Hi everyone! Happy feast of the Guardian Angels!

I’ve been meaning to write this post for ages, ever since Food Network’s Molly Yeh named her second daughter Ira. Ira! Sister to Bernadette who Molly refers to as Bernie exclusively. Bernie and Ira!

Bernie’s full given name is Bernadette Rosemary and, silly me, being immersed in Catholic naming all the time as I am, I thought that maybe Molly and her hubby would give their second daughter an equally heavy-hitting Catholicky Catholic + Marian combo (despite the fact that the story at that link includes the reasoning behind the name, in which no faith talk was mentioned) and was so excited for the birth announcement. Ira Dorothy was so surprising to me until I recalibrated my thinking and thought that Bernie and Ira sound perfect together — but as *gentlemen* of an older generation! In fact, if you search “Bernie” on the Social Security web site, you’ll see it defaults to male results and it peaked in 1937 at no. 469; Ira, too, defaults to “boy” and it was at its most popular in 1900 at no. 107.

It made me think of this chef on Tasty named Merle (full name Merle Shane O’Neal), and while Merle is listed on Behind the Name as both feminine and masculine (taken as a variant of Merrill or Muriel), the only Merle I’d known before Girl Merle on Tasty is a professor I had in college who was, yes, an older gentleman. Another “old man” name! Like with Bernie and Ira, a search on the SSA site for “Merle” defaults to only male results, with a peak in 1918 at no. 170.

You can actively choose “female,” which I did for each name after searching without choosing gender, and was interested to discover:

• Bernie was not in the top 1000 for girls at all, though Bernadette was until 1994 and peaked in 1946 at no. 146
• Ira actually does make an appearance for girls pretty regularly from 1900 until 1947, peaking in 1900 at 480
• Merle peaked for girls at no. 295 in 1903 and dropped off the charts in 1957

Anyway, I didn’t know any of this about these names having usage for girls in the past — I was really caught up in this old-man-names-for-baby-girls thing when I read this article from August (very recent!) called “‘Grandpa’ Names for Girls With That Vintage-Cool Vibe” by Rita Templeton! I knew it! It talks about the “hundred-year rule” where “popular names gradually lose steam and fall off the charts, and it takes a hundred years for them to become in favor again.” So grandparents’ names tend to be ones that current baby namers are drawn to — we’ve seen it here with names like Agnes, Edith, George, and Hank-for -Henry. The article points out, though, that “what is fairly new is a trend we’re seeing in 2023 that takes the hundred-year rule and turns it on its head: using these traditionally-male vintage names for girls. ‘Grandpa names’ for girls feel both timeless and trendy — clunky yet cute, giving kinda the same vibe as those lug-sole loafers that are back in style.” I love that! I think “clunky yet cute” like “lug-sole loafers” is such a fun way to describe this!

So tell me! Have you seen the “grandpa names for girls” trend in your own circles? Can you share any examples?

---

Read all about how to get your own baby name consultation from either Theresa or myself here.

For help with Marian names, my book, Catholic Baby Names for Girls and Boys: Over 250 Ways to Honor Our Lady (Marian Press, 2018), is available to order from ShopMercy.org and Amazon (not affiliate links). It’s perfect for expectant parents, name enthusiasts, and lovers of Our Lady!