A List of Trendy Old Fashioned Names

If you’re a fan of the annual animated Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, you’ll recognize the name of Rudolph’s beautiful doe sweetheart, pronounced cla-REES—uncomfortably close to the Silence of the Lambs pronunciation. Clarice was the name of the wife of Lorenzo de' Medici, and Clarice Cliff was a famed British ceramics artist. Though a Top 300 name from 1906 to 1934, modern parents might prefer the more delicate Clarissa.

A name used in the Caribbean, taken from the Rastafarian term that translates best to "positive and powerful." Rastas often greet each other by saying, "Are you feeling Irie today?"

The iconic Gone With the Wind star Clark's surname was brought into the first-name mix when Weeds' Kevin Nealon picked it for his son. Gable makes a strong and unusual possibility, a rhyming cousin to Abel and Mabel.

Nelly or Nellie is an adorable nickname name that can be short for a wide range of more formal appellations or that can stand on its own, and is typical of the vintage nickname genre that is growing in popularity. While Nelly can be used for several different names, from Helen to Eleanor to Cornelia, it has stood on its own for more than a century. It was one of the most popular names – spelled as Nellie – in the U.S. at the end of the 1800s.

This early Scottish title -- known to us via Shakespeare's Macbeth -- has recently surfaced as a baby name possibility, familiar sounding through its similarity to names like Zane and Wayne.

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.

Guthrie, one of the most attractive Scottish names that's also a surname, has a particularly romantic, windswept aura, with a touch of the buckaroo thrown in.

Eternally tied to the surname Chase, via the old English battle and ballad, the DC suburb, and the goofy SNL pratfaller (who was born Cornelius). It entered the US Top 1000 in 2014.

Petal is the soft and sweet-smelling name of a character in the novel and film, The Shipping News. With the rise of such flower names as Poppy and Posy, we believe Petal — down-to-earth yet romantic — has its own appealingly distinctive style.

Also spelled Madog, which was the name of an early Welshman, Madog ap Owain Gwynedd, reputed to have been the first European to discover North America in 1155. Maddox, the name of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's oldest child, is a stronger and more familiar choice.

A fresher spin on Jaxon, with built-in cool nickname Nix, and a great way to honor an ancestral Nick. But the association with disgraced former president Richard Nixon remains strong, which might explain why this otherwise bang-on-trend surname name has remained under the radar, peaking at #482 in 2017.

Might suggest speed, excitement, even danger, were it not for its best-known bearer, conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh.

A rarely heard--even in France--name, most prominent as the third name of Charlotte Marie Pomeline Casiraghi, the daughter of Princess Caroline of Monaco and granddaughter of Grace Kelly.

Actress Tilda Swinton injected this dated nickname name with some modern charm.

This bold choice soared in popularity from 2008 to 2013, and now seems to have plateaued. But watch out—the character Major Major Major Major in the classic absurdist novel Catch-22 had a terrible time.

Charmaine is an ancient name connected to Charmion, the name of one of Cleopatra's servants, and Charmian, a Shakespearean name. Its meaning is related to the word charm, though some sources tie it to the Charles family, which means "free man".

A Scottish town and river name, Afton has a cool, contemporary sound, similar to Alden, Austen, Effie, and Aspen. Derived from Old English, it could mean "Æffa's farmstead", Æffa being an Anglo-Saxon given name of unknown meaning.

Long used in Spanish-speaking countries, this strong but feminine name was jump-started here by the rise of actress Jada Pinkett Smith. The Italian Giada is a popular variation. In the Bible, the name Jada was borne by a man and has a different root and meaning: It's Hebrew and means "he knows".

In the US, nearly 300 baby girls were named Chandler in the US last year, which first appeared on the girls' Top 1000 in the heyday of Friends. While the TV character was masculine, today the name is 43 percent female and climbing, making it one of the trendiest boy names for girls.

Now that names like Cannon and Gunner, fit for comic book heroes, are rising up, Rogue may fit right in.