Old-Fashioned, Vintage, Retro, Classic, Eclectic, Unusual and Uncommon Names for Girls

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).

Pam was a somewhat pampered prom queen of the sixties who was never called by her full name, which is a pity because Pamela is so mellifluous and rich in literary history. A Top 25 name from the late 1940's through the late 60's, Pamela has just, sadly, dropped out of the Top 1000.

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

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.

The unusual Parmenia is very occasionally chosen by Latino parents.

Parthenia may be a bit unwieldy, but does conjure up majestic images of the Parthenon.

Patience is a passive virtue turned engaging name, fresher than Hope, Faith, or even Charity. Its resemblance to the trendy Payton may be one reason for its recent spike in popularity.

Patricia still sounds patrician, though its scores of nicknames definitely don't. Wildly popular from the forties (alternately Number 3 and 4 throughout the decade) to the sixties, Patricia has been fading ever since. But a comeback in its full form is definitely conceivable—just look at Penelope.

This sassy, spunky name was used for the mostly Irish jump-roping pigtailed girls of the thirties and forties -- and some Irish and Italian boys as well. Its most noted bearer was iconic country music singer Patsy Cline (born Virginia), and was sighted most recently in the Ab Fab movie. After reaching Number 52 in the late thirties, it dropped off the list completely in 1970--and we're not anticipating a return.

Replaced Patsy as the midcentury's popular, peppy babysitter.

Paula still seems somewhat stuck in the era of duo Paul and Paula bopping out the song "Hey, Paula." Two pronunciations are possible—the English "PAW-la" and the Portuguese "POW-la."

It's interesting how names imported to the US from other countries and cultures have fashion cycles of their own. Paulette along with cousins Annette and Claudette were the most fashionable French imports in the middle of the last century, only to sink from sight and be replaced by such current French favorites as Charlotte, Sophie, and Eloise. In general, feminizations of male names have faded in favor of gender-neutral choices, and Paul itself is off its own fashion peak. But Paulette has the same vintage charm as names like Margot and Josephine that are very much a la mode. And far from being extinct, Paulette hits that sweet spot of names that are familiar but not over-used. It was given to about 130 baby girls in the US last year, on par with May, Avalon, Jolee, Liza, and Vivianne. This is three times as many baby girls as were named Paulette in 2000, so while the name may still lie well beneath the Top 1000, it's very much on the way up.

More stylish than either Paula or Pauline, it was given a glamour gloss by model Paulina Porizkova in the nineties.

Pauline had its moment of glory almost a century ago, when movie audiences were thrilling to the silent serial The Perils of Pauline; it's a sweet and gentle name that just might be due for reconsideration. Off the list since the late 1990s, Pauline was a Top 50 name from around 1908 to 1930.

Pearl, like Ruby, has begun to be polished up for a new generation of fashionable children after a century of jewelry box storage. The birthstone for the month of June, Pearl could also make a fresher middle name alternative to the overused Rose. Cool couple Maya Rudolph and Paul Thomas Anderson named their daughter Pearl Minnie, followed by Jack Osbourne, and several celebs have put it in the middle spot, as in Busy Philipps's Cricket Pearl, Jake Owen's Olive Pearl and Caleb Followill's Dixie Pearl .

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