Chicken Names

Old fashioned nickname that some girls just might be able to pull off. You'd just have to be sure your little Fancy was one of them.

Baby is rarely seen as a given name — or even nickname — these days, although it did rank in the Top 1000 from 1989 to 2003. These instances can be accounted for in two ways. Firstly, infants whose birth certificates are not filled out on time are given generic placeholders for registration, such as Infant, Unknown, or Baby. But more influential during this decade was the 1987 movie Dirty Dancing, starring Jennifer Grey as Frances "Baby" Houseman. It's the origin of the famed line, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

The misspelling that created an indelibly one-person name.

Peg is a nostalgic turn-of-the-last-century nickname, sociable but slight. Like near-identical twin Peggy, Peg is in mothballs.

There were various villages called Edgecombe (and Edgcumbe and Eggcumbe) in Old England, particularly in present-day Cornwall and Devon. Local families adopted it as a surname — habitational surnames were extremely common among the English.

A common name for orange-colored cats. Fun fact: the word pumpkin is derived from the Greek pepōn, translating to "large melon."

As dated as the old Pat Boone song.

A fresher, less preppy alternative to Thatcher — one without Prime Minister associations.

Bobo was the name of one of the most famous clowns in American circus history, who performed from the 1920s until the 1970s. But that's not the only reason this makes a less-than-optimal nickname.

Winner is an uplifting word name that can work for girls or boys. It was recently chosen by rapper Nya Lee for her daughter.

Étienne de Silhouette (1709–67), French author and politician, gave his name to this portraiture technique – although, strangely, no one knows why.

When ordering a baby name, hold the mayo.

Over-the-top glitzy. Sparkle debuted in 1976 and peaked in 1979 when it was given to 124 baby girls.

This operatic Italian name -- it appears in Mozart's "The Magic Flute" -- is a more unusual route to the nickname Pam/Pammy.

Pirate is best known as one of the middle names of pop sensation Billie Eilish, who was born Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell. In a 2017 BBC interview, she revealed, "Pirate was going to be my [only] middle name but then my uncle had a problem with it because pirates are bad." Now Pirate attracting more interest, along with the rest of Billie Eilish's names.