A lot of baby names that were really popular with boomers are now extremely outdated. Which out-of-fashion names are we talking about? You’ll find 19 examples of them in this article.
Donald
Donald is an example of a name that you don’t hear anymore. The name Donald was really popular in the 1930s but it has dwindled in popularity since then. In fact, on simply hearing the name Donald, many people would associate it with an older person.
Bruce
“Bruce has had a successful career as a male name in America, dating back to at least the late 19th century. The height of his popularity was mid-century during the 1940s, ‘50s, and ‘60s,” says Oh Baby! Names. But Bruce is not a common name anymore.
Dennis
Another name that we don’t frequently hear a lot of among children and young people is Dennis. The name Dennis was popular in the 1940s and 1950s, but since then, the popularity of the name has rapidly declined. Coming across a young Dennis nowadays is very unusual.
Brenda
If you’d like a trip down memory lane, hearing the name Brenda will give you just that! Brenda is a name that began to gain popularity in the 1930s. But in today’s society, the name isn’t common among newborn babies. It’s considered very outdated and old-fashioned.
Pamela
Old-fashioned names such as Pamela aren’t popular baby names in today’s modern world. The name Pamela was very common in the 1940s and right through the 1970s. It was a common name for boomers to use to name their children, but it doesn’t have the same charm in today’s world.
Gary
According to The Guardian, “Gary reached its peak in the U.S. in the early 1950s, when it was at one time the 12th most popular boy’s name, with more than 38,000 appearing every year. There were even 90 girls named Gary in 1947.” But hardly anyone names their baby Gary nowadays.
Keith
The name Keith has Scottish origins and means “wood.” When you hear the name Keith now, most people would automatically associate it with an older person, and that’s because this name was most common in the 1960s and 1970s but is rarely given to babies now.
Debbie
Debbie is a name that was popular for a number of decades in the U.S. It started becoming more popular in 1929 and stayed popular until 1959. But in the 1960s onward, the name Debbie started becoming rare, and it’s now a novelty to hear it as a baby name.
Donna
Donna is a very old-fashioned name, and The Bump agrees, stating that “the name Donna was at the height of its popularity during the 1950s and 1960s, when it climbed to as high as 14 in the United States baby charts.” It’s not a common baby name anymore.
Larry
Larry is a name that has gone in and out of fashion since the late 1800s, right through 1947. But 1947 was the last year that this was a popular baby name for boys, and the name has drastically declined in popularity since that year.
Kathy
The name Kathy is a diminutive of the name Katherine. Kathy peaked in popularity in the year 1958. Since then, the name has plummeted in popularity and is rarely heard among baby names. Whether the name Kathy will ever make a comeback, no one knows.
Barry
Barry is another example of a name that used to be very popular but is now very rarely heard among children and young people. The name Barry was most popular in the 1930s and 1940s. It stayed relatively popular until the 1970s but has all but disappeared since then.
Linda
The figures from Today.com show that “the peak of Linda as a trendy name lasted from 1938–1969, including an explosion of Lindas in 1947, when 5.48 percent of all girls born in the U.S. were given that name.” But hardly anyone names their baby Linda anymore.
Sharon
Another name you’ll seldom hear among young people is Sharon. Sharon was a popular girl’s name in the 1930s and peaked in popularity in the 1940s. The name Sharon stayed somewhat popular until the 1970s, but since then, it has decreased rapidly in popularity.
Rodney
The name Rodney means “island near the clearing.” Rodney was a very common boy’s name in the past, and it peaked in popularity in 1965. But the name Rodney has slowly become less and less popular since then, and it’s now a name that’s seldom given to newborn babies.
Sandra
Sandra is a name that you won’t likely hear given to newborn babies nowadays, but back in the 1940s, it was really popular. In fact, the name Sandra was the 5th most popular name in the United States in 1947. Its popularity lasted for about 50 years.
Terry
Terry is not a name that you’ll hear often today, but back in the 1950s, people couldn’t get enough of it. Terry is a derivative of Terrence and Terrell. Whether the name Terry will ever have a comeback, we don’t know, but for the moment, it’s disappearing completely from society.
Dale
Another name that boomers loved but that is now almost completely forgotten is Dale. Dale started to become a popular name for boys in the late 1800s, but it peaked in popularity in the 1940s and 1950s. After the year 1964, however, the name began its downward spiral.
Barbara
Barbara was a popular name for girls for many decades. In fact, for the first half of the 20th century, this girl’s name was extremely common. But since then, the name has become less popular, and people don’t seem to be naming their newborns Barbara anymore.
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