In our first book on baby names Beyond Jennifer & Jason, we created something called The Hundred Year Rule, which holds that it takes a full century for a name to shake off its dusty image and sound fresh again. 

When we look at the popularity lists for a hundred years ago — 1925 — we see any number of vintage baby names that have already popped back, names like Violet, Sadie, Ruby, Isabel, Max, Oliver and Felix.

The question is, are there any names from a century ago that we’ve overlooked and are still worthy of re-evaluation?  Here are some you might consider from the popularity list of 1925 — although we do have to keep in mind that the US population then was about 30% of what it is now, so some of these names were attached to a very small number of babies.

GIRL NAMES

• Adelia
• Agnes
• Aili
• Albertine
• Amalia
• Antonia
• Ara
• Avis
• Bernadine
• Bethel
• Betty
• Celestine
• Coletta
• Cordelia
• Delphine
• Delta
• Dorothea
• Easter
• Erie
• Florrie
• Frances
• Geneva
• Hattie
• Ida
• Inez
• Kitty
• Lelia
• Lois
• Lottie
• Lucretia
• Lula
• Mamie
• Marian
• Marjorie
• Minerva
• Nella
• Nova
• Octavia
• Odessa
• Opal
• Ophelia
• Ouida
• Palma
• Pauline
• Polly
• Roxie
• Theodora
• Thora
• Tillie
• Verona
• Veva
• Viola
• Winifred
• Winnie
• Zadie

BOY NAMES

• Abner
• Albert
• Alfred
• Ambrose
• Archibald
• Augustine
• Basil
• Benedict
• Calvin
• Casper
• Chester
• Claude
• Clement
• Cleve
• Clyde
• Dorsey
• Edwin
• Ernest
• Floyd
• Frank
• Grover
• Harold
• Hiram
• Homer
• Jarvis
• Judson
• Kermit
• Lionel
• Lonzo
• Louis
• Loyal
• Lyle
• Mack
• Morris
• Norris
• Otto
• Perry
• Raleigh
• Raymond
• Roscoe
• Rufus
• Smith
• Valentine
• Vernon
• Virgil