Vintage names making a comeback

Before the names

Every name below once had its moment, faded for at least twenty years, and is now climbing the charts again. If you pick one today, you're early on the wave: familiar to everyone, common in no preschool yet.

The twenty-year gap is what does the work. A name that dipped for five years and recovered never really left; it just wobbled. A name that spent two decades out of use has to be rediscovered by people who never met one, and that is the pattern this list looks for — a real trough, then a real climb.

Read the note beside each name: it gives today's rank and the year the name last peaked. The wider that span, the further the name traveled to get back, and the less likely it is that anyone in your child's class arrives at it independently.

One honest caveat. Early on a wave is not the same as safe from a wave. A few of these will keep climbing until they are everywhere — that is what a comeback becomes if it succeeds. If you want the familiarity without the risk of company, the names further down this list are moving more slowly than the ones at the top.