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A post recently about name tastes got me thinking about mine, and how a lot of my more recent favorite names surged in popularity in the late 1800s, particularly the 1890s. Basically, these were the names of young people who endured WWI and then wondered what the heck life meant afterward (and then partied in the 1920s).

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Looking at the popularity list (https://www.behindthename.com/top/lists/united-states-decade/1890) on this site, these are some of the most popular birth names of that era that aren't "enduring classics":

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Frank
Harry
Walter
Arthur (this one's making a comeback)
Fred
Albert
Clarence
Willie
Roy
Louis
Earl
Carl
Ernest
Raymond
Richard (steadily falling)
Harold
Ralph
Howard
Herbert
Elmer
&
Ruth
Florence
Ethel
Marie
Clara (this one's making a comeback)
Bertha
Minnie
Bessie
Alice (this one's making a comeback)
Lillian (this one's making a comeback)
Edna
Grace (this one made the comeback, could be Top 20 soon)
Mabel
Ida
Rose
Hazel
Gertrude
Martha
Pearl
Frances

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There are some names from this list that are among my personal least favorite (Roy & Edna), but the overall aesthetic is... incredibly charming. I'd love to encounter these names in fiction more often.

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Anyway, wdyt of "Lost Generation" names?

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Please rate my personal name lists:

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www.behindthename.com/pnl/69381
www.behindthename.com/pnl/69381/117507
www.behindthename.com/pnl/69381/109399
www.behindthename.com/pnl/69381/132018

This message was edited 12/19/2023, 8:39 AM