Old names are newly popular for parents trying to pick monikers for their infants, with names like Eleanor, Violet, and Oliver rising in popularity again after taking big dips in the 1980s and ’90s.

That’s not surprising for experts who study baby-name trends. In fact, the trend of reviving old names in a new era is so prevalent that it actually has a name: The 100-Year Rule. And while it may sound strange that parents are digging into the past to find fresh, new names for their babies, it’s also proven to be fairly common.

So what’s the deal with names from a century ago suddenly surging in popularity? There are a few reasons why old names might tend to come back in style.

What’s in a 100-year-old name?

Back in 1988, Pamela Redmond and Linda Rosenkrantz published a book called Beyond Jennifer & Jason that tackled baby naming trends and explored why parents chose the names they did. They labeled one of those trends the “100-Year Rule,” which posits that it takes 100 years for an old, dusty name to shake off its stodgy sound and to become fresh again.

There are a few potential reasons for this. First is the cyclical nature of what’s fashionable in culture, and that includes names. Just like bell-bottoms from the ’70s became popular in the 2000s, names that were once written off as outdated can come back into rotation.

There’s also the “grandparent avoidance” phenomenon, where parents of newborns don’t want to play favorites or pick “recent” names that belong to their own parents, who are the newborns’ grandparents. Instead, these new parents may dig further back in the family tree to pick names belonging to great-grandparents of their infants for inspiration for the next generation, which usually means reviving a name that was popular around 100 years ago.

So for parents who want a name that’s unique but not too unique, digging into the past for vintage names that aren’t super popular again yet but still sound traditional or are part of a family tree can be a good option.

Which names are rising again?

Websites like BabyNames.com feature trending names that come up frequently in searches for prospective parents looking for inspiration, and show that old, vintage names are moving up the ranks.

Take Charlotte, for example, which tops BabyNames.com’s list of trending baby names for girls. The name was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries before hitting its lowest point in popularity in the 1980s and ’90s. In 2024, it was the fourth most popular baby name in the U.S., according to the Social Security Administration.

Another old-is-new name is Eleanor, which is also undergoing a resurgence. The name bottomed out in 1986, ranking close to 700 in BabyNames.com’s rankings of popular baby names that year. But now, the Social Security Administration lists it among the top 20 most popular names in the U.S.

Parents of boys are also buying into the trend, with names like Theodore and August rapidly becoming popular again. These revived names also have the benefit of nicknames like Theo, Ted, or Gus, which gives them enough versatility to inspire parents to pick them out of the historical dustbin.

On the other hand, some names that were popular 50 years ago have since dropped into the naming basement, with Jennifer and Jessica, for example, free-falling from the top spots on the charts in the 1970s and ’80s to their current ranking on BabyNames.com, below 500 in popularity. If the 100-Year Rule is accurate, these could be the names parents will revive for their newborns in another 50 years.

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