Top Old-Timey And Vintage Girl Names That Are Popular Again
Stephen King said it best, “Sooner or later, everything old is new again.” Maybe he wasn’t necessarily talking about baby names, but it applies here. Old-timey names for baby girls are hitting the scene once again.
Many celebs are even naming their daughters old lady names. This includes Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds naming their third daughter Betty. Actors like Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner named their oldest daughter Violet. And George and Amal Clooney named their daughter Ella.
The BabyNames.com founder Jennifer Moss told TODAY.com that the old-timey names trend isn’t going anywhere and that parents should expect preschools filled with “Lucilles, Adelaides, and Mabels.”
The top names for girls in the early 20th century included Mary, Helen, Margaret, Anna, Ruth, Dorothy, and Barbara, according to the Social Security Administration.
Some are calling it the “100-year rule.”
BabyCentre reported that the comeback of vintage baby girls’ names is due to people’s associations with the names. Names that were popular in our parents’ generation are still associated heavily with them. They also say that some parents just want to name their child something different.
Top old-timey names for baby girls.
TODAY.com, along with the help of Moss, compiled a list of the top old lady names for baby girls. If you’re inspired by old-fashioned, vintage names, or just want something unique, then consider these names. At the top of the list is Violet. It’s a vintage name with both a flower and color name. According to Verywell Family, Violet had its “heyday” in the early 20th century.
Following Violet is the name Agatha. Interestingly, there were 136 newborn American girls named Agatha in 2021, the most since 1926, according to MomJunction.
Third on the list is Ida. MomJunction said that it was prevalent in the U.S. in the 1880s. Additionally, they point out that in 1847, Lord Alfred Tennyson wrote a humorous poem called The Princess with Princess Ida as a feminist Victorian-era royal.
Other names on the list include Maude, Lottie, Edith, and Charlotte, among others. Take a look at the full list here.
6 Baby Names You Probably Should Avoid
Messiah
In 2013, a child support magistrate in East Tennessee ruled that a 7-month-old boy named Messiah must have his name changed to Martin. “The word ‘Messiah’ is a title, and it’s a title that has only been earned by one person, and that one person is Jesus Christ,” said Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew.
Adolf Hitler
In 2009, New Jersey parents Heath and Deborah Campbell were taken into state custody after authorities got involved in a cake incident. A bakery refused to decorate a cake with the words “Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler.” The Campbell’s gave their three children Nazi-inspired names including Adolf Hitler . Though the state said that their names were not the reason, it’s been reported that the parents didn’t believe them.
Allah
In 2018, Elizabeth Handy and Bilal Walk of Georgia sued their home state after officials refused to let them name their daughter ZalyKha Graceful Lorraina Allah. The issue was Allah, the two-year-old girl’s last name. Georgia law requires that children bear the last name of at least one of their parents. The parents won the case, with the help of lawyers from the ACLU.
1069
In 1976, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled that short-order cook and high school teacher Michael Herbert Dengler could not change his name to “1069.”
Santa Claus
In December 1999, Robert William Handley of Ohio filed a petition to change his name to Santa Robert Claus. Judge Lawrence Belskis denied his petition saying that “the public has a proprietary interest, a proprietary right in the identity of Santa Claus, both in the name and the persona.”
III
A 1984 ruling from the California Courts of Appeal denied a request from Thomas Boyd Ritchie III to change his name to the Roman numeral “III,” pronounced “Three.” The court said that, “a change to a roman numeral did not constitute a name change within the meaning of the law and that the new ‘name’ used by appellant was inherently confusing.”
