There’s a lively discussion going on over at our message boards on what names have gone out of style and will probably never come back.  On the permanent Out List, by consensus, are:

　　BERTHA

　　BEULAH

　　BRUNHILDA (was this ever in, I mean since the 11th century?)

　　CLORIS

　　DORCAS

　　DORIS

　　EUNICE

　　GAY

　　HESTER

　　HILDA

　　HORTENSE — Enjoys the shortest entry in The Baby Name Bible: “No.”

　　IRMA

　　RHODA

　　SELMA

　　VERNA

　　boys

　　CLETUS

　　DWAYNE (This reminds me of a very funny line from the Pioneer Woman: “I didn’t even know his name; I just hoped it wasn’t Dwayne.”)

　　EBENEZER

　　HORTON

　　HUBERT

　　LEROY

　　MORRIS

　　NORBERT

　　WILBUR

　　We’re with you so far, name lovers, and can even understand why you disagree on whether some choices belong on the Out-Forever List.  One person sees Gertrude as cute, like little Drew Barrymore in ET, while another says it reminds her forever of the word girdle.  Myrtle is fresh and flower-like to one visitor, terminally dowdy to another.  And Grover is adorable to one message boardie, doomed to Sesame Street purgatory by another.

　　And Linda! ?! Let’s not even go there.

　　We’ve learned the hard way that there are very few names you can categorically declare out of style forever.  Today’s Shirley — terminally dated name — is tomorrow’s Ida or Arthur: born-again hottie.

　　Here some names that we once declared dead forever (or forever-ish) only to see them rise again.

　　girls

　　AUGUSTA

　　ESTELLE

　　ESTHER

　　FLORENCE

　　FRIEDA

　　IDA

　　LENORE

　　MILDRED

　　MURIEL

　　PEARL

　　VERA

　　ZELDA

　　boys

　　BERNARD

　　EDGAR

　　EDWIN

　　ERNEST

　　FRANKLIN

　　HARVEY

　　JULIUS

　　MARTIN

　　RAYMOND

　　VICTOR

　　VINCENT

　　WARREN

　　WOLFGANG

　　Are there any besides the ones already identified by the message board devotees that we’d still call as out forever?  Gladys.  Myrna.  Phyllis, Shirley, Wanda.  Arnold and Dewey, Egbert and Elmer, Hyman and Melvin.  Which I guess pretty much guarantees that they’ll come back into style any day now.