Fashion illustration (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Fashion changes.
How’s that for obvious?
Still, we tend to blithely overlook this fact in the baby naming ‘verse. Our talk is about “classics” and “timeless” names “rich with meaning.” I use those phrases over and over again, and yet sometimes I hesitate.
Classics shift over the generations, and there’s no such thing as a normal name. We can also be very dismissive of trends and names borrowed from pop culture, forgetting that Charlotte is subject to changes in taste, too.
So for this week’s Fetching Post, I reviewed the Top 25 names by decade. A surprising number seem aggressively unattractive for a child today, but they were once the very heights of popularity, the names every mother was pondering for her baby-on-the-way.
They may not be the names that you’re considering for your child today, but they are proof that everything changes.
The following names ranked in the Top 25 in the decade or decades listed next to their name. This list is not exhaustive – if you would like to source your own Formerly Stylish names, check out the lists here.
BOYS
Austin -1990s
Dennis – 1940s, 1950s
Ernest – 1880s, 1890s
Eugene – 1920s, 1930s
Gary -1940s, 1950s
Gerald – 1930s
Harold – 1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s
Jerry – 1940s
Justin – 1980s
Larry – 1950s
Ralph -1910s, 1920s
Roy – 1880s, 1890s, 1900s
Tyler – 1990s, 2000s
Willie – 1890s, 1900s
GIRLS
Amber – 1980s, 1990s
Bertha – 1880s, 1890s, 1900s
Beverly – 1930s
Brenda – 1950s, 1960s
Brittany – 1980s, 1900s
Crystal – 1980s
Doris – 1920s, 1930s
Edna – 1890s, 1900s, 1910s
Ethel – 1880s, 1890s, 1900s, 1910s
Gertrude – 1890s
Gladys – 1900s, 1910s
Janet – 1940s, 1950s
Janice – 1940s, 1950s
Kayla – 1990s, 2000s
Lori – 1960s
Mildred – 1900s, 1910s, 1920s
Shirley – 1920s, 1930s, 1940s
Tammy – 1960s, 1970s
Taylor – 1990s, 2000s
Tiffany – 1980s
I’m not sure why but recently I’ve been finding the name, Eugene, absolutely adorable. It’s strange because there was a time when I would have thought it was unusable and totally outdated.
I like Ernest quite a bit, and Ralph (if pronounced Rafe- but wouldn’t use it) – and basically none of those girls names. Yup, definitely a product of my time.
I know two Austin’s both who are now 8 and it is a reasonably uncommon name in Australia. Both of these families obviously like uncommon names as one of them has a sister Madison (ok that one is common) and Stockton white the other has two brothers Miles and Kael. My pop is a Harold and I could have been a Taylor (or Tayla not sure of the spelling) but I am glad I am not as my last name is the most common in the English speaking world. Also Amber and Brittany in Australia are still being used and have taken on Modern Classic Status.
I have a soft spot for Gertrude, but in wanting to name our newborn for my grandma Gertrude we ended up compromising for naming her Trudy. I was really nervous about pulling the trigger on a nickname name, but after Jennifer Wattenberg put up a post about how great and overlooked Trudy is as a name, I got the courage to go for it. It isn’t everyday you find a name that’s as cute on a little baby as it is on a grown woman or an 80 year old lady.
I really really love the name Gladys. I mean, is it really that different than Alice? I’d really love to use it IRL. I think it’s beautiful. Glady is super cute too – how happy is that!
Love Beverly. Love Harold and Justin. Am intrigued by Roy (We had Roland on our boys’ long list, though I would have preferred Orlando had it not been for Bloom).
from the boy list I wouldn’t mind seeing Harold and Ernest come back. I also still like Tyler and Justin. From the girl list, quite a few are names I like. Gertrude, Gladys, Janet, Doris. Doris and Gladys are names I’ve recently begun to like and Janet a little longer (since reading in Jane Eyre this was Rochester’s pet name for Jane). But I really like dated names I guess because I also like Brittany, Edna, Ethel, Mildred, Shirley, Tiffany. Someone mentioned Mindy in a post, which I think is adorable. And other nicknamish names like Millie or Minnie. Also, I don’t think it’s quite the same to say Ralph could come back if you really mean the English ‘rafe’ prn. It’s very different to say ‘rafe’ versus ‘ralph’ with the short a and f sound. Still, I could see it. Think Ralphie in A Christmas Story, cutest kid ever.
The only boys name from the list I really like is Harold. I like Beverly and Mildred from the girls list. I would actually use Mildred, but my husband hates it.
I love Bertha, but only because that’s my dog’s name:-) She came with the name when we adopted her; we thought about changing it because we hated it at first but it suited her so well that it grew on us.
Roy and Franklin made our short list and for family reasons we had Ernest on our middle name list. My husband’s favorite “baby name book” was the Baseball Hall of Fame Roster so a lot of names from other eras made our longer list… Carl, Roger, Calvin, Harmon, George, Edwin.
I also greatly adore Ernest/Earnest. 😀
I like Albert, which if shortened it could be Bertie. Albert is very English.
I adore Ernest.
I’m fond of Frank.
I have been crushing on Eugene lately. I also adore Ethel. Janet has been growing on me. I was almost a Tiffany — so glad my parents went with Sabrina instead!
I’ve long had soft spots for Gertrude, Beverly, Mildred, Ethel, Harold, Gerald, and Eugene. I quite like Janet, too. Crystal is a name I often think suffered greatly due to a sudden surge of popularity, and multiple spinoffs.
I’ve been told that Tabitha, Marjorie, Sabrina, Dorothy, Sylvia, and Hilda are all dated (obviously not all to the same time periods), but I can’t help but like them. I’ll always love Jessica for the beautiful Allman Brothers song, too.
Oh, and I forgot Loretta, Clarice, Calvin, Rudolph, Dean, Gilbert, Timothy, Zachary, Howard, Leonard, Walter, and Peter. All names I like that have been labeled dated by others.
I’ve actually been thinking lately that Janet is kind of a cute name.
This is a fun list. It will be interesting to see which names from the current top 25 will feel so out-of-date with time.
Plus “Damn it, Janet” is the coolest name song ever!
Janet is the one on the list that I’ve never considered before, but I can see it being a fun unexpected choice on a little girl. I like the -et ending.
I do like Janet – something about it *is* fun, even though it would feel like a very dated name to hear on a newborn today.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love Gertrude! I kind of like Ernest, Eugene, Gerald, and Ralph. Gladys and Mildred aren’t bad either.
Same here. I have always had a soft spot for Gertrude. I also like Ralph, pronounced both the American or British way.
‘Gertie’ is very cute!
I don’t say Ralph and Rafe with the same pronunciation at all?
I’m rather fond of Kayla/Keila but it’s an old fashioned Yiddish name to me. And the related name Kelilah would always get said to rhyme with Delilah, which would frost me.
I LOVE Tammy, but only as a nickname for Tamar/Tamara or the more British Tamsin/Thomasin. Yes, I am the remaining sole one (1) living person to like Thomasin. In general I do not like nickname-names as freestanding names, no matter how adorable I find the nickname. So I actually find Tammy, Susie, Betty, etc. mid-century nicknames rather or extremely likable, but would still have daughters named Tamara, Susannah, Elizabeth, etc.
But I like Tammy. It’s got a gentle homespun feel to it that some of the other ’50s-’70s nickname-names, Jody/Mindy/Kerry don’t have.
I believe Ralph is pronounced “Rafe” in England, a la the actor Ralph Fiennes.
I find “Rafe” very stylish. However the American(?) pron. “RALF”, also a synonym for vomiting is a no go.
I really like Dennis. And I think Lori, Beverly “Bev” and Gerald are wearable if not stylish.
Not always; I am English and upon seeing that name written down I would pronounce it as ‘Ralf’. I didn’t even know Ralph Fiennes pronounced his name as Rafe until I saw a Harry Potter interview with him, and I must have been in my late teens by then.
I have to admit I’m not a fan of any of these except for Kayla and Ralph spelt Rafe. But good post! 🙂