Extinct Names

If there's an ancestral Earl you want to honor, consider Early instead.

Loring lives as a first name thanks to the Kansas doctor Loring Miner who first sounded the alarm on what became known as the Spanish Flu.

If you're looking for a girl's name that honors an ancestral Arthur, try Artis.

Delmer is kind of a smoosh of two dated names, Delmar and Elmer, that does not improve on either. While Elmer is making a return as a Geek Chic name, Delmar was given to only 14 baby boys last year while Delmer is extinct.

Best known these days as the name of an American department store chain, Dillard was once a baby name that ranked on the US Top 1000, at least until the middle of the last century.

Merrilee has several different origins. It's an alternative spelling of the unusual word name Merrily, as well as a variant of the smoosh name Marilee (Mary + Lee). Merrilee, Merrilees or Mirrlees are also found in Scotland, deriving from a Scottish place name. Merrilee hit the Top 1000 for a few years in the 1940s, but last year, zero baby girls in the US were named Merrilee or Merilee -- which makes the names more appealing.

Verda was a fairly popular girls' name in the US from the 1880s through the 1920s, when it started to slip, finally dropping from sight after World War II.

You're so vain, I bet you think this name is about you.