Vintage Baby Names: What’s your era?

Vintage Baby Names: What’s your era?

VINTAGE NAMES: What era are you?

Unless you’re a baby namer focused on finding a newly created or cutting-edge name, chances are you’ve considered using one from the past.  But which part of the past?  An ancient name or one from earlier in the 20th century?

So, the question of the week is: Which of these, if any, are you partiularly attracted to?

  • Ancient names like Atticus?

  • Medieval names like Isolde?

  • Puritan like Prudence?

  • Frilly Victorian valentines?

  • 1880s-90s names like Minnie or Oscar?

  • 1900s-10s choices like Ruby or Raymond?

  • 1920s-40s like Betty or Billy?

  • 1950s-60s such as Kimberly or Kevin?

  • 1970s -80s like Amy, Ashley or Amanda?

  • Needless to say, many if not most names move across time and are rarely connected to only one decade or even era–future berries just  might think of  Atticus as a 2010s name.

    How about you?  Is there one period whose names you are drawn to?  Do you have a favorite vintage name—perhaps one that hasn’t been widely rediscovered?

    About the Author

    Linda Rosenkrantz

    Linda Rosenkrantz

    Linda Rosenkrantz is the co-founder of Nameberry, and co-author with Pamela Redmond of the ten baby naming books acknowledged to have revolutionized American baby naming. You can follow her personally at InstagramTwitter and Facebook. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed New York Review Books Classics novel Talk and a number of other books.