Medieval name without much of a future.

One of the glamour girl names of the Rita Hayworth 1940s, Rita was once a Top 50 name and stayed on the SSA list until 2002.

The classic strong-yet-friendly nickname name, much used for charming movie characters.

Most Bills today are dads...or grandpas. The younger Williams are usually nicknamed Will, or called by their full names.

This spelling adds a little more femininity to the neutral Lee. Leigh and sister Lee were quite popular in the 1960s and 1970s among the first cool wave of unisex names for girls, but now have vanished from the Top 1000. The Biblical Leah is preferred.

Carrie lives on mainly on the screen, as the new/old antiheroine of Stephen King's classic Carrie, as turn-of-the-21st-century diva Carrie Bradshaw of Sex & The City, and as Claire Danes' Emmy-winning character Carrie Mathison of Homeland.

Fiery but slight middle name choice; much more apt to be a redhead's nickname.

Arnie is a nerdy-tipping-into-cute nickname that may rise again, if not for this generation of babies then for their babies. Look for it in the nurseries of 2050.

One of the old-school nicknames -- think Ray, Vince, Frank -- that's on the brink of coming back into style. Name him Stanislav or Constantine and he'll have a groovier long form to fall back on.

A warm and cuddly nickname name, although he famously "kissed the girls and made them cry" in the old nursery rhyme.

Much-used midcentury diminutive, now fallen far from favor even as a middle name.

Ralphie is one of those short forms that have been out of style for so long it just might have a chance of coming back in, if you can get past seeing it as a desperate attempt to cute-ify a stodgy old man's name.

Richie was once a popular enough nickname for Richard that it made the Top 1000 all by itself, blending in with Ronnie, Reggie, Robbie, and Randy. In the US, it last appeared in the charts back in the 70s, but its still in style in the UK where a recent year saw it rank at the latter end of the charts, alongside Drew, Wilf, and Bobbie.

More commonly spelled JUDD, this is a strong but sensitive short form that can easily stand on its own.

Chris is one of the longest-running and still most appealing unisex short forms, still used nearly equally for boys and girls. Though no longer fashionable, Chris still feels crisp and appropriate for both sexes.

Jolly Holly has always been among the favorite names for Christmas babies, evoking the symbolic shrub with dark green leaves and bright red berries. And Holly is the flower for the month of December, so it's also among the perfect names for December babies. Holly is scarcely heard on baby boys, but Robin Tunney and Nicky Marmet used it as the middle name for their son Oscar.

Thad is a tad too slight to stand alone as a name, though as a short form of the imposing Thaddeus it's as serviceable as Ted or Ed.