A name, a name

Baby naming is one of those things that I thought would be so fun, back when I was in high school.  If I was bored in a class, I'd turn the page in my notebook and scribble out the names for my future children (usually about 15 girls and 3 boys).  Turns out naming babies is actually kind of hard.  We named Clara about 6 hours before coming home from the hospital.  If I had to boil down my criteria for baby naming it would be this: the name must be easy to say, easy to spell, gender specific, and not overly popular.

Spencer and I tend to like older names - those that have fallen out of fashion.  Many are making a comeback, which means they are not completely unfamiliar, but they're still not names that our child would share with three or four other kids in their classroom.  We like to look to our family tree for names, but I've also discovered a great source recently in the Social Security database of baby names.  I like to look at the popular names of the 1910's and 1920's.  Here are the top girl names from the 1910's with the ones I would actually consider in bold.

Mary
Helen
Dorothy
Margaret
Ruth
Mildred
Anna
Elizabeth
Frances
Virginia
Marie
Evelyn
Alice
Florence
Lillian
Rose
Irene
Louise
Edna
Catherine
Gladys
Ethel
Josephine
Ruby
Martha
Grace
Hazel
Thelma
Lucille
Edith
Eleanor
Doris
Annie
Pauline
Gertrude
Esther
Betty (my sweet grandma's name too!)
Beatrice
Marjorie
Clara
Emma
Bernice
Bertha
Ann
Jean
Elsie
Agnes
Julia
Lois
Sarah
Marion
Katherine
Eva
Ida
Bessie
Pearl
Anne
Viola
Myrtle
Nellie
Mabel
Laura
Kathryn
Stella
Vera
Willie
Jessie
Jane
Alma
Minnie
Sylvia
Ella
Lillie
Rita
Leona
Barbara
Vivian
Lena
Violet
Lucy
Jennie
Genevieve
Marguerite
Charlotte
Mattie
Marian
Blanche
Mae
Ellen
Wilma
Juanita
Opal
June
Geraldine
Beulah
Velma
Theresa
Carrie
Phyllis
Maxine
Nancy
Emily
Georgia
Fannie
Kathleen
Hattie
Inez
Sophie
Rosa
Lorraine
Hilda
Harriet
Norma
Eunice
Sara
Cora (very cute, but not with a sister named Clara)
Ada
Geneva
Alberta
Loretta
Mamie
Christine
Dora
Lula
Estelle
Verna
Audrey
Madeline
Shirley
Eileen
Daisy
Sadie
Olive
Naomi
Lola
Flora
Lucile
Olga
Mable
Muriel
Susie
Maggie
Maria
Jeanette
Nora
Miriam (my maternal grandma's name)
Erma
Dolores
Victoria
Wanda
Janet
Lottie
Caroline (though I always worry about the Caroline/Carolyn issue)
Rachel
Irma
Henrietta
Roberta
Winifred
Eula
Patricia
Rosie
Anita
Rebecca
Della
Nettie
Sally
Fern
Lydia
Adeline (but not Addie)
Carolyn
Amelia
Nina
Jeanne
Elaine
Goldie
Katie
Bonnie
Antoinette
May
Marcella
Lorene
Essie
Arlene
Ollie
Dorothea
Jeannette
Veronica
Effie
Isabel
Freda
Regina
Sallie
Cleo
Ora
Isabelle
Rosemary
Addie
Eloise
Joan
Lela