Unusual Antique Baby Names

Despite Thornton Wilder, playwright of the perennial Our Town, only a handful of baby boys receive this name each year..

Middle name possibility for a nature-loving family -- Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke used it for their son's middle name.

Thebe is the name of more than one daughter of Zeus, according to some myths, and is also the name of a moon of Jupiter. Thebe rhymes with Phoebe and may appeal to lovers of that name.

Buford has lost any charm it once had. Try Beauford instead.

Gussie is fussy — try Gus.

A name with an obvious meaning, for a long time associated with Golda Meir, the fourth Prime Minister of Israel. Nickname Goldie seems to be catching on in the celebrity community.

Named after Isaac. Or Wayne.

Has a harmonic feel.

Using the 'ie' ending makes Johnny slightly more feminine, which must have been what Melissa Etheridge was thinking when she named one of her twins Johnnie Rose.

Wilda (or Wylda) has two widely divergent images. Pronounced vill-da, it feels like a cousin of Hilda: a sturdy and none-too-attractive prairie settler. But you can also think of her as wild-ah, as in the feminine of wild and wilder.

Name that enjoyed some popularity early in the 20th century but now is locked in another, ahem, era.

Related to the powerful South African warrior people, sometimes chosen by African-Americans to celebrate their heritage.

Jennings is a common English surname that originated as a patronymic for the child of someone named Jen, a short form of John.

This rare and archaic French name is a little too close to Chlorine for our liking. Despite its flowery origins, Florine has a warrior history - Florine of Burgundy was a female French crusader, who fought in battles alongside her husband and died after continuing to fight with seven arrows in her chest.

Mose is the German variation of Moses, a widely familiar name thanks to the character in the Old Testament. Mose is also used a nickname for Moses.

Despite the presidential pedigree, it's still hard to shake the image of the cartoon cat (named after his creator Jim Davis's grandfather). However, there are other Garfields, such as Barbadian cricket player Sir Garfield Sobers, who carries it with gravitas.

An English surname derived from multiple place names, which ranked in the Top 500 for boys in the US until the turn of the 20th century.

Hilda with a stuffed nose.

Feminization of the Greek place name Delphi (of oracle fame), Delphia could also be used as a nod to American city Philadelphia. Delphine and Delphinia are similar names.