means little pearl, and German uses her name for a kind of question — a Gretchenfrage is the awkward essential one you cannot dodge, after the question she puts to Faust about religion.
Girl German #4,322 in US
Demond Peaked in 1974 · 5,882 births since 1963
Boy #4,324 in US
Sadia Peaked in 1964 · 5,046 births since 1943
Girl #4,340 in US
Ron Peaked in 1960 · 37,232 births since 1919
Boy Dutch #4,341 in US
Fatiha Peaked in 1971 · 9,796 births since 1948
Girl Arabic #4,343 in US
Rodrick Peaked in 1977 · 9,033 births since 1914
Boy #4,363 in US
Grover Peaked in 1884 · 27,205 births since 1880
Boy #4,367 in US
Mathilda Peaked in 1918 · 12,974 births since 1880
Girl #4,385 in US
Cheryl Cheryl is a girl's name coined in twentieth-century America, probably by blending Cherie with Beryl.
Girl English #4,386 in US
Rowena Peaked in 1917 · 11,343 births since 1880
Girl Dutch #4,389 in US
Muriel Muriel means bright sea, from Gaelic, and it reached English twice — once through Irish and Scottish settlement and once through Breton, carried back across the Channel by the Normans.
Girl Irish #4,420 in US
Sammie Peaked in 1947 · 28,833 births since 1880
Unisex #4,427 in US
Maureen Maureen is the Irish Máirín, a diminutive of Máire, which is itself the Irish form of Mary.
Girl Irish #4,441 in US
Andrée Andrée is a girl's name meaning manly or brave, the French feminine of André — so it is a woman's name built from a Greek word for a man.
Girl French #4,442 in US
Galen Peaked in 1949 · 17,356 births since 1889
Boy #4,443 in US
Alesia Peaked in 1963 · 8,489 births since 1947
Girl #4,447 in US
Leigh Leigh means a woodland clearing, and the same word is hiding at the end of dozens of modern names — the -leigh in Kayleigh and Ashlyn's cousins is this word, borrowed for its sound rather than its sense.
Unisex English #4,462 in US
Debra Debra is a girl's name, the phonetic respelling of Deborah, from the Hebrew for bee.
Girl Hebrew #4,475 in US
Mandy Mandy means she who must be loved, and the grammar matters — Amanda is a Latin gerundive, a form expressing obligation, so the name is closer to an instruction than a description.
Girl English #4,488 in US
Buddy Peaked in 1935 · 24,463 births since 1893
Boy #4,503 in US
Marques Peaked in 1983 · 8,213 births since 1952
Boy #4,506 in US
Filomena Peaked in 1923 · 5,903 births since 1885
Girl #4,506 in US
Chauncey Peaked in 1981 · 10,196 births since 1880
Boy #4,508 in US
Magali Magali is Occitan rather than French, and it means of Magdala — a town on the Sea of Galilee, so the name is a place several removes back rather than any quality of its bearer.
Girl French #4,528 in US
Odell Peaked in 1922 · 19,059 births since 1883
Unisex #4,528 in US
Burton Peaked in 1925 · 22,595 births since 1880
Boy #4,529 in US
Dena Peaked in 1970 · 32,830 births since 1880
Girl #4,563 in US
Lynda Lynda means lime tree, from Spanish and Germanic roots that disagree — the pretty reading comes from the Spanish linda, and the tree from a Germanic element, and neither is settled.
Girl American #4,568 in US
Bertha Bertha is a girl's name from a Germanic word meaning bright, and it was Charlemagne's mother's name.
Girl Germanic #4,570 in US
Rochelle Rochelle means little rock, and it is a place rather than a person — La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast was a Huguenot stronghold, and the name reached English through the town rather than any saint.
Girl French #4,578 in US
Amie Peaked in 1976 · 26,214 births since 1880
Girl #4,583 in US
Dovie Peaked in 1917 · 9,092 births since 1880
Girl #4,591 in US
Napoleon Peaked in 1926 · 8,337 births since 1880
Boy #4,599 in US
Chasity Peaked in 1976 · 24,679 births since 1970
Girl #4,641 in US
Val Peaked in 1956 · 7,406 births since 1882
Unisex #4,641 in US
Candy Peaked in 1970 · 31,065 births since 1896
Girl #4,653 in US
Lesley Lesley is the Scottish spelling and Scotland proves it — a peak of 341 births there in 1974, far above what the country's size would predict against an American high of 981.
Unisex Scottish #4,654 in US
Elroy Peaked in 1922 · 7,608 births since 1880
Boy #4,664 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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