The 50-Year Rule: 1962 names revisited

I’m quite concerned about Della climbing the popularity charts… short with the “a” ending, and the similarity in sound to “Ella” making it usable but different. I like the name very much, but I have 5ish years until we’ll start trying, and by then I know it will have caught on!

Rowena I’m toying with using as a future middle name for a girl- it was my great grandmothers middle name.

I absolutely love the name Portia. The only reason I would never use it as a name for my future daughter is because it’s my name… ^_^
My grandma named me after the Shakespeare character in the Merchant of Venice. She didn’t like the way the t made the shhh sound so she put and sh there… so it spelled Porshia. ^_^
I also enjoy the names Dolly and Dottie as well.
-<3

Zelda I adore.

Celestine – Gorgeous.
Dinah – A Biblical favourite of mine.

Viola I love, along with the even more unfashionable Iola. Flora, Minerva,& Rowena I would all consider using. I find Winifred winsome (lol) but I would probably rather find another source for Winnie as a NN.

Boys side, I like Hal but prefer Hale, if it’s not short for Henry. I like Edmund, Virgil, and Ulysses though I don’t know that I’d be brave enough for any. Virgil is the name of a favourite superhero of mine, I admit nerdily, and I like Lemuel but prefer the equally unfashionable Kemuel.

I like a number of the Penny/Kitty/Roxie girls names, but I would want a full name that cuts down to one of those.

I love Minerva, but this really horrid lady ruined the name for me.

A lot of these are the names I tend to favor — I’ll probably end up using one, or some!

I like a lot of these names, and especially the nickname names for the girls. They are so cute!

Can we PLEASE go back to the days when you could name your child Portia without people thinking you named your child after a car?

On another note, I love Agnes, Lucinda, Augustine, CLYDE, Hiram, Leander, and Rosalind.

Benedict is in my top three boys names right now! I also really like Robin, Terrance, Clyde, Clarice, Jill, and Minerva.

Georgina, Pauline, Maxine, Rosalind and Roxanne are all names I really love, though I prefer the less buttoned-up Georgia to Georgina (but using Georgina would honor my grandpa George and my grandma Regina all in one shot).

Maxine is a name I hope my future husband likes because I’ve loved it for years (andyearsandyears)!

The boys names don’t really do anything for me but I do like Roscoe, Booker and Parrish.

I second leonielee’s comment! I almost named my daughter Portia (as in, getting prepped for c-section), until the nurse asked me if I had a name picked out. After I responded, she sad “oh, my daughter is named Mercedes!” ^_^ And, at that moment, I realized that 99% of the population would assume that I named her after a car. And thus Bianca Felicity made her debut instead. I still have moments where I wish that I would have used the name Portia. Oh, how I love it so! And now I’m remarried and my last name starts with a P, so it would sound horrible.

Booker makes me think of George Clooneys Character from Roseanne! Homer is great but everyone would think he was named for a simpsons character.

I can see Barney and Neil getting a revival thanks to Neil Patrick Harris (his Character on How I met your mother is named Barney)

I don’t think Linda is useable even though it is the name of a wonderful friend of mine (born in 1968!). However, I think using Rosalind is a great way to honor her and I hope I get a chance to someday.

I see so many family names!
I have a grandmother whose nn was Della and she had a brother named Benedicte!

I love all of these and think they should make a come back of some kind. * means it’s a favorite:

Girls

Celestine
Cornelia
Etta — I love this for a nickname
Minerva*
Viola*
Helene*
Roxanne
Thea*

Boys

Augustine
Cornelius
Edmund*
Homer*
Leander
Ulysses*
Virgil*
Merlin — I think this would be a cool mn

I went to high school or met people since graduating named these names (all relatively close to my age):

Girls

Dinah
Muriel — she was 15 when I graduated
Myrtle — same as above
Anita — was 26
Beverly — 30′s
Rita — 23
Rochelle — 8 yr old in my group
Kitty
Minnie
Penny

Boys

Ulysses — met a college
Galen
Neil
Robin
Leif — He’s 17 now I think
Chuck
Tim
Tom

Love Etta, Flora, Helene & Rosalind

My dad (Mark) and uncle (Jeffrey) are both in the top 10, both born in the 60′s. I don’t know if I see them coming back just yet. We may be naming our baby Edmond if it’s a boy, after my grandfather born in the late 30′s. I hope it doesn’t become too popular, everyone seems to love it so far.

Edmond is quite atrocious imo. I do love Leif!

I lovelovelove mid-century names. Bonnie, my fave pick for a girl, was at its peak in the 1940s, and I think I could happily name a dozen children off the Top 100 list of 1950.

The trends of the day really appeal to me, with so many shorter, sharper, unfussy names, strong sounds, lots of consonant endings, and plenty of Ds, Ss, THs, and Ns. I think they’re both pretty and strong, and they’d be so unexpectedly cute on a kid today. Some of my favorites are Susan & Suzanne, Sylvia, Marjorie, Kathleen, Judith, Cynthia, Christine, Dorothy, Yvette, Ellen, Lois, Phyllis, Mark, Kenneth, Gregory, Douglas, Lawrence, Alan, Philip, Clifford, Neil, and Howard.

If I am ever brave enough, I would happily use Agnes, Celestine, Dorothea, Eugenia, Georgina, Ida, Myrtle or Viola for a girl.

From the boy list I’d only use Augustine, Benedict or Clement.

Of the other names, I would consider these:

Helene (my mom is called Helen)
Rosalind

I wouldn’t use nickname names though.

Please don’t tell me that Americans pronounce Portia und Porsche the same way. O_o

I’d use:

Girls

Agnes
Dinah
Dorothea
Elvira
Pauline MN
Winifred

Boys
Augustine FN MN
Chester
Clyde
Edmund

MORE MIDCENTURY-ISH–AND MISCELLANEOUS

Girls
Avis – BOY
Gail FN/MN
Loretta
Patrice
Thea MN
Zelda

Boys
Booker
Parrish – girl
Robin

A TOUCH EXOTIC

Boys
Lars MN

I love a lot of these (although, admittedly, they’re primarily the vintage revivals). My favorites:

Polly
Nellie (as a nickname for Helena)
Minnie
Thea
Ida
Etta
Agnes (I’ve been warming up to this)

Freddie
Mack
Clement
Hiram
Homer
Lemuel
Roscoe

Jed almost made it…

I LOVE Portia (and the character) and Rosalind (though I haven’t read the play it’s from); they’re two of my favourite names! I’m also totally in love with Eugenia, Georgina, Ulysses, and Federico. They’re not all to my taste, but some great names here.

@jennai- I’m Canadian and we don’t pronounce Portia and Porsche the same way, thank goodness! Portia is “por-shah” while Porsche is technically “pohr-shuh” (or something like that, not sure how to spell it phonetically) but many people pronounce it “porsh”. Quite similar, but distinct enough one shouldn’t be confused.

I know a baby Clyde and a baby Clifford!

From the list I love:
Girls
Cornelia, Dinah, Flora, Geneva, Georgina, Portia, Carolina, Dolly, Kitty, Frankie, Mamie
Boys
Wallace, Leif, Chuck, Mack, Fred/Freddie, Tim

I feel like there are more reuseable/recylable girl names than the boys. Why is that?
It seems like the boys name pool dwindles more and more. Not only do they get out dated more, it seems, but the also get taken by the girls. I didn’t realise how many out date boys names there are until reading this post. I mean, I can’t imagine names like Kermit, Jarvis or Floyd ever getting popular again.

@bonfireazalea: Thank you for clearing that up.
To me those are two completely different words in spelling and in pronunciation. “Portsia” and “Porsche (with that schwa sound at the end)”.

I love this list!

I know (Australian) babies with the names
Flora
Georgina
Winifred
Thea
Leif
Archie
Jed
Ted
Tim
Tom

Chester is my absolute favourite boys name but rhymes with our surname. Morris is #2 but DH doesn’t like it. Penny has also been vetoed.

Other names I’d use from this list are: Etta, Clement, Dottie, Frankie

Two of my faves are Clarice (love it sooo much!) and Minerva nn Min. However my husband is not crazy about my love of vintage (he clearly doesn’t know the first thing about “beautifully cool”… I may never use them for children, but they will be forever etched in my heart

Love Jarvis – we think it might be THE name for our third baby boy.

Has anyone else noticed that JK Rowling seems to have used these lists to name most of the people in the Harry potter books ha ha

But of course!