A friend of mine gave me an old pamphlet entitled "Naming Your New Baby" that was published in 1979. The above picture is the helpful information presented at the beginning, but the rest of the pamphlet is a bunch of name suggestions. I found it all very interesting. Included in about 1,000 names, there was a fascinating mixture of classic and modern names alongside some pretty unusual choices for such a short list. Here are some of the name suggestions that really caught my eye...
Girls
Aileen
Alma
Augusta
Babette
Bernice
Bertha
Beulah
Bonny
Cherry
Clarice
Cleo
Consuela
Cornelia
Daphne
Deirdre
Della
Dinah
Dione
Elvira
Eudora
Fern
Fifi
Freda
Fritzi
Gay
Gilda
Gwynne
Gypsy
Hatty
Hedda
Helga
Hulda
Ilka
Inez
Lenore
Lolita
Lotty
Lucinda
Luella
Lulu
Madge
Maisie
Marcella
Minerva
Moira
Muriel
Myra
Myrtle
Olga
Ophelia
Peony
Poppy
Prudence
Queena
Rae
Rhoda
Rowena
Selma
Sybil
Tallulah
Tillie
Udele
Undine
Wallis
Xanthe
Xenia
Xylina
Zelda
Zenia
Zinnia
Boys
Abbot
Adolph
Alastair
Alden
Aldo
Alonzo
Angus
Archibald
Arlo
Ashley
Averill
Barclay
Barnaby
Bartley
Basil
Baxter
Beman
Bently
Bertram
Beverly
Booth
Boris
Boyd
Brewster
Brock
Burgess
Caeser
Carey
Chalmers
Clement
Crandall
Crawford
Creighton
Cyril
Dana
Denton
Dick
Durward
Edsel
Ellery
Emil
Errol
Erskine
Fabian
Farley
Fletcher
Fritz
Garrick
Giles
Godfrey
Hall
Hilary
Hiram
Hobart
Horace
Hubert
Jarvis
Kelly
Kendall
Kermit
Kim
Kingsley
Kip
Kirby
Konrad
Lamont
Langley
Lars
Launcelot
Leigh
Lindsay
Llewellyn
Lucian
Lydell
Lyman
Maynard
Merle
Merton
Monroe
Mortimer
Myron
Nigel
Oakley
Ogden
Olaf
Pierre
Porter
Prescott
Raleigh
Remus
Rolf
Rollo
Shelley
Sherwin
Sinclair
Sloan
Sol
Thurston
Upton
Uriah
Vladimir
Whitney
Winslow
Winthrop
Wolcott
Woodley
Wylie
Xenophon
Yancey
Yardley
Yates
York
Were they seriously still suggesting Adolph as a baby name in 1979? Although 44 boys were given the name in 1979.
Why suggest Bonny instead of Bonnie? The more popular spelling was obviously Bonnie... 1,626 girls were named Bonnie in 1979 while 81 were named Bonny.
And, as an example of some of the very rare names on this list, where did Chalmers, Durward and Erskine come from? Only 5, 6, and 17 boys were given those names, respectively, in 1979.
These suggestions are just so random, but oh so fun!
Which of these would you use?
