Vintage 1920s Names Sound New Again

Updated Mon May 27 2024

Vintage baby names are a rich source of inspiration if you’re looking for a name with history and character. If the Hundred Year Rule – which states that it takes a century for most names to come back into fashion – holds true, then we’re in for some interesting times, judging from the list of 100 Most Popular Names of the 1920s.

A handful of the top 1920s baby names are already solidly back in style — in fact, for some it's easy to forget that they were ever out. Once old-fashioned baby names in the Top 200 today include:

Top Vintage Girl Names

Top Vintage Boy Names

If you’re wondering why the list of vintage boy names is shorter, it’s because of the difference in turnover between boy and girl names.

Many boy names are on both the 1920s list and the current popularity list not because they’ve come back, but because they never went away. John, James and Joseph, for instance, have never left the Top 30. The list of vintage girl names has a few enduring classics — notably Sarah and Elizabeth — but most of the names on that list rise and fall more quickly.

Cool Vintage Names

These names are on the cutting edge of style, supporting the Hundred Year Rule theory by predicting which vintage 1920s names we’ll be hearing more of in the decade ahead.

The old-fashioned names from the Top 100 in the 1920s that sound so-out-they're-in today include:

Cool Vintage Girl Names

Cool Vintage Boy Names

Rare Vintage Names

Other choices still seem a bit far out right now, but we predict will become more stylish and feel more acceptable over the next decade, echoing their popularity of a century ago. These include:

Rare Vintage Girl Names

Rare Vintage Boy Names

Daring Vintage Names

Some names it’s just hard to imagine coming back in the foreseeable future. But we’ve eaten our hat before so we may yet see a resurgence of babies with these names. Early adopters and counter-culture lovers: do you dare?

Daring Vintage Girl Names

Daring Vintage Boy Names

Read our full list of our Vintage Baby Names for even more inspiration.

About the Author

Clare Green

Clare Green has been writing for Nameberry since 2015, covering everything from names peaking right now to feminist baby names, and keeping up-to-date with international baby name rankings. Her work has featured in publications such as The Independent and HuffPost. Clare has a background in linguistics and librarianship, and recently completed an MA dissertation researching names in multilingual families. She lives in England with her husband and son. You can reach her at clare@nameberry.com

View all of Clare Green's articles