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

Dawn Dawn is a girl's name taken directly from the English word for daybreak, and it is the English counterpart of Aurora rather than a translation of it.
Girl English #2,193 in US
Lindsay Lindsay and Lindsey are the same place — a district of Lincolnshire that was effectively an island in fen.
Girl Scottish #2,202 in US
Sylvester Sylvester means of the woods, and a pope carried it into the calendar — Sylvester I died on 31 December, which is why New Year's Eve is still called Silvester across much of Europe.
Boy Latin #2,211 in US
Gene Gene means well-born, shortened from Eugene — and it has nothing at all to do with genes in biology, which is a separate word coined in 1909 from a different Greek root entirely, by a Danish botanist.
Boy English #2,232 in US
Katrina Katrina has no securely known meaning, because Catherine does not — the Greek original has never been derived, and the pure reading was attached centuries later by a false association.
Girl German #2,238 in US
Carol Carol is a girl's name with two independent sources: a short form of Caroline, and the word for a joyful song.
Girl English #2,239 in US
Floyd Floyd is the same name as Lloyd, and the F is a mistake that stuck — English had no way to say the Welsh double L, so it substituted the closest sound it had, and the substitution became a separate name.
Boy Welsh #2,245 in US
Effie Effie is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "well-spoken."
Girl Greek #2,247 in US
Pamela Pamela is a girl's name invented by a poet: Sir Philip Sidney coined it for his Arcadia around 1580, apparently from Greek elements meaning all sweetness.
Girl English #2,248 in US
Desire Peaked in 2008 · 24,603 births since 1915
Unisex #2,251 in US
Earl Earl is a boy's name taken from the English noble title, and it is the only rank in the British peerage with a native English name rather than a French one.
Boy English #2,255 in US
Jacquelyn Jacquelyn means supplanter, and the chain is long — it is an American respelling of Jacqueline, the French feminine of Jacques, which is James, which is Jacob.
Girl American #2,277 in US
Kurt Kurt means bold counsel, shortened from Konrad — and the courteous reading commonly given is a false friend, coming from an unrelated French word that only sounds similar.
Boy German #2,279 in US
Léonie Léonie is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "lioness," the French feminine of Leon.
Girl French #2,288 in US
Johnnie Johnnie means God is gracious, a pet form of John.
Unisex Scottish #2,292 in US
Polly Polly is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, a pet form of Mary whose meaning has never been settled.
Girl Hebrew #2,302 in US
Jennie Jennie began as a Scottish pet form of Jean and only later attached to Jennifer, which is a Cornish name with no connection to it.
Girl Scottish #2,303 in US
Elton Peaked in 1920 · 22,240 births since 1880
Boy #2,307 in US
Eldon Peaked in 1926 · 26,570 births since 1881
Boy #2,310 in US
Thérèse Thérèse is a girl's name of genuinely uncertain meaning, the French form of Teresa.
Girl French #2,318 in US
Caitlin Caitlin is a girl's name of Greek origin, the Irish form of Katherine, and its English mispronunciation generated a whole family of new names.
Girl Irish #2,332 in US
Debora Peaked in 1957 · 32,460 births since 1915
Girl #2,339 in US
Rosella Peaked in 1924 · 16,516 births since 1880
Girl #2,349 in US
Eunice Eunice means good victory, and she is named in the New Testament as Timothy's mother — one of very few women whose faith Paul credits by name, alongside her own mother Lois.
Girl Greek #2,365 in US
Yan Peaked in 1972 · 7,957 births since 1912
Boy #2,366 in US
Mervin Peaked in 1920 · 12,611 births since 1880
Boy #2,367 in US
Rusty Peaked in 1961 · 18,415 births since 1927
Boy #2,368 in US
Clint Peaked in 1980 · 33,268 births since 1880
Boy #2,369 in US
Pete Pete means rock, and it began as a joke about a man's character — Jesus renames Simon as Cephas, the Aramaic for a stone, and the pun works in Greek but not in English.
Boy English #2,371 in US
Herman Herman means army man, and the German national hero Hermann is a Latin scribe's version of a Cheruscan name we cannot now recover — Arminius, the chief who destroyed three Roman legions in AD 9.
Boy Germanic #2,374 in US
Solenne Peaked in 1982 · 5,413 births since 1957
Girl #2,383 in US
Lela Lela means night on the Arabic reading, and that connects it to one of the oldest love stories in the world — Layla and Majnun, retold in Persian verse eight centuries ago.
Girl Arabic #2,386 in US
Dora Dora means gift, and it is the end of several names rather than a name in its own right — Theodora, Isidora and Dorothea all supply it, and Dorothy means the same thing with the halves reversed.
Girl Greek #2,393 in US
Rena Peaked in 1916 · 39,860 births since 1880
Girl #2,395 in US
Suzanne Suzanne is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "lily," from shoshannah.
Girl French #2,401 in US
Erwin Peaked in 1922 · 24,357 births since 1880
Boy #2,402 in US
Mindy Mindy has no source of its own — it shortens Melinda, whose second half is transparent and whose first half nobody has explained, so the name inherits half a meaning.
Girl English #2,404 in US
Jeanette Jeanette means God is gracious, a French double diminutive of Jeanne.
Girl French #2,406 in US
Terra Peaked in 1980 · 15,790 births since 1940
Girl Latin #2,416 in US
Darnell Peaked in 1984 · 32,211 births since 1912
Boy #2,433 in US
Geraldine Geraldine was invented in a 1537 love poem — the Earl of Surrey coined it for Lady Elizabeth FitzGerald, calling her the Fair Geraldine.
Girl Germanic #2,438 in US
Mable Mable means lovable, and the name lost its front end — it began as Amabel, and English wore the initial A away entirely, which is the same process that turned an ewt into a newt.
Girl English #2,450 in US
Aziza Peaked in 1986 · 4,531 births since 1948
Girl Arabic #2,453 in US
Kerry Kerry is 53 percent female in our records — the fourth-closest to an even split on this site, behind only Emerson, Riley and Jackie.
Unisex Irish #2,454 in US
Edna Edna is a girl's name from a Hebrew word meaning delight, and it shares its root with Eden.
Girl Hebrew #2,469 in US
Dave Dave ranks 2217th in England and Wales and 2469th in the United States, so the short form outranks its American peak market in a country that never recorded more than fifteen in a year.
Boy Hebrew #2,469 in US
Samia Peaked in 1979 · 20,191 births since 1949
Girl Arabic #2,473 in US
Dewayne Peaked in 1963 · 26,605 births since 1912
Boy African American English #2,474 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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