Old Fashioned Name Generator

Old fashioned names are the ones that peaked in the English-speaking world between roughly 1850 and 1940 and then fell out of use: Walter, Clarence, Ernest, Elmer, and Horace for men; Mabel, Ethel, Gertrude, Myrtle, and Beulah for women. Many were virtue or Biblical names carried over from the Puritan and Victorian eras (Prudence, Ezra, Obadiah), others were Germanic revivals popular with the Victorians (Bertha, Wilhelmina, Rudolph), and a large group were diminutives used as given names, like Hattie, Lottie, Effie, Minnie, and Nellie. The surnames that go with them are mostly English, Scottish, and Irish, with the occasional German-American name, and they tend to be longer and more specific than modern ones: Hollingsworth, Abernathy, Satterfield, Pettigrew.

The effect depends on the pairing. A short dated first name with a long surname (Otis Lancaster, Ida Merriweather) sounds like a shopkeeper or schoolteacher from a small town; a grand Biblical first name with a plain surname (Jedediah Crowley, Hepzibah Wilmot) feels older and more rural. Some names, such as Hazel, Violet, Theodore, and Arthur, have come back into fashion, while others like Elmer and Gertrude still sound firmly old-timey.

These 500 full names match what you would find in census records, church registers, and old newspapers, useful for historical fiction, period games, and anyone hunting for a vintage baby name.