Fashionable names

My moms name Was Gladys. Not sure that will make a comeback.

Janetashbolt

I'd rather have Susan than some of the modern "made up names". Any Janet you meet is almost 70. There were 7 in my year at school. Never heard of a younger one.

I love the name Janet. In fact I like lots of those Enid Blytony names - Sally, Jill, Felicity, Hilary, Anne.
There's something wholesome and reassuring about them.

I have noticed people remembering what their dolls were called, as it was a way of using a favourite name that you hadn't been given yourself. I think I'll start a new thread....

My children are Hannah & Joshua, both quite unusual when they were born but hugely popular a couple of years later. DDs middle name is Miriam which I think is a beautiful name & DS has Francis after his grandfather. DSs boys are Lucius and Troy - a bit unusual but not too whacky!! The one has Francis as a middle name and the other Stanley which was DDIL's maiden name.
I don't particularly like my first name, it's another that was hugely popular in the late 50s & I really don't like my middle name & don't associate it with me!! Someone mentioned the name Dorcas which I've always loved and DM had a cousin called Dulcie which I think is beautiful. My much younger friend has Lily, Daisy & Poppy, all with May as a middle name. When DD was born in 1984, Louise was the most popular middle name.

I was in a class of five girls named Linda and I disliked the name intensely. It was amusing for us as the teacher would call "Linda" and five heads would look up! Each had to have the first initial from their surname attached to 'Linda', so there was 'LindaB', LindaS', etc.

I have a group of friends and their names are Linda, Linda and Lynne. V confusing but demonstrates the way that names 'go around' and are cyclical - and shows our approximate age.

I have heard of a few new babies recently named Linda, well, one in the UK and one in Germany so perhaps this, too is making a return.

Our primary school class had a fairly full complement of Susans, too.

These names seem trendy to this baby-generating generation fed up with Charlotte and Olivia etc.

There is only one mention of Brenda in all the comments, yet we had 4 in our choir. I have yet to meet a Brenda born after the 50s. I wonder if it will ever make a comeback.
My children have all had fairly conventional names. One of them has Susan as a middle name, but she doesn’t like it much. My GDs are Paige Rosa (Rosa from my mum) and Sophia Milana (Peruvian Dad) 1 GS has an ordinary name, and one is named after the road where I live, Ashton Heath!
My favourite ‘weird’ name is ABCDE, which is apparently pronounced Ab-suh-dee!

Susan was popular in the Yorkshire area in the 50s not just the south. Linda is another name I remember being popular
Both my children's names were ones that are classic but I know few people with them, subsequently, both are very popular, someone named her daughter after mine, but daughter's friend is a couple of years older and is the same, albeit spelled slightly differently, she is the oldest I know though. How did we manage to choose names that were becoming so popular I wonder.

silverlining48

A friend’s gs who is now 18 is called Arthur, not my business but I couldn’t understand why they would choose that name all that time ago, it was unheard of then, but it’s more commonly used now together with Stanley’s and other such ‘old man’ names. After a while we get used to them and you will do the same. Enjoy your little Arthur.

Thanks Silverlining. I think part of my problem is that it was my dad's name, and when he died nearly six years ago I was alone with him, and held his hand as he took his last breath. It still makes me sad to think of him, and hearing his name all the time brings it all back.

Irismarle I thought it was only me who loved those "Susan"books. My favourite was "Susan pulls the Strings" which I still have.

I love my GC names they are Lukas Simon Amanda and Johanna all Swedish names but can be used anywhere. My name is lovely people say but I like to shorten it and that’s what I am known by

My three year old granddaughter is a Harriet, I love it.

I read somewhere once the advice to parents choosing a name for a child to think not at how nice a name for a baby but how it would look if the child when grown up and in his or her 40s were to be appointed as a High Court Judge.

My daughter has Susan as a middle name - which she dislikes - but it is her paternal grandmas name! I like it it reminds me of Little friend Susan in Milly Molly Mandy!

DD's first name is Lilybeth after The Queen as she was born just after Princess Diana died. she was going to be Lily as we wanted an English name but thought The Queen got an unfair time of it in the aftermath!

I think Phillip is going to make a comeback after Eugenie put it in for her son. Susan and David were the most popular names for years. Much like Jack and Amelia have been of late.

I can't believe Freddie is so popular much as i love Mr Mercury. I just can't imagine people calling their kids Roger or Brian but i am sure it will happen!

Congratulations emjaebe
We have a newborn GS called Charlie.

If Charlie had been a girl Dd and SIL had decided on the name Harriet. I didn’t tell them but I really don’t like the name.
Apologies to any lovely Harriets but when I hear it , I get a picture in my mind of a frankfurter with arms and legs and a big red smiling mouth.?

What are peoples views on how many given names should a child be given?

I do wish Grandparents would keep their own thoughts as to their GCs names it is only up to the parents be it a classic family name or a modern name it is no ones business only the childs parents.
When my DGD was born 3rd DGD was born 3 yrs ago I was not over the top with the name she was going to be called and I kept my thoughts to myself there was no way I was going to upset my DIL with my thoughts the little one would not now suit any other name and she is a joy,I had never heard of the name before but now I hear many little girls called it .

I like the name Donna which was never really that popular I also like Ava and Evie

Witzend

IMO a lot of names such as Jane, John, Mary and Susan, will be making a comeback in the not too distant. I love John!

Look what’s happened to a lot of the names that many of my era connected with whiskery old great-aunts - Mabel, Florence, Edith, etc, - a dd’s friend named a recent baby Ada. To me I’m afraid to say it conjured up someone in a pinny with curlers in her hair, very likely with a fag hanging out of her mouth, too.
Younger parents won’t have those associations.

Except for the really timeless classics, IMO most of them have their popular eras, followed by decades in the wilderness, but eventually resurrected again.
How about Linda? So popular among my generation, ditto Christine, but you so rarely - if ever - hear of any baby called those names now.

There is a very famous, talented lady named Ada.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace

Witzend. The whiskery old great aunts are now the Julie’s Maureen's, Margaret’s Jennifer’s Susan’s and Linda’s ha ha ha! And the adorable little cuties, are now the Alfie’s, Arthur’s, Ada’s, Lily’s Ethel’s and Edith’s! Takes some getting your head round. I am happy with my name Helen, as it seems to be timeless, but hate my second name Margaret, especially as it now reminds me of that horrible Thatcher woman.

My sister, born in 1949, is a Susan (Sue). I was born a few years later and there were always a few Susans in my class, along with Lindas, Pats, Jeans, Julies, etc.

Victorian names like Charlotte and Emily were coming back into popularity when I was a young woman, and I remember we were amused when a neighbour called her baby Oscar. We thought "poor little kid." Now the country is awash with Oscars, Alfies, Berties, etc.

My mum was born in 1920 and some of the names of her era are becoming popular, including her name, Molly. I haven't encountered many children called Hilda, Doris, Keith or Ken yet.

I'm not sure whether it's too early for my generation's names to be revived. Maybe they will, and we'll see lots of little Davids, Michaels and Johns. I think that some time has to pass before names that one generation thinks a bit ordinary are considered charming by new parents.

About names....when I was young a lot of surnames are now Christian names
Taylor, Harrison, Mason, Elliot, Fletcher, Riley, Carter, Harvey, any more?

An elderly aunt of ours was called Agatha I do not like that name. A girl in school was called Lavinia and there was not too many of them around.
I often hear my neighbour calling her grand-daughter sounds
odd for her to call her Chardonnay.

My grandson goes to nursery with a little girl called Hortensia, not a name you hear very often these days. I've always been drawn towards biblical and Dickensian names.

I'd like to see some of the older and regional names being used again: Matthew, Luke, Gideon, Joel, Dickon, Dorcas, Hannah, Amy, Elspeth, Padraig, Charity, Seth, Finn or Finigan, Ptolemy, Ellen/Ellena, Morag, and of course Susan/Susannah, Christine, Geraldine and Jacqueline.

Both my boys have unusual Welsh names so family and friends were horrified when I told them my plans. Now they can't imagine the boys being called anything else and their names make them memorable. I never had to ring the school and give full details, the moment I said their Christian names, they knew who I was talking about. People who've met them but lost touch have managed to track them down easily and their names are always a conversation starter which breaks the ice. I'm so glad I didn't give in to the naysayers.

My Mom wanted to call me Zoe, which I love, but had family opposition, so in the late 40s, she retaliated in naming me after a Hugh Walpole novel she had just read. Still not a common name in those days, although it has been since. My middle name I hate, as it is very unusual and a prime target in my school days for salacious jokes from the boys. I never told Mom, as she would have been so hurt that I suffered such tormenting, but it did keep me focused when I chose my son's name, short, traditional and always popular.