The Lost Boy Names of 1880
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 these 1800s boy names deserve to stay in the 1800s, while other may be ripe for revival.
Nickname-names, for instance, so packed with lost names for girls, include some lost choices for boys, though more of the nicknames 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:
CHAS
CLEM
DELL
DOSS
DUFF
ELZIE
FRITZ
LAFE
LON
LUM
MART
MOSE
NEWT
ODIE
ROLLIE
SIM
TOBE
VERN
ZEB
Classic mythological names, names from ancient history, and Biblical names 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 enslaved people.
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.”
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 last names as first names rarely heard today. Here’s a selection:
ALTON
COLEMAN
DEWITT
GARFIELD
HARDY
HENDERSON
JUDSON
LARKIN
LYMAN
MELVILLE
MERLE
MERRILL
MERRITT
MERTON
RALEIGH
ROLLIN
SMITH
STERLING
WEST
WHEELER
WILFORD
WILMER
YOUNG
One 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.
AUTHOR
BISHOP
CHRIST
COLONEL
COMMODORE
DOCTOR
GENERAL
JUDGE
KING
LAWYER
MAJOR
MINOR
PRINCE
ROYAL
SQUIRE
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:
BEVERLY
CARROLL
CLAIR
FAY
JOY
LYNN
PEARL
SHIRLEY
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.
CHANCY
COY
GOLDEN
GUST
HARDIN
MATH
ORAL
PINK
PLEASANT
PRESS