180 Hallowed Historical Baby Names

The history books are full of incredible people who made a difference in the world — so no wonder you’re turning to the past for naming inspiration, mama! Not sure where to start? Don’t worry. Our list of historical baby names is here to help.

We’ve divided them into handy categories: activists and politicians, writers, musicians, and scientists. We’ve even included a special section on the Golden Age of Hollywood, where names like Rex, Rock, Yul, Ginger, Loretta, and Mae conjure the magic of those early films, often in just a snappy syllable or two.

First, let’s take a look at a few names that stand out from the rest.

In this article: 📝

What is the most old-fashioned name?

Tough question! It’s hard to pick just one, but if we were to choose an old-fashioned boy’s name and an old-fashioned girl’s name still popular today, our top picks would be Olivette and Orlando.

What are some extremely rare names?

We love this question—so much that we put together a whole list of cool and rare names. The names that came out tops? Aleph, Audio Science, and Bear Blaze.

And while these names may not have a historical ring to them now, they may just find themselves on a list of historical names in the years to come.

Great historical boy names

OK, let’s get started with some of the most famous boy names in history.

Activists and politicians

1. Booker (T. Washington), American educator and adviser
2. Cesar (Chavez), American labor leader and civil rights activist
3. Desmond (Tutu), South African Anglican bishop and human rights activist
4. Elie (Wiesel), Romanian-American writer, political activist, and Holocaust survivor
5. Frederick (Douglass), American social reformer and abolitionist
6. George (Washington), the first president of the US
7. Geronimo, a prominent leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people
8. Harvey (Milk), American politician and civil rights activist
9. Jesse (Jackson), American political activist
10. Malcolm (X), American minister and human rights activist
11. Martin (Luther King), American minister and activist
12. Nelson (Mandela), South African anti-apartheid activist and the country’s first democratically-elected president
13. Theodore (Roosevelt), American statesman and 26th president of the US

Actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood

14. Anthony (Quinn)
15. Burt (Lancaster)
16. Cary (Grant)
17. Charles (Laughton)
18. Charlton (Heston)
19. Clark (Gable)
20. Errol (Flynn)
21. Frank (Sinatra)
22. Fred (Astaire)
23. Gary (Cooper)
24. Gene (Kelly)
25. Glenn (Ford)
26. Henry (Fonda)
27. Humphrey (Bogart)
28. James (Dean)
29. Joseph (Cotten)
30. Kirk (Douglas)
31. Marlon (Brando)
32. Melvyn (Douglas)
33. Montgomery (Clift)
34. Orson (Welles)
35. Peter (Ustinov)
36. Rex (Harrison)
37. Richard (Burton)
38. Robert (Mitchum)
39. Rock (Hudson)
40. Sidney (Poitier)
41. Spencer (Tracy)
42. Tyrone (Power)
43. William (Holden)
44. Yul (Brynner)

Writers, artists, and musicians

45. Albert (Einstein), German theoretical physicist
46. Ansel (Adams), American photographer and environmentalist
47. Arthur (Miller), American playwright
48. Claude (Monet), French painter
49. Diego (Rivera), Mexican painter
50. Edgar (Allen Poe), American writer and poet
51. Ernest (Hemingway), American novelist and short-story writer
52. Francis (Bacon), British painter
53. Fyodor (Dostoevsky), Russian novelist
54. Henri (Matisse), French visual artist
55. Homer, legendary author of the Odyssey and the Iliad
56. Jacob (Lawrence), American painter
57. James (Joyce), Irish novelist
58. Johann (Sebastian Bach), German composer
59. Johnny (Cash), American singer-songwriter
60. Langston (Hughes), American poet
61. Louis (Armstrong), American trumpeter
62. Mark (Twain), American writer
63. Merle (Haggard), American singer-songwriter
64. Miles (Davis), American jazz musician
65. Oscar (Wilde), Irish poet and playwright
66. Pablo (Picasso), Spanish painter and sculptor
67. Paul (McCartney), founding member of The Beatles
68. Ralph (Waldo Emerson), American essayist and philosopher
69. Robert (Frost), American poet
70. Samuel (Beckett), Irish novelist and playwright
71. Walt (Whitman), American poet
72. Wolfgang (Amadeus Mozart), Austrian composer

Scientists

73. Charles (Darwin), English naturalist and biologist
74. Thomas (Edison), American inventor and businessman
75. George (Washington Carver), American agricultural scientist
76. Isaac (Newton), English mathematician, physicist, astronomer
77. Neil (Armstrong), American astronaut
78. Nicolaus (Copernicus), Renaissance mathematician and astronomer
79. Stephen (Hawking), English theoretical physicist and cosmologist
80. Henry (David Thoreau), American naturalist and essayist

Powerful historical girl names

And for your little girl?

Activists and politicians

81. Alice (Paul), American suffragist and feminist
82. Angela (Davis), American political activist
83. Betsy (Ross), American upholsterer who made the first official US flag
84. Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni tribe during the Roman occupation of Britain
85. Cleopatra, final ruler of Egypt’s Ptolemaic dynasty
86. Diana (Princess of Wales), member of the British royal family
87. Eleanor (Roosevelt), American political figure and activist
88. Emmeline (Pankhurst), English political activist
89. Indira (Gandhi), third prime minister of India
90. Joan (of Arc), patron saint of France
91. Josephine (Butler), women’s rights activist
92. Lola (Hendrics), American activist
93. Margaret (Thatcher), first female prime minister of Britain
94. Rosa (Parks), American activist
95. Ruby (Bridges), American activist
96. Susan (B. Anthony), American social reformer and women’s rights activist
97. Vera (Atkins), British intelligence officer
98. (Queen) Victoria, former Queen of England
99. Viola (Desmond), Canadian civil and women’s rights activist

Actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood

100. Ava (Gardner)
101. Audrey (Hepburn)
102. Bette (Davis)
103. Claudette (Colbert)
104. Dolores (del Rio)
105. Elizabeth (Taylor)
106. Fay (Wray)
107. Ginger (Rogers)
108. Grace (Kelly)
109. Greta (Garbo)
110. Ingrid (Bergman)
111. Jean (Harlow)
112. Judy (Garland)
113. Katharine (Hepburn)
114. Lauren (Bacall)
115. Lena (Horne)
116. Loretta (Young)
117. Lucille (Ball)
118. Mae (West)
119. Marlene (Dietrich)
120. Maureen (O’Hara)
121. Miriam (Hopkins)
122. Myrna (Loy)
123. Olivia (de Havilland)
124. Rhonda (Fleming)
125. Rita (Hayworth)
126. Shirley (Temple)
127. Sylvia (Sidney)
128. Veronica (Lake)
129. Vivien (Leigh)

Writers, artists, and musicians

130. Ada (Lovelace), English mathematician and writer
131. Agatha (Christie), English writer
132. Anne (Frank), German diarist
133. Aretha (Franklin), American singer-songwriter
134. Billie (Holiday), American singer
135. Clara (Schumann), German pianist
136. Celia (Cruz), Cuban-American singer
137. Coretta (Scott King), American author
138. Dorothea (Lange), American photographer
139. Ella (Fitzgerald), American singer
140. Edith (Piaf), French singer
141. Emily (Dickinson), American poet
142. Frida (Khalo), Mexican painter
143. Georgia (O’Keeffe), American artist
144. Gertrude (Stein), American novelist
145. Harriet (Beecher Stowe), American author
146. Jane (Austen), English novelist
147. Mary (Wollstonecraft), English writer and philosopher
148. Mildred (Bailey), American singer
149. Maude (Gillette Phillips), American author
150. Octavia (Butler), American science-fiction writer
151. Simone (de Beauvoir), French philosopher
152. Sylvia (Plath), American poet
153. Virginia (Woolf), English writer
154. Vivian (Maier), American photographer
155. Willa (Cather), American writer

Scientists

156. Ada (Lovelace), first computer programmer
157. Amelia (Earhart), American aviation pioneer
158. Barbara (McClintock), genetic scientist
159. Beatrice (Shilling), mechanical engineer (also known as Tilly)
160. Caroline (Herschel), first woman to discover a comet
161. Cecilia (Payne-Gaposchkin), astronomer, first person to discover the composition of stars
162. Dorothy (Hodhkin), chemist who built the first model of insulin
163. Elsie (Widdowson), British dietician and nutritionist, responsible for the addition of vitamins to rationed food in Britain during WW2
164. Florence (Nightingale), English statistician
165. Hedy (Lamarr), actress and co-inventor of a radio signaling device
166. Helen (Gwynne-Vaughan), botanist
167. Hypatia, the first known female mathematician
168. Inge (Lehmann), seismologist who discovered the composition of Earth's core
169. Janet (Taylor), maritime scientist and inventor
170. Jennifer (Doudna), genetic scientist and professor
171. Katherine (Freese), dark matter scientist and theoretical astrophysicist
172. Lilian (Bland), first woman to design, build, and fly and aircraft
173. Lise (Meitner), nuclear scientist who helped with the discovery of nuclear fission
174. Maria (Goeppert Mayer), chemical physics and Nobel Prize winner
175. Marie (Curie), Polish physicist and chemist
176. Rachel (Carson), environmental scientist
177. Rosalind (Franklin), British chemist
178. Sau (Lan Wu), particle physicist from Hong Kong who helped discover the Higgs-Boson particle
179. Sophia (Louisa Jex-Blake), pioneer for female doctors and physicians
180. Valentina (Tereshkova), astronaut and first woman in space

And if you’re looking to continue your search, head on over to our dedicated list of vintage names. Or check out our list of over 350 old-fashioned names.

Happy naming, mama!