Extinct Names

Permanent property of that devilish little Simpson kid.

This buoyant name has the same bouncy rhythm as Rafferty and Barnaby, but is virtually unused. It has plenty of literary cred, too: characters in The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter and Thomas Hardy’s The Return of the Native have all borne the name.

Kids love Bob the Builder, but do they want to be Bob the Builder? Bob and Bobby have been out of style since the 1960s, but as vintage nickname-names -- Fred, Archie -- come back into vogue, Bob may tag along. Charlie Sheen used it for one of his twin sons.

If Gus and Max have made it, why not Moe? Can it be the lingering Three Stooges effect? We think that Moe, like Joe, is one of the friendliest and most open of regular guy nickname names and should get a little more attention.

Sixties-style nickname which is also the name of a small biting insect, particularly prevalent in Scotland.

An English surname name which was originally used as a masculine first name in the 19th century, before becoming more popular for girls from the early 20th century onwards.

A sleek, smooth, understated name off the grid in the US but among the Top 100 girl names in Germany.

Although now usually considered a female name in the US, Carol actually had a good run of popularity for boys too, peaking at #325 in 1937 and remaining in the US Top 1000 until the mid 1960s, when its popularity for both sexes began to decline. It derives from Carolus, the Latin form of Charles.

An ancient German saint's name – and most famously the name of Harry Potter's snowy owl – but the combination of "head" plus "wig" feels a little too literal in English.

Though rarely heard now, Coy has been around for a century and was not an uncommon name a hundred years ago. There have been a couple of NFL players named Coy, Coy Bowles is in the Zac Brown band, and of course there was Coy Duke in The Dukes of Hazzard. Due to the flirty connotations of the word "coy", McCoy is a more popular and recommended choice today.

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.

Brisk but rather brittle. Britt Eklund was a Bond Girl in the 1974 The Man with the Golden Gun. Britt is a contracted form of Birgit, but be aware that it does come with the strong possibility of being confused with Bret/Brett—or as a shortening of Brittany.

This mild-mannered short form was Queen of the Prom in the fifties and sixties, but today is mostly heard on TV's The Office (and of course as one of the founders of Nameberry).

A Dorothy nickname name with a measure of nostalgic charm. Kids will associate it with the funny fish character voiced by Ellen DeGeneres in the Pixar animated instant classic Finding Nemo.

Once the teenaged babysitter, now more likely to be the mom who hires her. The names many variations include Nickee, Nickie, Nickey, Nicky, Niki, Nikkee, Nikkey, Nikki, Nikkie, Nikky, and Niky.

Because it's a generic (and often derogatory) term for an Irishman, Paddy fell out of use as a diminutive or given name, though actress Mare Winningham used it not long ago.

This short form has been pretty much replaced by Franny, Fanny. and especially Frankie.

William was such a popular name, thanks to the Conquerer, in early England that it gave rise to a range of nicknames, including the distinctly Scottish Wilkie. Heard mostly as a surname these days, it's the middle name of Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick's son James and the first name of writer Collins. While Wilkie could make an adorable short form for a little boy, we'd recommend a more substantial full name such as, well, William.

World War II stamped a permanent verboten on Adolph.