Names due for a comeback

The remarkable success of the girls' name Everly makes a revival of the name Beverly seem possible. More commonly a masculine name in the 19th century, it began to be used for girls in the early 1900s, reaching #14 ion the popular names list in 1937. Inspirations: Beverly Johnson was the first African-American model to appear on the cover of Vogue, Beverly Sills was a major American soprano, Beverly Cleary authored the beloved 'Ramona' books, and Beverly Goldberg is the beloved TV matriarch of 'The Goldbergs'.

Old-fangled nickname could make dot.com era short form or middle name.

Like Greta, Gretchen is a German Margaret diminutive that has become an American quasi-classic, though not much used today, having dropped off the list in 2009. She was at her high point in the 1970s, making it into the top 200.

Though modern parents seeking to honor an ancestor named Thelma might opt for the airier Thea instead, Thelma is starting to make its way back onto adventurous vintage name lovers' radars. It is currently experiencing a modest revival in France, where it now ranks around the #300 mark.

A name with a less conventional animal meaning, rescued by the reputation of the Greek courtesan Phryne (more beautiful than Aphrodite, one of the wealthiest women in classical Athens) and the charming character Phryne Fisher from Australian author Kerry Greenwood's detective series Phryne Fisher's Mysteries, set in the 1930s.

The French Canadian pop star Avril Lavigne put the spotlight on this name when she made the charts with "Sk8er Boi". It is simply the French form of April, the fourth month of the year, whose name might derive from the Latin aperire meaning "to open" in reference to the start of spring in the Northern hemisphere. Other sources suggest it comes from the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite.

Shirley Temple almost single-handedly lifted the gloom of the Great Depression, and in tribute (and perhaps wishing for a similarly curly-headed, dimpled darling of their own), thousands of parents of that generation gave their little girls her name. In 1935, Shirley was the second most popular girls' name in the country with more than 42,000 babies named Shirley.

A classic short form of Henrietta, also seen as a nickname for Mehetabel.