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

342 names, rare — 25 to 99 a year, in United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Darrell Darrell does not mean beloved.
Boy French 97 in 2025
Chad Chad is a boy's name from a seventh-century English saint, and it has since become an American internet stereotype and, separately, the name of a country and a disputed ballot.
Boy English 96 in 2025
Henri Henri is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "home ruler," borne by four kings of France and by the one who converted to end a religious war.
Boy French 95 in 2025
Clinton Clinton means the settlement on the hill, from an English place name — and the two American presidents who carried it did so by adoption and by surname, not by descent from the place.
Boy English 94 in 2025
Morris Morris means dark-skinned, from the Latin for a Moor — and the morris dance carries the same word, having been thought to imitate Moorish dancing when it reached England.
Boy English 92 in 2025
Irving Irving names a Scottish river valley, and it reached American use largely through one writer — Washington Irving, who gave English both Rip Van Winkle and the nickname Gotham for New York.
Boy Scottish 90 in 2025
Don Don is a boy's name shortened from Donald, meaning world ruler.
Boy Scottish 89 in 2025
Johann Peaked in 1981 · 25,823 births since 1902
Boy 85 in 2025
Reggie Reggie is a boy's name of Germanic origin meaning "ruler's counsel."
Boy Germanic 97 in 2025
Cornelius Peaked in 1974 · 40,378 births since 1880
Boy Dutch 82 in 2025
Neal Neal has no agreed meaning — champion, cloud and passionate are all proposed for the Irish Niall and none is established.
Boy Irish 82 in 2025
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 82 in 2025
Elwood Peaked in 1921 · 21,449 births since 1880
Boy 81 in 2025
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 80 in 2025
Fred Fred is a boy's name, the short form of Frederick meaning peaceful ruler.
Boy Germanic 80 in 2025
Charlene Charlene is a girl's name meaning free man, a feminine of Charles.
Girl English 99 in 2025
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 98 in 2025
Boyd Peaked in 1922 · 28,408 births since 1880
Boy Dutch 78 in 2025
Donna Donna is a girl's name from the Italian word for a lady, a title used as a name.
Girl Italian 98 in 2025
Lenore Peaked in 1926 · 23,090 births since 1880
Girl 98 in 2025
Charity Peaked in 1975 · 36,401 births since 1880
Girl 97 in 2025
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 97 in 2025
Audra Peaked in 1967 · 25,959 births since 1887
Girl 95 in 2025
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 95 in 2025
Katia Peaked in 1971 · 38,749 births since 1939
Girl 93 in 2025
Mickey Peaked in 1957 · 34,818 births since 1898
Unisex Dutch 86 in 2025
Casimir Peaked in 1931 · 12,545 births since 1900
Boy 73 in 2025
Yvonne Yvonne is a girl's name from a Germanic word for the yew tree, by way of Breton.
Girl French 92 in 2025
Alfie Alfie is a boy's name of Old English origin meaning "elf counsel."
Boy English 72 in 2025
Jamar Peaked in 1989 · 16,213 births since 1967
Boy 72 in 2025
Edie Edie is a girl's name of Old English origin meaning "prosperous in war."
Girl English 91 in 2025
Brenton Peaked in 1984 · 15,405 births since 1912
Boy 70 in 2025
Darryl Darryl does not mean darling.
Boy French 69 in 2025
Bridgette Peaked in 1970 · 24,548 births since 1943
Girl French 88 in 2025
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 88 in 2025
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 87 in 2025
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 67 in 2025
Marnie Marnie is a girl's name of Hebrew origin, usually given as "of the sea."
Girl Latin 85 in 2025
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 85 in 2025
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 85 in 2025
Lindsay Lindsay and Lindsey are the same place — a district of Lincolnshire that was effectively an island in fen.
Girl Scottish 84 in 2025
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 64 in 2025
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 63 in 2025
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 83 in 2025
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 82 in 2025
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 63 in 2025
Effie Effie is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "well-spoken."
Girl Greek 82 in 2025
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 82 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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