Top Old-Timey And Vintage Girl Names That Are Popular Again

Stephen King said it best, "Sooner or later, everything old is new again." Maybe he wasn’t necessarily talking about baby names, but it applies here. Old-timey names for baby girls are hitting the scene once again.

Many celebs are even naming their daughters old lady names. This includes Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds naming their third daughter Betty. Actors like Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner named their oldest daughter Violet. And George and Amal Clooney named their daughter Ella.

The BabyNames.com founder Jennifer Moss told TODAY.com that the old-timey names trend isn’t going anywhere and that parents should expect preschools filled with "Lucilles, Adelaides, and Mabels."

The top names for girls in the early 20^th century included Mary, Helen, Margaret, Anna, Ruth, Dorothy, and Barbara, according to the Social Security Administration.

BabyCentre reported that the comeback of vintage baby girls' names is due to people’s associations with the names. Names that were popular in our parents’ generation are still associated heavily with them. They also say that some parents just want to name their child something different.

TODAY.com, along with the help of Moss, compiled a list of the top old lady names for baby girls. If you’re inspired by old-fashioned, vintage names, or just want something unique, then consider these names. At the top of the list is Violet. It’s a vintage name with both a flower and color name. According to Verywell Family, Violet had its “heyday” in the early 20^th century.

Following Violet is the name Agatha. Interestingly, there were 136 newborn American girls named Agatha in 2021, the most since 1926, according to MomJunction.

Third on the list is Ida. MomJunction said that it was prevalent in the U.S. in the 1880s. Additionally, they point out that in 1847, Lord Alfred Tennyson wrote a humorous poem called The Princess with Princess Ida as a feminist Victorian-era royal.

Other names on the list include Maude, Lottie, Edith, and Charlotte, among others. Take a look at the full list here.

For many parents, naming a child can become a stressful process. Perhaps, it's the pressure of giving a tiny human a name they will have for their entire life. Some families name their kids after a family member, someone famous, fictional characters, or sometimes something that reminds them of a sweet memory. Parents have the right to choose a child's name. However, that responsibility comes with a few restrictions.

Some states have naming laws and restrictions that define whether new parents are allowed to choose a certain name for their baby or not. According to USBirthCertificates.com, a vital records application preparation assistance service, certain states have other kinds of naming restrictions in place to protect children. This includes banning the use of obscenity in names.

Several states limit the number of characters that can be used in a name because of official birth records software used in the U.S. Apparently, in Nebraska first, middle and last names must be less than 100 characters total.

While other states go as far as banning the use of numerical digits or emojis. For example, Massachusetts only allow letters found on the standard English keyboard to be used in baby names. There are also states who prohibit naming children after people who have committed heinous crimes. We don't know why anyone would, but this means you can’t name your child "Adolf Hitler."

Many of the common naming restrictions include derogatory terms, obscenity, offensive names, numbers, and certain characters like asterisks. However, there are celebrities like Grimes and Elon Musk who didn’t let their states restrictions stop them from naming their kids Exa Dark Sideræl referred to as "Y" and  X Æ A-XII, nicknamed "X."

If you are in the "naming" process, you should become familiar with the restrictions set in place by each state to avoid birth certificate surprises.

In 2013, a child support magistrate in East Tennessee ruled that a 7-month-old boy named Messiah must have his name changed to Martin. "The word 'Messiah' is a title, and it’s a title that has only been earned by one person, and that one person is Jesus Christ," said  Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew.

In 2009, New Jersey parents Heath and Deborah Campbell were taken into state custody after authorities got involved in a cake incident. A bakery refused to decorate a cake with the words "Happy Birthday Adolf Hitler." The Campbell’s gave their three children Nazi-inspired names including Adolf Hitler . Though the state said that their names were not the reason, it's been reported that the parents didn't believe them.

In 2018, Elizabeth Handy and Bilal Walk of Georgia sued their home state after officials refused to let them name their daughter ZalyKha Graceful Lorraina Allah. The issue was Allah, the two-year-old girl's last name. Georgia law requires that children bear the last name of at least one of their parents. The parents won the case, with the help of lawyers from the ACLU.

In 1976, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled that short-order cook and high school teacher Michael Herbert Dengler could not change his name to "1069."

In December 1999, Robert William Handley of Ohio filed a petition to change his name to Santa Robert Claus. Judge Lawrence Belskis denied his petition saying that "the public has a proprietary interest, a proprietary right in the identity of Santa Claus, both in the name and the persona."

A 1984 ruling from the California Courts of Appeal denied a request from Thomas Boyd Ritchie III to change his name to the Roman numeral "III," pronounced "Three." The court said that, "a change to a roman numeral did not constitute a name change within the meaning of the law and that the new 'name' used by appellant was inherently confusing."