Vintage vs. Classic Names

Some people use the terms "classic" and "vintage" interchangeably when it comes to names. However, the two terms mean very different things.

Classic Names

Classic names are names with long usage histories that are acceptable in any era. These include names that were always or almost always popular, including Anna, Katherine, and Elizabeth for girls and James, Robert, and William for boys. 

Yet, names can still be timeless even if they weren't always common. For example, Alice, Lucy, and Sophia can easily be a child's mother, grandmother, or great-grandmother even though they're most common among young girls. The same can be said about Luke, Simon, and Theodore for boys. 

Perhaps some classic names were never in the top 100. Greta, Nina, and Susanna are some examples for girls' while Benedict, Lionel, and Solomon are examples for boys.  

Vintage Names

Vintage names are tied to a specific era. They were once fashionable before becoming dated. Now they're acceptable for little kids once more. Harvey and Stella were top 100 hits a century ago before falling out of fashion. Today, they have either come back or are coming back. 

Some vintage names sound like they could be classics, like Edith and Alfred. Except that they were not acceptable thirty years ago. Edith, especially, was a name that once made girls prone to bullying. Hence, they're actually more vintage charmers than timeless classics. 

Source Bias

Some names that appear on classic lists have only seen heavy usage recently. I've seen feminine Scarlett on some lists, but it is not at all classic. Perhaps it's not even vintage. Scarlett entered sparing use in the seventeenth century yet was brought to attention in the United States via Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind. Only recently has Scarlett become a popular hit in the English-speaking world. Thus, in reality, Scarlett is a modern traditional name, a choice with history that's mostly used for this generation. 

The same thing can be said about Liam. I've seen this form of classic William on one classic names list, though Liam never entered the top 1000 until the 1970s. Perhaps it only started being used in America in the 1940s. 

This being said, parents need to be careful about where they get information on names from. Name sections on parenting sites and blogs tend to provide less accurate information than sites dedicated to names and created by name experts, like Nameberry.