'Grandpa' Names for Girls With That Vintage-Cool Vibe

When it comes to baby names, their popularity tends to follow what’s known as the “hundred-year rule” — popular names gradually lose steam and fall off the charts, and it takes a hundred years for them to become in favor again. We’re seeing it with the ongoing vintage baby name trend for girls: Frances, Evelyn, Ruby, and Josephine could just as easily be your great-great-grandmother, or the girls in your kid’s preschool class.

The hundred-year rule isn’t limited to girl baby names. Just look at Harry, Archie, and Theodore for a few perfect examples. But 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.

Ahead of the curve, some of our favorite celebrities have embraced these “grandpa names” for girls. Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively’s daughter James, Samira Wiley and Lauren Morelli’s daughter George, and Jerry O’Connell and Rebecca Romijn’s daughter Charlie all have names that are undeniably classic — nothing we haven’t heard before — and yet, they feel surprisingly fresh when they’re used as a girl’s name.

The grandpa baby name trend is also a good option for when you want to name your little girl after a male relative. Who says you have to name your daughter Louise when you really want to honor Great-Grandpa Louie?! And if a name still sounds too traditionally-masculine for your taste, you can always “soften” it a bit by ending it with an “ie” instead of a “y” — like Billie or Johnnie — or pair it with an ultra-feminine middle name (Samira Wiley’s daughter is George Elizabeth).

These grandpa baby names for girls are endearing, familiar-but-fresh, and as stylish as a vintage sweater vest (… in argyle, of course).

Grandpa Baby Names for Girls

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