Nickname help!
We want to name our baby Penelope but we can’t decide on a nickname? Help!
Looking for historical baby names? We’ve got you covered. Who knows? Your baby might just follow in the footsteps of these famous people from the past.
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?
- What are some extremely rare names?
- Great historical boy names
- Powerful historical girl names
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
- Booker (T. Washington), American educator and adviser
- Cesar (Chavez), American labor leader and civil rights activist
- Desmond (Tutu), South African Anglican bishop and human rights activist
- Elie (Wiesel), Romanian-American writer, political activist, and Holocaust survivor
- Frederick (Douglass), American social reformer and abolitionist
- George (Washington), the first president of the US
- Geronimo, a prominent leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people
- Harvey (Milk), American politician and civil rights activist
- Jesse (Jackson), American political activist
- Malcolm (X), American minister and human rights activist
- Martin (Luther King), American minister and activist
- Nelson (Mandela), South African anti-apartheid activist and the country’s first democratically-elected president
- Theodore (Roosevelt), American statesman and 26th president of the US
Actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood
- Anthony (Quinn)
- Burt (Lancaster)
- Cary (Grant)
- Charles (Laughton)
- Charlton (Heston)
- Clark (Gable)
- Errol (Flynn)
- Frank (Sinatra)
- Fred (Astaire)
- Gary (Cooper)
- Gene (Kelly)
- Glenn (Ford)
- Henry (Fonda)
- Humphrey (Bogart)
- James (Dean)
- Joseph (Cotten)
- Kirk (Douglas)
- Marlon (Brando)
- Melvyn (Douglas)
- Montgomery (Clift)
- Orson (Welles)
- Peter (Ustinov)
- Rex (Harrison)
- Richard (Burton)
- Robert (Mitchum)
- Rock (Hudson)
- Sidney (Poitier)
- Spencer (Tracy)
- Tyrone (Power)
- William (Holden)
- Yul (Brynner)
Writers, artists, and musicians
- Albert (Einstein), German theoretical physicist
- Ansel (Adams), American photographer and environmentalist
- Arthur (Miller), American playwright
- Claude (Monet), French painter
- Diego (Rivera), Mexican painter
- Edgar (Allen Poe), American writer and poet
- Ernest (Hemingway), American novelist and short-story writer
- Francis (Bacon), British painter
- Fyodor (Dostoevsky), Russian novelist
- Henri (Matisse), French visual artist
- Homer, legendary author of the Odyssey and the Iliad
- Jacob (Lawrence), American painter
- James (Joyce), Irish novelist
- Johann (Sebastian Bach), German composer
- Johnny (Cash), American singer-songwriter
- Langston (Hughes), American poet
- Louis (Armstrong), American trumpeter
- Mark (Twain), American writer
- Merle (Haggard), American singer-songwriter
- Miles (Davis), American jazz musician
- Oscar (Wilde), Irish poet and playwright
- Pablo (Picasso), Spanish painter and sculptor
- Paul (McCartney), founding member of The Beatles
- Ralph (Waldo Emerson), American essayist and philosopher
- Robert (Frost), American poet
- Samuel (Beckett), Irish novelist and playwright
- Walt (Whitman), American poet
- Wolfgang (Amadeus Mozart), Austrian composer
Scientists
- Charles (Darwin), English naturalist and biologist
- Thomas (Edison), American inventor and businessman
- George (Washington Carver), American agricultural scientist
- Isaac (Newton), English mathematician, physicist, astronomer
- Neil (Armstrong), American astronaut
- Nicolaus (Copernicus), Renaissance mathematician and astronomer
- Stephen (Hawking), English theoretical physicist and cosmologist
- Henry (David Thoreau), American naturalist and essayist
Powerful historical girl names
And for your little girl?
Activists and politicians
- Alice (Paul), American suffragist and feminist
- Angela (Davis), American political activist
- Betsy (Ross), American upholsterer who made the first official US flag
- Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni tribe during the Roman occupation of Britain
- Cleopatra, final ruler of Egypt’s Ptolemaic dynasty
- Diana (Princess of Wales), member of the British royal family
- Eleanor (Roosevelt), American political figure and activist
- Emmeline (Pankhurst), English political activist
- Indira (Gandhi), third prime minister of India
- Joan (of Arc), patron saint of France
- Josephine (Butler), women’s rights activist
- Lola (Hendrics), American activist
- Margaret (Thatcher), first female prime minister of Britain
- Rosa (Parks), American activist
- Ruby (Bridges), American activist
- Susan (B. Anthony), American social reformer and women’s rights activist
- Vera (Atkins), British intelligence officer
- (Queen) Victoria, former Queen of England
- Viola (Desmond), Canadian civil and women’s rights activist
Actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood
- Ava (Gardner)
- Audrey (Hepburn)
- Bette (Davis)
- Claudette (Colbert)
- Dolores (del Rio)
- Elizabeth (Taylor)
- Fay (Wray)
- Ginger (Rogers)
- Grace (Kelly)
- Greta (Garbo)
- Ingrid (Bergman)
- Jean (Harlow)
- Judy (Garland)
- Katharine (Hepburn)
- Lauren (Bacall)
- Lena (Horne)
- Loretta (Young)
- Lucille (Ball)
- Mae (West)
- Marlene (Dietrich)
- Maureen (O’Hara)
- Miriam (Hopkins)
- Myrna (Loy)
- Olivia (de Havilland)
- Rhonda (Fleming)
- Rita (Hayworth)
- Shirley (Temple)
- Sylvia (Sidney)
- Veronica (Lake)
- Vivien (Leigh)
Writers, artists, and musicians
- Ada (Lovelace), English mathematician and writer
- Agatha (Christie), English writer
- Anne (Frank), German diarist
- Aretha (Franklin), American singer-songwriter
- Billie (Holiday), American singer
- Clara (Schumann), German pianist
- Celia (Cruz), Cuban-American singer
- Coretta (Scott King), American author
- Dorothea (Lange), American photographer
- Ella (Fitzgerald), American singer
- Edith (Piaf), French singer
- Emily (Dickinson), American poet
- Frida (Khalo), Mexican painter
- Georgia (O’Keeffe), American artist
- Gertrude (Stein), American novelist
- Harriet (Beecher Stowe), American author
- Jane (Austen), English novelist
- Mary (Wollstonecraft), English writer and philosopher
- Mildred (Bailey), American singer
- Maude (Gillette Phillips), American author
- Octavia (Butler), American science-fiction writer
- Simone (de Beauvoir), French philosopher
- Sylvia (Plath), American poet
- Virginia (Woolf), English writer
- Vivian (Maier), American photographer
- Willa (Cather), American writer
Scientists
- Ada (Lovelace), first computer programmer
- Amelia (Earhart), American aviation pioneer
- Barbara (McClintock), genetic scientist
- Beatrice (Shilling), mechanical engineer (also known as Tilly)
- Caroline (Herschel), first woman to discover a comet
- Cecilia (Payne-Gaposchkin), astronomer, first person to discover the composition of stars
- Dorothy (Hodhkin), chemist who built the first model of insulin
- Elsie (Widdowson), British dietician and nutritionist, responsible for the addition of vitamins to rationed food in Britain during WW2
- Florence (Nightingale), English statistician
- Hedy (Lamarr), actress and co-inventor of a radio signaling device
- Helen (Gwynne-Vaughan), botanist
- Hypatia, the first known female mathematician
- Inge (Lehmann), seismologist who discovered the composition of Earth’s core
- Janet (Taylor), maritime scientist and inventor
- Jennifer (Doudna), genetic scientist and professor
- Katherine (Freese), dark matter scientist and theoretical astrophysicist
- Lilian (Bland), first woman to design, build, and fly and aircraft
- Lise (Meitner), nuclear scientist who helped with the discovery of nuclear fission
- Maria (Goeppert Mayer), chemical physics and Nobel Prize winner
- Marie (Curie), Polish physicist and chemist
- Rachel (Carson), environmental scientist
- Rosalind (Franklin), British chemist
- Sau (Lan Wu), particle physicist from Hong Kong who helped discover the Higgs-Boson particle
- Sophia (Louisa Jex-Blake), pioneer for female doctors and physicians
- 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!