Which Name Would You Choose?

We considered Isabelle for our first DD but every time it was mentioned my Mum would add ‘necessary on a bicycle’ which was a bit off putting ?. Same with Flora, which I loved. So many people said ‘Flora?! You can’t name a baby after a margarine’. We kept very quiet after that on names for the next 2DDs.

Witzend. One of my GS is named John after my late DH (who wasn’t late at the time!) I was surprised but it really suits him and of course now its lovely to have the continuity of the name in the family.
Happy Birthday Fanny

Nope! Not Chloe, Olivia or Louise.
Molly - love the Rumpelstiltskin reference

FannyCornforth is it Louise? My sister is Louise and had exactly those problems as a child, but then the name boomed.

Ah! Thank you everyone! You are very, very kind!

Very happy birthday ??FannyC ??

FC, guessing your name wouldn’t be as dangerous as Rumpelstiltskin but probably as tricky!

@Fanny Cornforth, Olivia?

Chloe FannyCornforth?

Happy Birthday FC.???

A name I’ve never heard of anywhere else is Wilmet - but that was in a novel by Barbara Pym.

The character says she was named after a character in a novel by Charlotte M. Yonge, her mother’s favourite reads.
I’ve never read any of those but presumably BP didn’t make that up.

? FannyCornforth.

Will try and guess your name.

One of my friends is named Stella.
Her mom said it was after a story in one of the girls' magazines - 'Stella by Starlight'.

Kenver when I was a very little girl, my name was very unusual; lots of people thought that it was made up; and it seemed that noone could spell it.

Then 15 - 20 years down the line it became ridiculously popular - common as muck even!

When I was a mature student a few years back it seemed that half the much younger women were called it.
I'm 49 (today actually! ) can anyone guess what my name is?

The name I remember most from comics is Lettice Leefe - the loveable duffer!
I think she was in the SchoolFriend - I’m sure someone else will remember.

Talking of which, I was once delighted to find in a 2nd hand bookshop, the exact same SchoolFriend Pets Annual I had for Christmas in 1958! I adored that book.
I still have the ‘find’.

I often wonder when the classics John and Mary - the most popular by far for centuries - will make a comeback.

Dd said she’d have liked John for Gds - uncommon but classic - but it didn’t work well at all with his surname.

My paternal GM was Rose, which IMO is lovely and never really dated. I’d have used it as a middle name for a dd but my DM never really liked her MiL so she’d have been very put out!

Dd used it as a middle for Gdd1, though.

I had a very unusual name, people use to asked me if my parents had made my name up . I pretended my name was Wendy as a child. As an adult I am happy to be different.

My names are all right, classic and unembarrassing, but I’d have liked something a bit more exotic. I am always called by my middle name, which does cause problems, but I answer to either name.

As a child I passionately wanted to be called Beryl. I don’t know why I picked on that, but there were a couple of ballet dancers I admired, Beryl Grey and Beryl Goldwyn, so I suppose that’s where I found it.

My surname before I married was very unusual and hard to pronounce and spell. I rather reluctantly took my husband’s name, and found it a relief at first not to have to spell it every time. Now, though, I wish I hadn’t. I miss my interesting surname.

I have two friends with relatively unusual first names. One liked the fact that she was always the only one with that name at school, the other hated her name for the same reason! I’m with the one who liked standing out..

Witzend yes, regarding revival of names...
I don't think that it will be long before we hear of names that were popular during the 40s and 50s.
Pamela, Patricia, Susan etc.
I think that Margaret could have the potential to be very popular.
Any thoughts anyone, on the next big thing girls' names wise?

lemongrove

FarNorth

39SJV07 the mean girls I remember were Mabel and Veronica from the Bunty - I heartily disliked their hairstyles, too, especially the way the hair was shaped around their ears.

Goodness me, what a memory you have!
There seemed to be a lot of Mary’s in girls comics but I can’t remember any other ones.I read Girls Crystal and Bunty and can’t remember a thing about them now.

It was The Four Mary’s in Bunty.

Mary Simpson, Radleigh, Cotter and Field.

Mary S was the clever one, Mary R was an Earl’s daughter, Mary C had plaits, Mary F was good at sports.

Then there was Miss Creef, form teacher, and Doctor Gull, head.

Mabel and Veronica were nasty, always got their comeuppance eventually. Used the phrase ‘Utterly, utterly’ a lot.

As you can tell, I was a huge Bunty fan, wished I could attend St Elmo’s School For Girls.......

Must stop now.....

I always fancied being a Francesca, or possibly Saskia. Loathe the Christian name my sainted mother chose for me.

My mother really hated both her first names - evidently fashionable when she was born in 1918 - so all 4 of us were given classic names that she thought wouldn’t date. I’ve always liked mine but my sisters weren’t so keen on theirs, and one has always been known even professionally by the nickname her not much older brother gave her when she was a baby.

Funnily enough that has turned into a relatively common name now - Mia - but we’d never heard of it at the time. When Mia Farrow was first well known - long ago now - we thought she’d pinched it!

A granny hated her name, too - Phoebe - but that went through a newly fashionable stage too, ditto some other really (to me) old lady names from that era. Poppy is just one I used to associate with whiskery old great aunts!

I do sometimes wonder how long it’ll be before some of the very popular names from my schooldays will be recycled - it seems to take at least 3 generations. Nice names, but you don’t hear of any baby being given those now. Or at least I haven’t.

FarNorth

39SJV07 the mean girls I remember were Mabel and Veronica from the Bunty - I heartily disliked their hairstyles, too, especially the way the hair was shaped around their ears.

Goodness me, what a memory you have!
There seemed to be a lot of Mary’s in girls comics but I can’t remember any other ones.I read Girls Crystal and Bunty and can’t remember a thing about them now.

Love the names Leonora and Fenella.

Have gone through life having to spell both my first name and surname - luckily don't have a middle name! My first name was very unusual at the time my mother gave it to me in the 50's, especially as it is the male version of the name, though it became popular later using the female spelling of it.

When I started junior school I told the headmistress she had spelt my name incorrectly and she retorted that her spelling was correct and mine was wrong. My mother was furious with her not least because I started junior school at the age of four and had been taught how to read and write by my grandmother before then.

My first marriage was to Deborah Clare, which I thought were pretty smart forenames. When she died I was lucky enough to get married to Charmaine Ruth, which I think is also a cracking pairing. Sadly she doesn't agree and has called herself something else for the last 60-odd years. My first name only has three letters, and quite suits me.