Replacing old door knobs

We have just purchases a home built in 1975. The old door knobs work but they are very noisy when turned and wake up our toddlers in the room across the hall almost every evening and morning. I bought a new one (Yale) and attempted to replace one (National) The holes drilled in the door are just off and or to small to fit any of the new parts in. Is there another brand or some sort of measurement I need to figure out what will work easily?
I really don't want to buy one knob of every brand.

 

Almost all residential knobs use a 2-1/8" hole that is set back from the edge 2-3/8", and a hole for the latch that is 1" in diameter. If your hole sizes are smaller that those, bore the proper size hole in a scrape of 1X4, clamp that to the door where it needs to be and use a hole saw to enlarge the hole. (A 1" paddle bit with the same jig can be used for the latch hole.) If the holes are the right size but the back set is different, it's probably 2-3/4". You can buy just the latch for that back set. Or it may be that the Yale latch is adjustable to that back set.