100+ Classic Girls’ Names — below the Top 1000

100+ Classic Girls’ Names — below the Top 1000

By Pamela Redmond Satran

Think you have to pick between names that are classics, with deep roots and centuries of use, and names that are unusual?

You don’t, as these classic girls’ names, all ranked below the U.S. Top 1000, attest.

Some were popular in recent years and are now sinking from view — Pamela, Jean — while others are rising stars we predict will soon appear on the official Top 1000: Imogen is a prime example, along with Mabel, the Margos, and Clementine.

That still leaves dozens of classic girls’ names that are neither coming into style nor sailing out but simply holding steady below the radar.

A note on how we chose the names: We did not include variant spellings of more popular classic names such as Emilee, and for the most part excluded short forms unless they have been traditionally used on their own.  Our definition of classic embraces ancient names such as Phaedra and Keturah along with more recent widely-used girls’ names such as Maureen.

If you’re in search of a classic girls’ name that’s both traditional and unusual, consider these 100+ picks, ordered from those given to the highest number of baby girls in the U.S. in 2012 (Aurelia, at 250) to the least (Petal, used for just 5).

[column1]

Aurelia

Mercy

Astrid

Roxanne

Mabel

Liv

Margot and Margo

Theresa

Louisa

Antonia

Delia

Annette

Pamela

Dominique

Janet

Sally

Clementine

Cordelia

Gretchen

Tamara

India

Ramona

Susanna and Susannah

Lucinda

Marian and Marion

Maura

Robin

Melinda

Carol

Marcella

Gillian

Constance

Hillary and Hilary

Louise

Isadora

Sheila

Ophelia

Betty

Justine

Honor

Flora

Agnes

Diane

Cleo and Clio

Ariadne

Cecily

Imogen

May

[/column1]

[column2]

Guinevere

Magdalene

Florence

Lois

Harriet

Bernadette

Edna

Suzanne

Octavia

Joan

Pilar

Rosalind

Millicent

Theodora

Mildred

Wilhelmina

Norma

Jean

Roberta

Maureen

Lavinia

Portia

Prudence

Hermione

Winifred

Dinah

Henrietta

Polly

Agatha

Jill

Keturah

Jemima

Minerva

Phaedra

Olympia

Eulalia

Gail

Deirdre

Cornelia

Gertrude

Sybil

Ethel

Phyllis

Jessamine

Blanche

Cosima

Hero

Lucretia

Petal

[/column2]

We’ll have the boys’ version later this week.

About the Author

Pamela Redmond

Pamela Redmond

Pamela Redmond is the cocreator and CEO of Nameberry and Baby Name DNA. The coauthor of ten groundbreaking books on names, Redmond is an internationally-recognized baby name expert, quoted and published widely in such media outlets as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Today Show, CNN, and the BBC. She has written about baby names for The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, and People.

Redmond is also a New York Times bestselling novelist whose books include Younger, the basis for the hit television show, and its sequel, Older. She has three new books in the works.