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

Lonnie Lonnie shortens Alonzo and Alphonso, meaning noble and ready — and the Germanic original reached Spain with the Visigoths, so a name that reads as American South is Gothic by descent.
Boy Spanish #1,846 in US
Vivien Peaked in 1986 · 18,383 births since 1900
Unisex French #1,848 in US
Francine Francine means Frenchwoman, and it is a French diminutive of a name that already means French — so it reads as a small French person, which is circular in a way few names manage.
Girl French #1,849 in US
Johann Peaked in 1981 · 25,823 births since 1902
Boy #1,854 in US
Pippa Pippa is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "lover of horses."
Girl Greek #1,855 in US
Reggie Reggie is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "ruler's counsel."
Boy Germanic #1,860 in US
Judy Judy is a girl's name, the pet form of Judith, from a Hebrew word meaning a woman of Judea.
Girl Hebrew #1,879 in US
Margarita Margarita means pearl, and it names both a cocktail and a pizza — the pizza for Queen Margherita of Italy, the drink by a route nobody has ever settled.
Girl Spanish #1,893 in US
Cornelius Peaked in 1974 · 40,378 births since 1880
Boy Dutch #1,906 in US
Neal Neal has no agreed meaning — champion, cloud and passionate are all proposed for the Irish Niall and none is established.
Boy Irish #1,909 in US
Meghan Meghan means pearl, through Megan and Margaret, and the h is an American addition — Welsh spells it Megan, and the extra letter appeared in twentieth-century American use with no basis in the original.
Girl Welsh #1,910 in US
Susie Susie means lily, shortened from Susan, and the Hebrew word was borrowed from Egyptian — where it may have named a lotus rather than a lily, which changes the flower entirely.
Girl English #1,916 in US
Clifton Clifton means the settlement by the cliff, and it is the same first element as Clifford — one describes a ford below the cliff and the other the farm on top of it.
Boy English #1,916 in US
Cindy Cindy is a girl's name, a pet form of Cynthia, which was a title of the moon goddess Artemis.
Girl Greek #1,929 in US
Elwood Peaked in 1921 · 21,449 births since 1880
Boy #1,931 in US
Irvin Irvin names a Scottish river valley, and the green water reading describes the water rather than the banks — Brittonic river names usually record color or behavior, not the land beside them.
Boy Scottish #1,936 in US
Lula Lula has no single parent — it shortens Louise, Lucille and Tallulah alike, and our data marks it reviving, ranking 1306th in England and Wales against 1938th in the United States.
Girl English #1,938 in US
Fred Fred is a boy's name, the short form of Frederick meaning peaceful ruler.
Boy Germanic #1,939 in US
Sonya Sonya means wisdom, and the Greek word behind it named a divine attribute before it named a person — Constantinople's great church was dedicated to Holy Wisdom, not to any saint called Sophia.
Girl Russian #1,939 in US
Charlene Charlene is a girl's name meaning free man, a feminine of Charles.
Girl English #1,951 in US
Mildred Mildred is a girl's name from Old English elements meaning gentle strength, and it is among the least fashionable names of the twentieth century — yet our data marks it reviving, ninety years after its 1920 peak.
Girl English #1,963 in US
Boyd Peaked in 1922 · 28,408 births since 1880
Boy Dutch #1,966 in US
Donna Donna is a girl's name from the Italian word for a lady, a title used as a name.
Girl Italian #1,969 in US
Lenore Peaked in 1926 · 23,090 births since 1880
Girl #1,973 in US
Charity Peaked in 1975 · 36,401 births since 1880
Girl #1,982 in US
Melinda Melinda is an invented name rather than an inherited one — an eighteenth-century literary coinage joining the Greek word for honey to the ending of Belinda and Lucinda.
Girl English #1,984 in US
Kristen Kristen is a girl's name meaning a follower of Christ, and in Denmark it is a man's name — the Danish Kristen is masculine and Kirsten the feminine.
Girl Danish #1,994 in US
Audra Peaked in 1967 · 25,959 births since 1887
Girl #2,003 in US
Norma Norma is a girl's name that appears to have been invented for an opera — Bellini's Norma of 1831 — and it was the birth name of Marilyn Monroe, who appears elsewhere in these pages under the name that replaced it.
Girl Latin #2,005 in US
Katia Peaked in 1971 · 38,749 births since 1939
Girl #2,039 in US
Mickey Peaked in 1957 · 34,818 births since 1898
Unisex Dutch #2,040 in US
Marion Marion is a French diminutive of Mary that has crossed sexes twice over — it is 81 percent female in our records, yet its most famous bearer was John Wayne, born Marion Robert Morrison.
Unisex French #2,044 in US
Casimir Peaked in 1931 · 12,545 births since 1900
Boy #2,044 in US
Yvonne Yvonne is a girl's name from a Germanic word for the yew tree, by way of Breton.
Girl French #2,053 in US
Alfie Alfie is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "elf counsel."
Boy English #2,060 in US
Jamar Peaked in 1989 · 16,213 births since 1967
Boy #2,067 in US
Edie Edie is a girl's name of Old English origin meaning "prosperous in war."
Girl English #2,070 in US
Kari Kari descends from the same unexplained Greek root as Kaitlin in this group, but by a Scandinavian route — through Karen and Katarina rather than through Irish, and the pure gloss is equally unproven on both paths.
Girl Scandinavian #2,096 in US
Brenton Peaked in 1984 · 15,405 births since 1912
Boy #2,106 in US
Darryl Darryl does not mean darling.
Boy French #2,117 in US
Bridgette Peaked in 1970 · 24,548 births since 1943
Girl French #2,119 in US
Krystal Krystal means ice, and the Greeks believed rock crystal was water frozen so hard it could never melt — which is why the same word names both the mineral and the frost.
Girl American #2,123 in US
Sabine Sabine names a people rather than a quality — the Sabines were an Italic tribe Rome absorbed early, and the abduction of their women is one of Rome's founding stories.
Girl French #2,143 in US
Tracy Tracy is a Norman place name that became a surname, then a boys' name, then overwhelmingly a girls' name — about 81 percent of the births in our records are female.
Unisex Norman #2,155 in US
Wendell Wendell names a people rather than a quality — the Wends were the Slavic populations of eastern Germany, so the name records who someone's neighbors thought they were rather than anything they did.
Boy German #2,158 in US
Jackie Jackie is the third most evenly divided name on this site — 48.9 percent of the births in our records are female, behind only Emerson and Riley among names with more than 50,000 births.
Unisex English #2,166 in US
Marnie Marnie is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, usually given as "of the sea."
Girl Latin #2,177 in US
Deanna Deanna was popularized by a stage name — the actress born Edna Mae Durbin was renamed Deanna Durbin in 1936, and American births rose from almost nothing to a peak of 4,331 in 1970.
Girl English #2,188 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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