Have a thing for the swinging sensations of the 1920s? In a decade defined by prohibition, speakeasies and flappers, the people and fads associated with the Roaring Twenties will give you great inspiration for distinctive names to bestow upon your child.  Check out our list of popular baby names from the 1920s.

Lit wits

The literary phenoms of the 1920s gave us some memorable tales that marked their time, but it’s the names of the scribes themselves who can provide unexpected inspiration for your baby’s name.

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, one of the most well-known writers of the Flapper era, was married to Zelda Sayre and they had one daughter Scottie. Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby which featured great character names like Carraway, Chester McKee, Daisy Fay Buchanan and Myrtle.

The Algonquin Round Table was a celebrated group of New York City writers, critics and actors who met regularly during the 1920s. Their membership provides a virtual smorgasbord of first and last names to help you make your baby unique: Alexander Woollcott, Deems Taylor, Donald Ogden Stewart, Dorothy Parker, Edna Ferber, Harpo Marx, Heywood Broun, John Peter Toohey, Marc Connelly, Neysa McMein, Robert Benchley and Tallulah Bankhead.

The numbers of Americans in Paris swelled in the early 1920s, joining with French talent to make their mark on the city: Arthur Rimbaud, Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Edward Estlin (E.E.) Cummings, Ernest Miller Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, John Peale Bishop, Marcel Proust, Paul Valéry and T. S. Eliot.

Other writers of the Golden Twenties include: Edward Morley Callaghan, James Joyce
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau, Newton Booth Tarkington, Pelham Grenville “P.G.” Wodehouse, Ring Lardner and Sinclair Lewis.

The Harlem Renaissance sought to find new ways to explore the historical experiences of black America. Well-known names associated with this movement are Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Richard Bruce Nugent and Aaron Douglas.

The heroic to the infamous

The good guys and bad guys of the 1920s were many. From infamous to unforgettable, here are some notables who fell on both sides of the law.

Al Capone – one of the most notorious gangsters in American history
Clarence Seward Darrow – defender of Scopes in the Scopes “Monkey” Trial
Herbert Hoover – President of the United States during the Great Depression
John Scopes – tried for teaching evolution in a Tennessee school
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti – anarchists convicted and executed for armed robbery and murder
William Jennings Bryan – prosecutor in the Scopes trial, three-time presidential candidate

For heroes of a different sort who made their mark on the decade, consider Babe Ruth, Charles Lindbergh or Henry Ford.

Actors, artists and musicians

The Jazz Age heralded in unrivaled talent of stage and screen. Standouts include Charlie Chaplin (married to Oona O’Neill) who was featured on the big screen with fellow actors Al Jolson, Bobby Grodon, Eugenie Besserer, Jack Coogan, May McAvoy and Warner Oland.

Photographer Alfred Stieglitz was married to painter Georgia O’Keefe and their contemporaries included artists like Alexander Calder, Andre Breton, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso.

The speakeasies blared with the tunes of music legends like Bessie Smith to Duke Ellington, while Broadway and the like ushered in the sounds of George Gershwin.

A sign of the times

For a little trivia, here are some well-knowns who were born in 1920: Arthur Hailey, Isaac Asimov, Leona Helmsley, Mickey Rooney, Pope John Paul II and Yul Brynner.

And if you want to evoke a bit of the Roaring Twenties in your child’s name without borrowing a famous name from history, consider some of the trends made popular during this era. “Cloche” is snug hat derived from the French word for “bell” and “Chiffon” is the fabric that typically comprised those famous flapper dresses. From “Jazz” to “Charleston,” the 1920s offer a fruitful mix of names and events to make your baby stand out from the crowd.

Read More:

The Most Unique Literary Baby Names

Popular Name Trends for 2009

What's Old Is New: 150 Old Fashioned but Trendy Baby Names

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