Ten Boys Baby Names That Are Permanently Out Of Fashion And Will Never be Used Again

Baby names go in and out of vogue. Some cycle through long and short terms of popularity. Other names are popular for a few years and then fade into oblivion. At the end of the article see the ten most popular male and female names given in 1880, 1950 and 2017.

One of my close relatives was named Adolph. Unless you are a big admirer of the Third Reich, most parents would avoid naming their child after the Führer. Yet there are people who do name their children Adolf or Adolph.

For every Benjamin, Lucas and Jacob (2017 popular names according to the Social Security Administration), there will be “unique” names such as Jaxx, Reign and Ledger.

While many parents want to give their child a unique name, most don’t want a really weird or antiquated name.

Here are ten male names that will not be making a comeback in the 21^st century.

10. Ebenezer – You could call him Eb for short, but no one is beating down the doors to start naming their children after Dickens’ miserly character Scrooge.

 

9. Preserved – Some verbs can be used as a name, but Preserved? Yes, Preserved was a 19^th century name. Preserved Fish mentioned in the famous Hone Diary, was a merchant who lived from 1766-1846.

 

8. Telemachus – A somewhat unusual name even for the 19^th century. But there were people with this name in the United States.  Greek mythology not withstanding, a name that is completely unused today and for the foreseeable future.

 

7. Grover – Maybe you are a huge fan of the show Sesame Street or the 22^nd and 24^th President of the United States, Grover Cleveland. If not, it is highly doubtful that anyone will be naming their child Grover in this century.

 

6. Egbert – A name guaranteed to incite endless name-calling, bullying and ass kicking once enrolled in school. To be avoided at all costs.

5. Lucifer – There must be some devil worshipers out there who find the name Lucifer appealing. Other than avowed Satanists who’ve voluntarily adopted this name, you probably will not be meeting anyone named after the great deceiver.

 

4. Waldo – You can blame movie producer Hal Roach in his Our Gang (The Little Rascals) shorts for making Waldo the snooty, obnoxious rich kid. That was probably the nail in the coffin for the name. Since the 1930s Waldo has steadily declined in popularity to the point of not just not naming humans Waldo, but even a pet.

 

3. Phineas – Showman Phineas T. Barnum was a great man. Unfortunately, he is also the last really famous person to possess that name because no one names their child after him. If the popular cartoon Phineas and Ferb cannot revive the name, nothing can.

 

2. Ichabod – Did people ever name their children Ichabod? They must have because author Washington Irving most likely based his famous fictional character’s name on a real soldier by the name of – Ichabod Crane!

 

1. Gaylord – Being gay today (“Not that there’s anything wrong with that” as pointed out in a famous episode of Seinfeld) is not a shocking revelation anymore. *But starting out your life with Gay as the first syllable and Lord as the second syllable is not something even the most ardent gay activist would do to their child. Gaylord will almost certainly never make a name comeback.

*The only living famous Gaylord is baseball Hall of Fame pitcher, Gaylord Perry. He was named after one of his father’s friends who had died.

Showing how tastes have changed, in 1880 the 10 most popular names for boys and girls were:

1	John	Mary
2	William	Anna
3	James	Emma
4	Charles	Elizabeth
5	George	Minnie
6	Frank	Margaret
7	Joseph	Ida
8	Thomas	Alice
9	Henry	Bertha
10	Robert	Sarah

In 1950 the ten most popular names for boys and girls were:

1	James	Linda
2	Robert	Mary
3	John	Patricia
4	Michael	Barbara
5	David	Susan
6	William	Nancy
7	Richard	Deborah
8	Thomas	Sandra
9	Charles	Carol
10	Gary	Kathleen

 

In 2017 the ten most popular names for boys and girls were:

1	Liam	Emma
2	Noah	Olivia
3	William	Ava
4	James	Isabella
5	Logan	Sophia
6	Benjamin	Mia
7	Mason	Charlotte
8	Elijah	Amelia
9	Oliver	Evelyn
10	Jacob	Abigail

William and James are the only two boys names that are on all three top 10 lists.

Not one girl’s name appears on all three top ten lists.

But proving that popular names fall in and out of fashion, Emma which is not in the 1950 top 10 (it was number 154 that year), was number 3 in 1880 and number 1 in 2017!