2018-04-11T21:41:10Z
- "Vintage" names have a tendency to come back into fashion at some point, but there are some that just don't deserve to be revived.
- These names were given to at least five babies born in 1918, but are not used at all today.
- From Walburga to Gunhild,these are the most outrageous baby names that have gone extinct.
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Awell-known rule ofbaby namingsays that it takes about 100 years for a name to come back into fashion. That’s why we recently wrote a list ofcentury-old namesthat are ready for a revival.
But not everyvintage namedeserves to be revived. We don’t predict the return ofHyman, for instance. Or Normal. OrButler. OrRube. OrWalburga. All these names were in use in 1918, given to at least five babies born that year, but are not used at all today.
They’re not alone. Nameberry analyzed Social Security data to discover over 5000 names that were given to babies a century ago but have now gone extinct.
Some of these names were obscure ethnic names, like Tsuyako and Mieczyslaw, that have faded from view as immigration patterns have shifted. Others are unusual variant spellings of names that have declined in popularity, like Ulysses and Lauraine. A few are usable, or even elegant.
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But a lot of them are just plain funny to us now. We combed through the list to find the most hilarious of these extinct names from 1918 — and couldn’t whittle it down to fewer than 200. Here they are, in all their LOL-worthy glory, along with the number of sad children given each name in 1918:
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Eeny, Meeny, Miny, No
- Earnestine:133 girls
- Lurline: 58 girls
- Ethelene:36 girls
- Eulene:16 girls
- Wilhelmine:15 girls
- Rogene: 12 girls
- Edwardine:7 girls
- Fayrene: 7 girls
- Howardine:7 girls
- Murlene:7 girls
- Forestine:6 girls
- Mauline:6 girls
- Adolphine:5 girls
- Chesterine:5 girls
- Isolene:5 girls
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