These 23 classic baby names are facing extinction in the US

They’ll be no singing “Happy Birthday” to little Myrtle any time soon. 

The once-buzzy baby name — along with Al, Bess, Cathy, Vern, Wally and more — is in the top 23 newborn names on the verge of virtual extinction. 

A foul fall from grace, the run-of-the-mill monikers were the bees knees during the Baby Boomer generation, between 1946 and 1964, per a 2024 report via baby-naming experts at Namesberry. 

But they’ve since lost their luster. 

“These were once ubiquitous names that represented everyday people — used on sitcoms like “The Brady Bunch” and “Father Knows Best,” explained the pros, adding that names going the way of the dinosaur are too closely tied to gray-haired grannies. 

“For the most part, they’re diminutives or nickname names popular among today’s grandparents,” study authors wrote. “Patrick and Patricia are still used today.”

“But no one is putting Pat on the birth certificate.”

Rather than naming their little bundles of joy after Nana and Pop-Pop, millennial, Gen Z — and a few frisky Gen Xer — parents are, instead, looking to pop culture for inspiration. 

A June 2024 analysis from online parenting hub, BabyCenter found that ultramodern mommies and daddies are crowning their kiddies with names from hit feature films and streaming series such as “Dune: Part Two,” and “Bridgerton.”  

Classic titles like Liam and Olivia have, too, maintained their high-rank in the baby name realm. In 2023, both topped the list of most popular boy and girl tags in the U.S. for the fifth year in a row, per recent data from the Social Security Administration. 

However, names facing annihilation were nowhere near the number one spots. 

In fact, Namesberry says the names that are almost extinct were only given to between “five to 19 babies” the last year on record. 

“These days, names like Nirvana and Lucifer are statistically more representative of the youngest generation,” noted the know-it-alls. 

Here’s the list of baby names on the chopping block.