Names that have dropped off in popularity

Patricia

Kenneth

Agnes

Jen’s, Kaitlyn’s, Skyler’s and Jaxson’s WHAT, OP????

I don’t like the name Kenneth or Ken or Kim.

I know a five-year old named Agnes.

That's funny because my next door neighbors named their daughter Gladys, which I love.

Myron

Blanche

Betty

Margret

Rhoda

Phyllis

Nancy

Milton

Seymour

Jerry (Jerrys seemed to stop with arrival of late Gen X)

Hal

Millie

Theresa

Thomas

Stephen

Lots of Kellys, Erins, Kierans, Tims, Seans, Aidans, Connors among people if barely Irish heritage.

Lots of flower names: Violet, Daisy, Rose, Lily, Dahlia, Briony, Camelia and its variations, Flora, Jasmine, Poppy, Tansy, Iris, Heather, Sage, Rue. No Hyacinths yet.

My Mom’s pet dog is named Reginald. He’s called ‘Reg’, for short.

R4 what’s wrong with Kim? I like it for either sex tbh.

Lorraine

Boston Red Sox pitcher Kutter Crawford has a name I hope drops off in popularity.

If they'd named him "Fastball" or "Slider" at least it'd be spelled right.

But Kutter?

Plantagenet

Heather

I think the name "Caitlyn" has completely lost its popularity.

Thelma

D'Brickashaw

He's too old to have been born shilling for PlayStation

OP, I'm 65 and names like Gloria, Hank, Marilyn and Stanley dropped off after my mother's generation.

I taught in a high school with1500 boys as recently as two years ago and there were only seven named Robert.

Interesting that Marilyn is so unpopular, despite Monroe's enduring legacy. It sounds quite pretty and classic to me. Maybe the sexy/tragic association is too strong. Perhaps it will have a comeback

R21, Marilyn implies OLD

A lot of my best friends are called Precious.

Old movie star names

Joan

Veronica

Gail

Delores

Patricia

Clark

John

Douglas

Norma

Alfred

Alice

Lots of Briannas, Britneys, Sophias, isabellas (Bella), Kylies, Alixs.

Adolf

Adolph

Patricia and Barbara left the building 40 years ago.

Ernestine and Venetia are still very popular.

The names of every poster

Assy

Donna, Linda, Beverly

Velma

Vida ("You little tramp.")

Verna

Vonda (Kay Van Dyke: Miss America 1965 and the only Miss America contestant to have also won Miss Congeniality)

Vivien

Violette

Virginia

Catherine

Kathleen

Miriam

Spencer

Della

Carmine

Gordon

I know a lot of Catherines - sometimes spelled with a K.

Ed-win Mont-an-ez Jr

Helen. As in Lawson.

Dropped off dramatically after that horrid 1972 Sesame Street incident.

Pamela

Arthur

Desiree

Constance (Connie)

Dolores

Nadine

Marie

Priscilla

Cassandra

Harvey

Dana (male or female)

Laura/Laurel (but not Lauren)

Susan/Suzanne/Sue Ellen

Judy, Marge, Dorothy, Frank, Dick, George

Frank

Dweezil

Moon-Unit

Eleanor, Arlene, Theresa, Valerie, Cunt, Albert, Alfred, Constance

Yvonne Laverne Josephine Cordelia Cleopatra

Mabel

Enid

Florence

Myrtle

Ethel

Martha

Ida

I'm sometimes surprised at the names of my college students. I've had two Louises and a Josephine in recent years

I’m sometimes amazed by my sense of humor and level of candor. I’m a unique freak.

Dick

Pussy

I want to see these names go and never come back:

Noah

Joshua

Jacob

Lawrence

Raymond

OP you don't know a single person with any of those names

Mildred

May it never return. Reminds me of mildew.

[quote] I've had two Louises

Luisa has remained popular in UK.

If you name your kid Louise she won’t be confused with Olivia, Sofia, Olivia, Isabella, Olivia, Olivia, Sofia and Kyra

Mildred reminds me of milk chocolate

Kevin

Mark

Alan/Allen

Maryann

Mary Pat

Maureen, Colleen, Doreen

Sally

Stephanie

Christine

Diane

Stovepipe

Water Hammer

Karen, for obvious reasons.

My older sister is sixty-one and her name is Nancy.

She always remarks that she's never met a younger woman who shares her name.

Mildred reminds me of pies, R50. And chickens and the smell of grease.

Beulah

^ My sister named her daughter Beulah. We just call her Bee.

Bastard

Bitch

Cunt

Assholera

Clitoris

Shitstain

My sister’s name is Twatta

I met a guy who said his name was Colon. I didn't believe him. I thought he was full of shit.

Tom, Dick and Harry

Hairy Asshole

Hairy Pussy

Hank seems like it would be akin to Jack, which is a popular boy’s name now. It’s old- fashioned yes, but its rugged and masculine in a the same sort of timeless way.

As a millennial I feel like there were no Amandas born after 1990. I know soooo many girls named Amanda around my age but no one 10 years older than me or 10 years younger.

Vulva

The name Katrina dropped its popularity drastically after 2005.

Corona

Older Millennial classic girls names: Amanda, Lauren, Jennifer, Kristin, Stephanie, Melissa.

Don't meet many Tammy's these days

Wendy, as in Peter Pan. Peters petered out too.

Ivana

Marla

Melania

Gary

Bessie Alma Vida Ida Mable Helen Lula Alberta Alvin Roscoe And the list can go on and on.

Ed.win. If you name your son that it will grow up to be a Seacow.

Two names I like that I wish would make a comeback are Gordon and Veronica.

Also, I wouldn't mind if more guys were named Nathan (not Nathaniel).

Some of the older names rare due for a resurgence - like Olive, Sophie/a, Noah, and Henry have had over the past few years.

Amos & Andy

I like the name Gary, but I guess it's not given much these days.

Amanda became popular again in the mid-80s when the power ballad of that name by Boston became a huge hit

Elwood and Wilbur.

Barbara

Eleanor

Nancy

Cecilia

Ethel

Ella

Peggy

I hesitated earlier, this being DL and all, but I also wouldn't mind seeing a resurgence of Vivian or Vivienne.

Gay Gary

Ethel is a pleasant sounding name. Too bad about the nose-picking connotations.

Clarence

OP- What about names that were NEVER popular at least in the USA like-

Trevor

Clive

Nigel

Alastair

Colin

Basil

When I was young, the Kyles I knew were girls. Haven't run into a female Kyle in a long time.

Now Kyle is a boy's name. I have met a number of male Kyles.

Kevin

Keith

Sally

Well R86, that's only fair since boys' names like Ashley and Evelyn have been appropriated for girls.

Trevor was not popular in terms of sheer number of men with that name. However, it is a very popular "idea" name - it is a common name when you want to have a douchey rich white guy - along with Trent, Chet, Brent, Chase, and the like.

The reason it probably is not as common is that it has some connotations to it that many people want to avoid.

Twatta

Beauregard seems to have trailed off, but I do commonly hear the shortened form, Beau

You don’t hear the name Reynold anymore, but sometimes Reynolds.

I predict Dorothy and Cynthia will make comebacks soon.

Cheryl

Carol

Robin

Sandra

Regina

Rebecca

Peggy

Even Sarah and Hannah which were huge for a while. I think Ella is hanging on.

Dorothy

Blanche

Rose

Sophia

Wayne

Warren

Victor

Barry

Marjorie

If you say Peggy in 2022 they think you’re saying pegging

Jennifer and Jason - hottest names of the 1970s, but rarely given today.

Doris

Dorothy

Jean

Ruth

Edith

Edgar

Edsel

Edwidge

Sharon

Suzanne

Carolyn/Caroline

Howard

Three recent hires in our office are Peggy, Shirley and Mildred. They’re all 50 plus, but I haven’t encountered old-fashioned names like that in a long time.

Julie, Melinda and Andrea were popular names for girls my age. All out of fashion.

I always thought of Brandon as a boy's name, but I recently met a female named Brandon. She said the name was originally a female name; she was named after a female ancestor named Brandon.

She said Brandon only became a male name in the last few decades.

R96, Peggy is short for Margaret. If Margaret has fallen out of fashion, as I suspect it has, that's really a shame.

Names like Thomas, Henry, Stephen, William, John, Richard or Mary, Margaret, Katherine, Anne and Elizabeth are sturdy, time-honored names that should never fall out of fashion. Incidentally, upper-class people frequently still give their children these names. Fad names like Josh and Zach and Jennifer and Melissa (all long-established and respectable but once uncommon names) are for the middle class. There's nothing wrong with it - names come in and out of fashion - but it marks the child's background forever as surely as naming her Theresa Francesca Bernadette would.

People who give their kids made-up names or mashup names or misspelled names are trashy. They might as well tattoo the poor child at birth.

Doesn't everyone know this?

Adolf

I think Richard has managed to fade - and maybe Margaret - but agree, R104.

I know a college-aged Lewisa. She was named after her grandfather Lewis.

Margaret still exists among Catholic families. But no one nicknames them Peg, Peggy, Marge, or Margie anymore -- just Maggie.

I never heard of anyone with the first name Brandon until the last few decades. It used to be just a surname.

[quote]I never heard of anyone with the first name Brandon until the last few decades. It used to be just a surname.

In a lot of families, especially in the South, they used to give one of the children the mother's maiden name as the child's first name. That's a way of continuing the mother's maiden's name for future generations. That was especially true if the mother didn't have any brothers to carry on the family name.

[quote]I know a college-aged Lewisa. She was named after her grandfather Lewis.

R107, ouch.

If they didn't like Louise (a very nice name that should be revived), Luisa has a nice international ring to it. (I know those are derived from Louis and Luis, not Lewis, but really ... Lewisa? It sound like the name of one of those new mystery drugs that are advertised in such a way that you can't tell what condition they're for.)

One of my cousins has a daughter named Margaret Louise and another cousin has a daughter named Elisabeth Mary.

I really like those names, though the German spelling of “Elisabeth” drives my WASP uncle crazy.

Osama

Karen

Meghan

Gladys

Eleanor

Sylvia

Ramona

Florence

Roberta

Names of my 94 year old mother's (deceased) friends. Her name is Ruth.

I don't see any of these names making a comeback anytime soon but I was surprised at the re-emergence in popularity of Emma and Hannah.

Maybe it’s just the people around me but I feel like old fashioned names are coming back - my sister recently named her baby Prudence and a friend named hers Winnifred. My gen Z friend is named Agnes…

R45 here’s both in one

Eleanor has been back for a while.

Jane Carol Allison

[quote]If they didn't like Louise (a very nice name that should be revived), Luisa has a nice international ring to it.

Or just the standard spelling of the name that any little woman would know. - "Louisa"

Athelia

R104 Everyone should know this.

Linda, Susan, Frank, Arthur

[quote]People who give their kids made-up names or mashup names or misspelled names are trashy. They might as well tattoo the poor child at birth.

The meteoric rise of made-up and mashup names or oddly spelled versions of more common names seems to coincide with the wider social phenomenon of people being much more desperate for both individuality and identity.

Parents using their children for youtube and twitter are another example of parents using their kids in this manner. I'd wager there is an extremely high correlation between parents who use their kids for views and "likes" and their having been name as noted.

Archie

I love the male names "Peter" and "Douglas", neither of which are common or popular.

R125, I like both of those names, too. There are men under 40 named Peter, although you're right it's much less common than it used to be.

Douglas - Doug - has disappeared completely which is inexplicable to me because it's a great name for a man: strong, masculine, uncommon enough that they're aren't 10 of them in the same office, but familiar enough that everyone can pronounce it. There's nothing cute or boyish about it, and maybe that's the problem.

People today seem to want to give their kids names that are cute or child-like or fun without considering that they'll have the name for 20 years as a kid and 60 years as an adult. Also, names for boys are far less masculine than they used to be, which is a crime. Name your boy Jayden or Caylen and you're halfway to having a transdaughter.

R114, my mother's name was Ruth, too. Her best friends were Charlotte, Marie, Ellen and Marge (Margaret). I think they're all good for revival. Actually, I've met a couple of younger Charlottes and Ellens in recent years.

As for your mother's posse - Gladys, Eleanor, Sylvia, Ramona, Florence, Roberta - I not holding my breath for a resurgence of Gladys or Florence, but the rest are all excellent names that respectable parents who want their children to be respectable, too, should consider.

Ramona and Sylvia (which can certainly be Sylvie if you want a Continental flavor) are particularly good names for parents who want something that's not High WASP but has some history and is appropriate for a grown woman.

I could see Hank being one of those names hipsters revive

To find good names for your baby, don't read stupid baby-name lists. Instead, look back through your and your spouse's family trees. Don't limit yourself only to first names or only to parents or grandparents. If your family came from a non-English-speaking country, consider translating the name if it's difficult in English, but it would be cool to name your child Luc or Isabela not because they're fashionable but because they're real family names.

R128, Hank is a nickname for Henry, as Jack is for John. While both are GREAT names, it's better if the child is given the proper name and called "Hank" or "Jack" by his parents but then able to choose his preferred version - there are many - when he's of age.

Prunella

My cousin named her daughter “Hattie.”

Cute name, but it’s a nickname. She should have gone with “Henrietta” for the given name.

Jeremiah. I have a name that sounds as though it were straight out of 1840.

A lot of J's have faded: Joan, Joanne, June, Janet, Janis, Judy, Joyce, Juanita, Jackie, Jill - even Jennifer and Jessica have lost their gleam.

R133, I thought Jeremiah had been somewhat revived as part of the general revival of old-fashioned Biblical names. Maybe not, though, perhaps because it lacks a good nickname. "Jerry" is completely out of fashion, and for good reason. It's a weak and "soft" name, like Tim/Timothy.

Adam

Yeah, ugly names are out.

R115 prudence and Agnes are UGLY names

R137, "ugly names" are always out. No sane person deliberately gives their child an ugly name. It's what's considered ugly that changes.

Shockingly, Aurelia is making a huge comeback.

I love Betty and Veronica.

TBH I've noticed it's way more masculinity based. So you have tons of desparate fraus naming their kids Frank and Logan in hopes that they don't suck dick.

R142, Frank, OK, but LOGAN? In what strange, twisted world is that a more masculine name? It's been a common gay porn given name for decades.

Countess

Cuntess

For your son, to ensure maximum masculinity, pick one of these 10:

James*, Robert*, John, Michael*, David, William*, Richard*, Thomas*, Charles*, Gary.

*Be sure that they become: Jim, Rob/Bob, Mike, Bill, Rick, Tom, Chuck or Charlie.

Gary is particularly manly and sexy af as well. Gary Cooper, Gary Cole, Gary Puckett ... what more could you want?

The list is not a mystery. It's the top 10 boys' names for 1950. When in doubt, go with the '50s and you'll seldom go wrong.

Gary is gay

Gary seems trashy.

Tracy (and its various spellings) is a name that you never hear anymore among the youngsters. Gen-Xers & Boomers only. You'd think it would have seen an uptick in popularity, recently, given that it's an androgynous name.

Agnes is harsh in English but Agnès in French is pretty.

[quote] Shockingly, Aurelia is making a huge comeback.

Aurora is another fug name making a comeback.