Vintage Names: 100-Year-Old Names That Sound New Again
If the Hundred-Year Rule – which states that it takes a century for most names to come back into fashion – holds true, then we’re in for some interesting times, judging from the list of 100 Most Popular Names of the 1910s.
A handful of the top names in the decade from 1910 to 1920 are already solidly back in style. These old fashioned baby names include:
girls
ANNA
CHARLOTTE
ELEANOR
ELLA
EVA
GRACE
JULIA
LUCY
ROSE
STELLA
VIOLET
boys
ANDREW
BENJAMIN
CHARLES and CHARLIE
HARRY
HENRY
JACK
LEO
RAY
SAM
WILLIAM
A larger group is, not surprisingly, on the cutting edge of style, supporting the whole Hundred-Year theory by indicating which names we’ll be hearing more of in the decade ahead. The old-fashioned names from the Top 100 in the 1910s that sound fashion-forward today include:
girls
ALICE
BEATRICE
CLARA
EDITH
ESTHER
EVELYN
FLORENCE
HAZEL
JOSEPHINE
JUNE
LENA
LEONA
LILLIAN
MABEL
MAE
MARGUERITE
MINNIE
PEARL
RUBY
SYLVIA
VERA
VIOLA
VIVIAN
boys
ARTHUR
EDWARD
FRANK
HOMER
LEON
LOUIS and LEWIS
OSCAR
RAYMOND
VICTOR
VINCENT
WALTER
Other choices still seem a bit far out right now, but we predict will become more stylish and feel more acceptable over the next decade, echoing their popularity of a century ago. These include:
girls
AGNES
ALMA
BESSIE
BETTY
BLANCHE
DOROTHY
EDNA
ELSIE
GENEVIEVE
HELEN
IDA
IRENE
MARIAN and MARION
MARJORIE (by popular demand!)
MAXINE
MILDRED
MYRTLE
OPAL
PAULINE
boys
ALBERT
BERNARD
CECIL
CHESTER
CLARENCE
CLAUDE
CLYDE
EDGAR
EDWIN
EVERETT
FLOYD
FRED and FREDERICK
HAROLD
HARVEY
LEROY
LLOYD
MARTIN
MILTON
RALPH
ROY
STANLEY
THEODORE
VERNON
WARREN
WILBUR
WILLARD
Other names it’s just hard to imagine coming back in the foreseeable future….or ever. But we’ve eaten our hat before so we may well see a resurgence of babies with these, uh, not-so-attractive names last popular a hundred years ago.
girls
BERNICE
BERTHA
BEULAH
DORIS
ETHEL
GERTRUDE
GLADYS
LOIS
MARJORIE
PHYLLIS
THELMA
WILMA
boys
