Girls names

I love the old names - a neighbour has two girls, Rosa and Violet, Evelyn seems to have had a really big revival, I know a tiny Florence, and my granddaughter has classmates called Archie, Rupert, Henry, and Edwin. However, other names seemed doomed never to be revived; who would call a tiny baby Ernest, Gladys, Horace, Edna, Ronald, Derek, or Stanley? No doubt some have!

In Denmark there is a list of ministry approved names that you can give your child. If you want a name not on the list, you have to apply for permission.

It will not be granted if a name could be considered obscene, which would rule out Klamidia, or is not usually considered a name. You wouldn't get permission to call a child Tinkerbell here. You could use it as a pet name and give the child a name like Isobella.

I think it is the same everywhere, names used by our great-grandparents are back in fashion.

However, no-one has been registered as Adolf since the last war in Denmark, where it was used before. I imagine the same applies in Germany. I do however know a German my own age (68) called Horst, which rather surprised me.

One thing we can be sure of, most parents who chose a "new" name for the child, will discover when he or she starts school that there are four to six others in the class with the same name.

I wonder if gender neutral names will be popular this year?

A friend’s daughter has called her baby boy Wilf. Just that.
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I was in the supermarket this morning and thought of this thread when I heard a woman shouting Elsie.
"I'm here" came the answer from a little blonde cherub.

My controlling M chose boys names for her forthcoming grandchildren, her 'wishful' thinking, not mine, that I was having boys. No scans then. I went along with it but got the better of her by having girls..

Every time I hear these old names such as Elsie, Ruby and Edith I think if my great-aunts. Elderly ladies who smelt of a mixture of lavender and cabbage!
I have a very unusual name, too unusual to write here as I might be recognised. I have loved it and the advantage is that it has not dated. We chose our children's names that were never too popular so that they would not be dated.

Each to his own but personally I don’t like those old fashioned names and find it very difficult looking at a chubby little baby called Arthur or Gladys

DIL's sister has just had a new baby girl....Brody HEARTFILIA...what do you think of that??!!

Why give a child a name and then use a diminutive?

Surely because it gives the child choice in later life. I was christened Margaret, and much prefer Maggie. I was named after my grandma, who preferred Meg. I also know Margarets who are Mags, Greta, Rita, and Peggy, as well as a couple who've stuck with the full name.

Similarly with Elizabeth. Register a child as Lizzie and she's stuck with it. As Elizabeth she can choose from many other diminutives.

'Tintin Jellybean' - that's the best name I've ever heard! I love it. Wonder if I'm too old to change my name to Tintin10?

My step daughter called her baby Clemency Honeysuckle Plum! And they have a double barrelled surname! Poor child !

My youngest DGD is called Norah. I remember, from my teaching days, a girl called China-Blue.

My name is actually Annette but I don't use it much. Apparently no girl born in the last 2 years has been called Annette.

My daughter is called Roselyn (Rosie for short) and my grand daughter is Marianne

Rudy is becoming quite popular for boys, I know of two. My sister is Constance and I am Sybil, our DM was German and these names work in both languages.

When I was at school, there were a lot of Susans, which caused a lot of confusion. These days, it seems quite rare
You're not kidding ladymuck - I'm a Susan, and there were SEVEN of us in my class at Junior School..!! It was the most popular girls'name for some years in the late 1940s & early 50s.
The last Susan that I came across was two years below my DD at school - so she'll be around 40 now
I know small children called Jasper, Edward, Norman, Edie and Dorothy - and several Stanleys and Arthurs (that was my Dad's name, and I'd never have believed it would come back into fashion..!)

Bradfordlass2 I'm with you. Why give a lovely name and then use the diminuitive that sounds nothing like the proper name. The TV soaps are just awful for shortening names; what is so hard about saying eg Emma instead of Em. I do like traditional names rather than all the made up ones. Same goes for spelling. I know 3 Mia's all 3 spelled differently.

In the S. African Afrikaans community, baby names are often a compilation of the parents’ names..eg : Janine and Andre would have a baby called Jandre....some turn out ok, others are a bit weird!!!

Cinderella Sparkle!!!! Those are like toy names, as though the daughter was a doll, permanently a baby and not going to grow into a child, a teenager, a young mither, a businesswoman. My mother said she thought it was stupid calling a girl Wendy as in her opinion it was a baby's name and they'd have to grow up with it. And I suppose what sounds like a really dignified adult name might only be used when they grow up: Norbert Sinclair Wilberforce might always have been known as Nonnie.

I taught a girl in school who said "I think it's really WICKED to call a baby something like Margaret" (said with utmost disgust. I drew myself up to my full height (about 5ft) and said "that, young lady, is my middle name".

But... sweet adorable little baby Nigel or Derek? Doesn't feel right to me.

I'm surprised that Marsha is the 'normal' spelling of Marcia. To me, Marcia would be the traditional way and 'Marsha' an Americanisation or simplification.

It's the same in Germany, where people are using their grandparents' names, so from the 20s and 30s. They caught on to the Old Testament fashion long after the anglophone world, (so the Samuels and Noahs are now around 5 years old) but the old names of Christian origin are coming back with a vengeance. To my ears they sound awful, but I'm sure I'll get used to my grandchildren's names eventually,

I guess it all depends on where you live as to what is in favour - my daughter unwittingly gave her daughter the German version of my name - Ilse ( 2nd and 3rd names - Marie Theresia) which is a form of Elisabeth and she was born on my 66th birthday. I once stayed in a holiday camp and we had 7 mothers in the room - all with a different version of Elisabeth, think I may have been the only one that realised.

Never mind the names, think of the initials. I grow up as MES my brother as JES and my sister as VAS.