Unusual Antique Baby Names

The kind of serious old-school name that sounds appealing again; perfect for the intrepid baby namer. More commonly spelled Rosamund but highly unusual these days in either version, with fewer than 20 baby girls named Rosamund in the US last year while Rosamond didn't even register with five.

Delphina is another form of the sleek French Delphine, rising in popularity. The Blessed Delphina was a Provencal nun.

The Selma-Thelma-Velma connection dates it.

Jacobine is a rare -- no baby girls received the name in the US last year -- feminine form of the popular Jacob. But Jacobine has a quirky appeal. The Jacobins were a radical political club formed during the French revolution as well as an order of Dominican friars.

Pansy is an early floral name that lost credibility when it became a derogatory slang term for gay people. Better these days: Posy or Poppy.

Letha is taken from Lethe, the mythological River of Oblivion. Letha now sounds as if it's missing a first syllable.

Unfortunate identification with an army of rats in the movie of the same name.

One of the jewel names in use a hundred years ago, due for revival along with sisters Ruby and Pearl.

Despite Thornton Wilder, playwright of the perennial Our Town, only a handful of baby boys receive this name each year..

Ocie is yet another antiquated ie-ending short form that was popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s and now has almost dropped from sight.

A name with an obvious meaning, for a long time associated with Golda Meir, the fourth Prime Minister of Israel. Nickname Goldie seems to be catching on in the celebrity community.

A less-used cross between Clifford and Clinton.

Shades of Thurston Howell, the effete millionaire castaway on Gilligan's Island.

Middle name possibility for a nature-loving family -- Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke used it for their son's middle name.

Wilda (or Wylda) has two widely divergent images. Pronounced vill-da, it feels like a cousin of Hilda: a sturdy and none-too-attractive prairie settler. But you can also think of her as wild-ah, as in the feminine of wild and wilder.

Yes, we tend to think of Claude as a male name and Claudia and Claudette as the female, but this ancient clan name is used in France for girls as well as boys, and could make a distinctively chic boy name for girls here too. You may be surprised to know that Claude was in fairly regular use for American girls in the 1880's and nineties, reaching as high as 553 in 1880.

Junius is one of those names that's growing on us, along with many of its Roman countrymen such as Julius and Atticus. We once thought it was a combination of the least attractive elements of Junior and Julius but now we think...well, we think it's okay. Not great, but okay.

Related to the powerful South African warrior people, sometimes chosen by African-Americans to celebrate their heritage.

Named after Isaac. Or Wayne.