We Know What Baby Names Are Popular. Here Are The Ones That Are Almost Extinct

Every year, we get reports, most often drawn from Social Security registration data, telling us what the most popular baby names of the last year were. Since population growth is relatively steady in the United States and England (home to the following study), naming babies is a zero-sum game of sorts. All the Addisons, Madisons, Brooklyns, and Aidans come at the expense of other names, once popular, but now out of favor for various reasons.

As a complement to the Social Security report, BabyCentre, a U.K. parenting publication, has compiled a list of once-popular names that now seem to be circling the drain in terms of popularity. Everyone loves an underdog, so can we see Wayne or Clive rise from the ashes, or has time passed them by? The internet has been known to adopt some crazy causes, so a #SaveBertram campaign, as odd as it would be, isn’t outside the realm of possibility.

Similarly, it seems that many parents are shooting for names that are more unique than conventional. Since these names have fallen out of favor in recent years, they’re, by nature of their inclusion on this list, unique once again. Perhaps this list is the best marketing tactic one could dream up.

Here are 36 names that may be on life support without some extraordinary measures:

• Beverley

• Cecil

• Carol

• Clarence

• Clive

• Cyril

• Debra

• Diane

• Donna

• Dean

• Doris

• Dennis

• Derek

• Duncan

• Elaine

• Ernest

• Geoffrey

• Horace

• Joanne

• Leonard

• Maureen

• Malcolm

• Nigel

• Neville

• Paula

• Roy

• Sally

• Sandra

• Sharon

• Sheila

• Tracey

• Wendy

• Yvonne

• Wayne