The boys’ names that ranked among the Top 1000 in 1880, the first year for which statistics were kept, include hundreds of choices no longer in use – or at least very rarely heard. Some of the categories of lost names overlap with the now-obscure girls’ names, while others are different.
Nickname-names, for instance, so packed with lost names for girls, include some lost choices for boys, though more of the nickname names in use in the late 19th century are still widely used today: Joe, Jack, Jake, Jim, and so on.
Those nickname names we’re not hearing much of any more but which were popular in 1880 include:
Classic names from mythology, ancient history, and The Bible that made the 1880 boys’ Top 1000 but that are rarely heard today include:
ALMA – Now a girl’s name more closely identified with the Spanish for “soul”, this became popular for boys after the mid-19th century Battle of Alma.
ALVA – Obscure Old Testament name best known as the middle name of inventor Thomas Edison, already famous by 1880, the year after he invented the light bulb.
CICERO – Roman statesman and author’s name widely used for slaves.
DOLPHUS – Shortened form of German Adolphus, “noble wolf.” Hitler made this one unusable.
EBER – Phonetic form of Irish mythological Eibhear.
ENOCH – Another Biblical name lying in the wings waiting for revival. He was the son of Cain and the father of Methuselah.
ENOS – Old Testament name that would be difficult on a modern playground.
ERASTUS – New Testament name that means “beloved.”
JUSTUS – Saints’ name that means (surprise) “just” in Latin.
LEANDER – Legendary Greek lover of (female) Hero. May rise with other lion names.
LEMUEL – Old Testament king and also the son of Book of Mormon’s Lehi and Sariah and the hero of Gulliver’s Travels. Samuel substitute.
MAHLON – Obscure Old Testament name — he was the son of Naomi and the husband of Ruth — that’s become even more obscure over the past century, perhaps due to its unappealing meaning.
MARCELLUS – Ancient Roman family name overridden in more recent years by Mark and Marcus.
ORAN – Simplified form of Irish saints’ name Odhran. OREN means “pine tree” in Hebrew.
URBAN – New Testament name born by eight popes.
URIAH – Old Testament warrior’s name pretty much killed by Dickens’ odious Uriah Heap.
We tend to think of surnames in first place as a late 20th century invention, but in fact dozens of surname-names made the boys’ Top 1000 in 1880. Choices popular now, from Logan to Peyton to Parker to Jordan, did not make the cut then, but they used lots of surname-names rarely heard today. Here’s a selection:
One wacky 1880 trend was the use of impressive-sounding titles or occupations as names. King and Prince are the only two of this group in the current Top 1000, owing more to the rocker Prince and the rocker’s baby Kingston Rossdale.
There has certainly been a lot of gender migration of names in the past 130 years. Some that made the male most popular list in 1880 that would never be given to a boy today are:
And then there are those names that are just plain funny, especially for a boy, at least to the modern ear. Could 1880 parents really have thought Pink was a pleasant name for a son? Makes you think times have changed even more radically than we might have guessed.
I love this list and yesterday’s, I think if someone is looking for a unique choice, they might find it in a very old list of names, rather than at the bottom of last year’s list.
November 20th, 2009 at 12:53 am
I love going through old names, it’s funny to imagine little boys running around named Pink, Lyman, Minor, or Alva.
While most are pretty horrible, I actually kind of like Rollin, I have a teacher with this last name, so it sounds alright to me. I also like Coleman and Leander.
Also, I must say, Chancy isn’t too bad… It kind of sounds like Chauncey, which is a name that’s grown on me a lot.