Family Names

This Old Testament place name was in the Top 10 fifty years ago, but now Sharon, along with sound-alike Karen, have fallen out of favor.

Shawn is a phonetic spelling of Sean that may be past its peak – it was a Top 30 name in the early 1970s – but is still quite popular for boys: over 500 baby boys were named Shawn in the US in the most recent year counted vs 800 given the original Sean spelling.

See SONIA.

Much-used midcentury diminutive, now fallen far from favor even as a middle name.

Sydney was a hot girls' name in the 1990s, but she's arguably still cool. One of the original old man names adopted for baby girls, Sydney's popularity may be down but she's not out.

Adding a final a to Tamar lends it a more sensual Slavic tone, making it a more popular choice than the original.

Taryn is an offshoot of Tara that has a variety of meanings in a variety of cultures. In 1953, Taryn was presented to the public as an invention by actors Tyrone Power and Linda Christian for their daughter's name, at which point it gained a short spurt of popularity. Taryn returned to the Top 1000 in 1974, peaking in the 1980s, and has remained on the list ever since.

Variation of Terence.

In the US, this variation is more popular than the original. Terrence has been in the US Top 1000 since 1920, but Terence has been left behind. Alternate spelling Terrance is the most popular iteration of the name.

One of the first breakaway unisex baby names, Terry, used independently since the days of Terry and the Pirates. Popular in the mid-20th-century, it has fallen out of favor in recent years, replaced by Tommy, Sonny, and Ozzy.

Walter was seen as a noble name in the Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Walter Scott era, but it then spent decades in baby name limbo. Now quite a few independent-minded parents are looking at it as a renewable, slightly quirky, classic, stronger and more distinctive than James or John, second only to William among the handsome classic boy baby names starting with W.

This name has hardly been used since Wendell Willkie ran for president in 1940, and it may not quite be ready for revival yet. Still, clunky grandpa names like Lionel, Douglas, Benedict, Carl, and Melvin have received more attention in recent years, so Wendell can't be ruled out just yet.

It is popularly claimed that the name Wendy was invented by Sir James Barrie in 1904 for the big sister character in his play Peter Pan, which was followed by the classic novel in 1911. Barrie supposedly took it from the nickname "fwendy-wendy", that he was called by a young girl acquaintance.