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GOODBYE, GLADYS?
GOODBYE, GLADYS?
Feb 22, 2025 9:41 PM

  There’s a lively discussion going on over at our message boards on what names have gone out of style and will probably never come back.  On the permanent Out List, by consensus, are:

  BERTHA

  BEULAH

  BRUNHILDA (was this ever in, I mean since the 11th century?)

  CLORIS

  DORCAS

  DORIS

  EUNICE

  GAY

  HESTER

  HILDA

  HORTENSE — Enjoys the shortest entry in The Baby Name Bible: “No.”

  IRMA

  RHODA

  SELMA

  VERNA

  boys

  CLETUS

  DWAYNE (This reminds me of a very funny line from the Pioneer Woman: “I didn’t even know his name; I just hoped it wasn’t Dwayne.”)

  EBENEZER

  HORTON

  HUBERT

  LEROY

  MORRIS

  NORBERT

  WILBUR

  We’re with you so far, name lovers, and can even understand why you disagree on whether some choices belong on the Out-Forever List.  One person sees Gertrude as cute, like little Drew Barrymore in ET, while another says it reminds her forever of the word girdle.  Myrtle is fresh and flower-like to one visitor, terminally dowdy to another.  And Grover is adorable to one message boardie, doomed to Sesame Street purgatory by another.

  And Linda! ?! Let’s not even go there.

  We’ve learned the hard way that there are very few names you can categorically declare out of style forever.  Today’s Shirley — terminally dated name — is tomorrow’s Ida or Arthur: born-again hottie.

  Here some names that we once declared dead forever (or forever-ish) only to see them rise again.

  girls

  AUGUSTA

  ESTELLE

  ESTHER

  FLORENCE

  FRIEDA

  IDA

  LENORE

  MILDRED

  MURIEL

  PEARL

  VERA

  ZELDA

  boys

  BERNARD

  EDGAR

  EDWIN

  ERNEST

  FRANKLIN

  HARVEY

  JULIUS

  MARTIN

  RAYMOND

  VICTOR

  VINCENT

  WARREN

  WOLFGANG

  Are there any besides the ones already identified by the message board devotees that we’d still call as out forever?  Gladys.  Myrna.  Phyllis, Shirley, Wanda.  Arnold and Dewey, Egbert and Elmer, Hyman and Melvin.  Which I guess pretty much guarantees that they’ll come back into style any day now.

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