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

187 names, uncommon — 100 to 499 a year, in United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

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 246 in 2025
Marjorie Marjorie is a girl's name meaning pearl, an English form of Margaret whose modern spelling was pulled toward the herb marjoram by nothing more than a coincidence of sound.
Girl Greek 246 in 2025
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 220 in 2025
Beverly Beverly is a name from an English town meaning beaver stream, and it began as a boys' name before crossing decisively to girls.
Girl English 246 in 2025
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.
Boy Scottish 214 in 2025
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 1042nd in the United States.
Boy Germanic 213 in 2025
Whitney Whitney was already climbing before Whitney Houston, and the debut album accelerated it rather than starting it — 1,632 births in 1982, 2,488 by 1984, then 4,068 in 1985 and 9,781 in 1986.
Girl English 251 in 2025
Lorraine Lorraine is a girl's name from the French region, whose own name means the kingdom of Lothair — a Frankish king's realm that was carved out of Charlemagne's empire and slowly disappeared.
Girl French 238 in 2025
Ralph Ralph is a boy's name of Norse origin meaning "wolf counsel."
Boy Norse 211 in 2025
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 216 in 2025
Ellen Ellen is a girl's name of Greek origin, a medieval English form of Helen whose meaning has never been settled.
Girl English 230 in 2025
Ronnie Ronnie is a name of Old Norse origin meaning "ruler's counsel."
Boy Norse 317 in 2025
Billy Billy is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "resolute protector."
Boy Germanic 217 in 2025
Harriet Harriet is a girl's name of Germanic origin meaning "home ruler."
Girl Germanic 226 in 2025
Joyce Joyce is a girl's name that was a man's name for most of its history, from a Breton saint called Iodoc. Our data marks it stable, and its highest current rank is France at 334th — not any English-speaking market.
Girl Breton 233 in 2025
Annelise Peaked in 2025 · 16,895 births since 1930
Girl 226 in 2025
Randy Randy is a boy's name, the short form of Randall or Randolph, meaning shield-wolf.
Boy Germanic 198 in 2025
Susan Susan is a girl's name from a Hebrew word for lily, taken in turn from an Egyptian word for lotus.
Girl Hebrew 222 in 2025
Larry Larry is a boy's name, the short form of Lawrence, from a Roman name meaning of Laurentum.
Boy Latin 198 in 2025
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.
Boy English 197 in 2025
Rene Rene is a name from the Latin for reborn, given at baptism to mark spiritual rebirth.
Boy French 210 in 2025
Bobby Bobby is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "bright fame."
Boy Germanic 207 in 2025
Marian Marian is a girl's name that either joins Mary and Ann or diminutives Mary alone — the sources disagree.
Girl French 217 in 2025
Kit Kit is a name of Greek origin meaning "bearer of Christ."
Unisex Greek 403 in 2025
Mollie Mollie is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, a diminutive of Mary reached through a chain of medieval sound shifts.
Girl English 212 in 2025
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 212 in 2025
Imogen Imogen is a girl's name that exists because of a printing error.
Girl Irish 211 in 2025
Ingrid Ingrid carries a god's name — Ing, the Norse deity the Swedish kings claimed descent from, joined to a word meaning beautiful.
Girl Scandinavian 209 in 2025
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 209 in 2025
Crystal Crystal is a girl's name from the Greek for ice, taken from the mineral rather than from any personal name.
Girl Greek 202 in 2025
Sally Sally is a girl's name meaning princess, a pet form of Sarah reached by medieval rhyming.
Girl Hebrew 201 in 2025
Rafe Rafe is a boy's name of Norse origin meaning "wolf counsel."
Boy Norse 179 in 2025
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.
Boy English 172 in 2025
Norman Norman means a Northman — a Viking.
Boy English 169 in 2025
Angelique Angelique means angelic, and the Greek root behind it simply means a messenger — the wings arrived much later in art, layered onto an ordinary word that described a person carrying news from one place to another.
Girl French 193 in 2025
Sandra Sandra is a girl's name that began as an Italian short form of Alessandra and became independent in the twentieth century.
Girl Italian 188 in 2025
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.
Boy Germanic 168 in 2025
Carolyn Carolyn is a girl's name, an English elaboration of Caroline meaning free man through Charles.
Girl English 185 in 2025
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.
Boy English 165 in 2025
Eliette Peaked in 1933 · 8,733 births since 1902
Girl French 181 in 2025
Marlene Marlene was invented by the woman who made it famous — Marie Magdalene Dietrich contracted her own two names into one.
Girl German 177 in 2025
Addie Addie shortens Adelaide and Adeline alike, and both descend from the Germanic word for noble — the same adal that sits inside Alice, Allison and Albert.
Girl English 176 in 2025
Karen Karen is a girl's name, the Danish form of Katherine, and it inherits that name's genuinely unknown meaning.
Girl Danish 175 in 2025
Rita Rita is a girl's name meaning pearl, clipped from the end of Margarita rather than the front.
Girl Greek 174 in 2025
Willie Willie is a pet form of William meaning resolute protector, and one of the more genuinely mixed names in our records — a quarter of the births we hold are female, which is unusual for a name read today as male.
Unisex Germanic 156 in 2025
Sidney Sidney is a name of Old English origin meaning "wide meadow."
Unisex English 251 in 2025
Gilbert Gilbert is a boy's name from Germanic elements meaning bright pledge, and it founded the only medieval religious order native to England.
Boy Germanic 145 in 2025
Farrah Farrah is a girl's name of Arabic origin meaning "joy," and its peak in our records is 1977 — the year after one poster sold twelve million copies.
Girl Arabic 168 in 2025

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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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