Extinct Names

Buford has lost any charm it once had. Try Beauford instead.

A super diminutive nickname name, and sometime Madonna nickname – it was how the British tabloids referred to her when she moved to London in the 1990s, which she found annoying until then husband Guy Ritchie said it stood for 'Your Majesty'. Madge Undersee is Katniss's best friend in The Hunger Games books.

Terry hit the Top 30 in the fifties; it was seen then as a cool, sleek gender neutral name, but it's long since lost that edge. Today's Terry would probably be Tess or Tessa.

Almond may seem like a hippy modern name, but its use for American boys goes right back to the mid-nineteenth century. In these cases, it was either a variation of Almund, meaning "noble strength," or the surname Aleman, meaning "German."

Lemon is one of the more unique names related to fruit, compared with sisters Clementine and Apple. That may be because lemon is also a word that's slang for a clunker, something that doesn't work very well. No baby wants to feel like a Lemon, so this is one of those unusual names that is best avoided.

Bobbsey Twins-era nickname name that could find new life via Nan, heroine of The Nanny Diaries. Nan was also the nickname of Annabel St George, the protagonist of Edith Wharton's novel "The Buccaneers".

When Gail was popular, half a century ago, Gale was a plausible choice. Gale does put a slightly more masculine spin on the name, but it's dated in any version.

You can call your baby "babe," but don't name her that.

We can't get past the odd part of this name.

Perhaps too spicy for some, but this is a popular Gaelic surname that might appeal for those looking to honor a family branch or to fans of legendary British comedian Tim Curry.

Better go to the original Aurelia or Aurelie, if only for its similarity to the ord 'orally.' In pop culture, Oralie is a Pokemon name.

Most ella names are hot, but this is one that won't catch fire because of the disagreeable connotations of prunes.

Not as lively or independent as Gigi, Kiki, or Coco.

Our kids laughed when they saw this name. Enough said.

The meaning of this word flipped from "cheerful" to "homosexual" during the twentieth century, and it's now almost certainly too loaded to sit comfortably as a baby name. Which is a shame as sound-wise it's very appealing, just a short step away from Faye, May, and Rae.

In an earlier time Shirley was used primarily for boys, but the tide turned with the publication of Charlotte Bronte's novel Shirley in 1849, the story of a character whose parents had selected the name for a boy child, then decided to use it anyway when he turned out to be a she.