Golden Era Women's Names

[DecoDame]

I’ve long appreciated women’s names that just seem to embody the Era. That when I hear them, I can see someone in the typing pool or on the factory floor or the old family farm, being called to lunch.

“Elizabeth” or “Sarah” or “Katherine” were certainly around then, but they can also evoke ages before and are still popular now. These names below do pop up nowadays, but are usually chosen because they are “old fashioned”. My partner and I had fun coming up with these – it was amazing how many were rattling around our heads. Some are relative’s names. What do you think? Any to add?

(Only loosely alphabetical – no librarians chasing me down, please. lol I’ve put together names that are variants in spellings or related by nickname/shortening etc)

Ava
Ada
Audra
Audrey
Adele
Agnes
Abigail
Amelia
Annette
Annabelle

Bertha
Bernadette
Beulah
Beatrice

Charlotte/Lottie
Clara
Clare
Clarice
Celeste
Charlene
Carolyn
Constance
Candace
Carmen

Doris
Denise
Delores
Dorothy/Dottie
Darlene
Dinah

Edith
Edna
Edie
Etta
Erlene
Ernestine
Evelyn
Elaine
Eloise
Enid
Esther
Elinore/Elinor/Eleanor/Nellie

Frida/Freda
Francine
Florence
Fay
Flora

Geraldine
Gertrude
Grace
Geneva
Gladys
Gretchen

Henrietta
Harriet/Hattie
Hilda
Hortense

Iris
Ivy
Ida
Ilene
Ina
Imogen

Joyce
Joan
Josephine

Kaye/Kay
Karla/Karlotta

Lucille
Laverne
Lillian
Louise
Laurette
Louella
Leticia/Lettie
Lenore
Leonora
Lois

Marian
Muriel
Mavis
Minerva
Maxine
Mildred
Myra
Maisie/Madge/Peggy/Meg/Marge/Mamie/Margaret
Marjorie
Maybelle
Myrtle
Maude
Margot
Milly/Millie

Nora
Naomi
Nancy
Norma

Olive
Opal
Odette
Odessa

Phyllis
Phoebe
Penelope/Penny
Petunia
Prudence
Priscilla
Pearl

Rhoda
Rhea/Ria
Rita
Rosemary/Rose
Rosalind
Rowena

Stella
Sybil
Sophia
Shirley
Sharlene

Thelma
Tess/Tessa/Teresa/Theresa

Una
Ursula

Vera
Vivian
Veronica
Verna
Vanessa
Violet

Wilma
Winifred/Winnie
Wanda
Winona

Zelda
Zoe

 

[LizzieMaine]

I had aunts named Hazel, Ruth, Mildred, and Edith. My grandmother was Winona, and my great-grandmothers were Clara and Winifred. My grandmother's kitchen stove was a "Florence." (The living room stove was a Duo-Therm, but I don't think that makes the list.)

I work with people named Nora, Eve, and Joanna.

If I had a daughter, I'd have named her "Genora."

I had a cat named Nancy. My current cat is named Carol. My friend Nora has a cat named Rosie.

 

[LizzieMaine]

In the grip of insomnia last night, I was thinking about this thread, and went over the names of all the women adn girls in the neighborhood where I grew up. Here they are, broken down by age groups --

Born 1890-1920:

Ferne
Geneva
Gertrude
Ethlyn
Dorothy (known as Dot)
Cleora
Freda
Ruth
Hazel
Marian
Edith (2)
Esper
Winona

Born 1920-1945

Patricia (2)
Charlotte
Judith (2)
Carol
Shirley
Edith
Margaret
Althea
Regina
Jean

Born 1945-1970

Elizabeth
Cheryl
Bethany
Ellen
Tammy
Lisa
Diane
Kathleen
Holly
Debra
Lynn

Oddly enough, despite its status as the generic female name in the Era, I've only known one person in my entire life named "Mary." She was born around 1915 and ran a little restaurant in the middle of town. Never known any other Marys in any walk of life.

 

[St. Louis]

Great thread. Interesting list; I see "Carolyn," but not the original from which the variant was taken: "Caroline." In my family, going back who knows how many generations to the "old country" (= Italy) the oldest daughter of every family had to be named Carolina. When the family immigrated to the US they changed the name to Carolyn, Caroline, Carol Ann and Carol Lynn. My Mother put her foot down and refused to follow tradition. Instead she named me after a movie star known for wearing spaghetti-strap nylon slips.

 

[DecoDame]

Sorry to hear of your insomnia, Lizzie. Been there. Is counting Era names as effective as counting sheep?

The difference in names by decades was interesting: quite the leap from "Cleora" and "Esper" to "Tammy" and "Lisa".

My grandmother's names were Geneva (you knew another one!) and Grace, my aunts were Gladys, Sharlene (nicknamed "Jean"), Phyllis and Freda.

St. Louis, I just helped my partner organize old family photos of people I had mostly not ever met (also an Italian family), and oh, so many Lou, Rocco and Ann-s came up again and again on both sides of the family, on all generations. I don't know how I managed to keep them straight.

 

[lolly_loisides]

A Great Aunt of mine was born in 1904 & was named Reiby. Such an unusual name, I wonder if she was named after Mary Reiby

 

[MarieAnne]

These names are really cool! My grandmothers' names are Maureen (her mother's name was Jenny) and Simone (french). Some other names in the family: Angéline, Auréa, Lydia, Berthe-Alice, Rose-Alma, Murielle, Emilda (late 1880s), and Freida (also late 1880s). I estimate these to be mostly from the 20s.

 

[fgradowski]

My grammy, born 1932, was named Nora Pearl. I love the idea of incorporating Pearl into one of my children's names one day. I also just love pearls a lot too. Haha. Her husband's name was William Arthur. My parent's named my little brother after him and his brother, William Edward. William seems to be a very common older name. I work at a breakfast restaurant where most of our customers are senior citizens. So many regular customers named Bill. I also wonder just how the heck they get Bill from William.

 

[TheSwingingBee]

My grandmother and her siblings were all born between 1915 and 1930, and the women all went by their middle names, we are from the south so the names may not be typical of the time, but they were, Christa Olene, Chlorene Mozel, Judith Susan, Effie Glenore, John Douglas and Ronald Matthew. On my fathers side it was Elizabeth "Betty" Lou and Martha Jane, my grandfathers were Richard Lee and Frederick Warren.

 

[TikiBow]

such a great post, definitely future childrens names

 

[sheeplady]

My daughter has Louise as her middle name, which we use in addition to her first name. I like the tradition of girls going by both their given names- such as Mary Ann, Mary Grace, etc.

I never realized how rare Louise was until I named her that- I've met one Louise since she's been born, but numerous people who have great-aunts, grandmothers, etc. who were named Louise. I often get asked if Louise was a family name- it is not. Her first name was my great-grandmother's name.

Interestingly enough, growing up I had a sheep I named Louise, and I felt a bit of guilt naming my daughter after a farm animal. But I liked the name so much that I actually hid from my husband for a few days that I had previously named an animal Louise after we started discussing girl names. Given Louise the sheep's personality (she was fierce; probably the fiercest bravest sheep we ever owned when I was a kid), when I told my husband about it being a sheep name he said he figured it would fit any daughter of ours. He loved the name and wouldn't hear of any other, even if our daughter was the second living being I had named Louise and the first "baa-ed."

I plan on telling this embarrassing story at her wedding.

 

[LizzieMaine]

My family is bristling with Louises -- it's my mother's middle name, and my cousin's middle name, and my aunt's middle name. And I've known several others outside the family. None of them have been sheep, but some of them, my mother especially, have been extremely fierce.

 

[DecoDame]

Well named, I'd say. :nod: And not just for the wedding story material!

 

[sheeplady]

Well named, I'd say. :nod: And not just for the wedding story material!

I think she is very good mannered- loves people, activities, other children- and really does listen to adults. She also really wants to please and be a big helper.

That said, she is also extremely determined and does not give up until you explain to her why she should/ shouldn't. (Explaining things actually seems to work at least a little bit.) The only reason why we don't have a little dictator is because I am just as strong willed, I've got three decades on her of practice, and well, NO because we're just NOT.

And when she gets really stubborn, I see so much of my own personality in her that it actually makes me happy. Definitely a Louise from start to finish.

 

[DecoDame]

Lovely.

What's her full name, if you don't mind sharing?

 

[Babydoll]

Lily is Lillian Su, named after hubby's Grandma Lillian, and Grandma's mother, Lillian. Su is my mom's middle name.

Hubby's family has a lot of unusual names. Loyd, Lottie Mae, Uel, Levi, Livonia, Clarence, and hubby's grandpa was Lum (given Christopher Columbus). If we'd had a boy, we would have called him Lum after Grandpa.

My grandma (mom's mom) was Erna Margarethe, first generation Norwegian-American, and her sister was Martha Evelyn. The boys were Sigurd, Norman, Trygve, Walter, Bernt, and Nicolai.

Other grandma (dad's dad) was Ruth Irene (pronounced eye-ree-nee), and her sisters were Doris and Eileen.

 

[sheeplady]

Anna Louise.

I didn't realize I hadn't put that in the previous post.

I had assumed that "Louise" was common so that she wouldn't have problems finding both her names on things, i.e. key chains, etc. and we would just buy her the Anna and the Louise versions. But it turns out we can never find Louise on anything. Which always made me a little sad as a kid that I couldn't find anything with my name on it.

So I bought a woodburner and plan to make her all sorts of wood stuff with her name on it. And whenever we see anything "custom" at the state fair we snatch it up on the double.

 

[DecoDame]

Sheeplady - maybe you should look at ebay and such for those custom items. Since "Lousie" was common back in the day, finding older items with her name might be more successful! (Tho your woodburner idea is pretty damned sweet)

 

[sheeplady]

Sheeplady - maybe you should look at ebay and such for those custom items. Since "Lousie" was common back in the day, finding older items with her name might be more successful! (Tho your woodburner idea is pretty damned sweet)

That's a good idea! I hadn't thought of that!

I also have a poor woman's quilting/ embroidery machine (it has a lot of stitches and letters, but isn't programmable and you can't change the size of the letters- so it is a low end version of both and a pittance of the price) and I put her name all over her stuff with that too. The letters are maybe half-an-inch high at most, but they do come out nice. Speaking of which, I need to buy her a t-shirt in her next size and embroider it.

As you can tell, I was somewhat scarred from not being able to find my name on anything as a child. Although, my name, which is Germanic, I found *all over* the tourist shops in Germany. So, of course, I bought everything I could find with my name on it. Totally not kidding. I was SO EXCITED.

 

[fgradowski]

My daughter has Louise as her middle name, which we use in addition to her first name. I like the tradition of girls going by both their given names- such as Mary Ann, Mary Grace, etc.

I never realized how rare Louise was until I named her that- I've met one Louise since she's been born, but numerous people who have great-aunts, grandmothers, etc. who were named Louise. I often get asked if Louise was a family name- it is not. Her first name was my great-grandmother's name.

Interestingly enough, growing up I had a sheep I named Louise, and I felt a bit of guilt naming my daughter after a farm animal. But I liked the name so much that I actually hid from my husband for a few days that I had previously named an animal Louise after we started discussing girl names. Given Louise the sheep's personality (she was fierce; probably the fiercest bravest sheep we ever owned when I was a kid), when I told my husband about it being a sheep name he said he figured it would fit any daughter of ours. He loved the name and wouldn't hear of any other, even if our daughter was the second living being I had named Louise and the first "baa-ed."

I plan on telling this embarrassing story at her wedding.

My mom told me many years ago to never name an animal something I like as a child's name. She said she made that mistake with her goat and her cat.
So far I have pets named Jameson and Edison. Names I wouldn't want for my children, but are cute enough for my little piggies.
My first born son will be Ashley William Edward Martin and first born daughter will be Tyler Marie Pearl Martin.