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Popular names when you went to school

(228 Posts)
Babs03 Sat 18-Jan-25 22:13:00

When I went to school there were a lot of Lorraines, Gillians, Angelas, Patricias, and Susans. There were also a lot of Philips, Tonys, Pauls, Dereks, Roys, and Stephens.
Which names were popular when you were at school.

pen50 Mon 20-Jan-25 13:47:21

Caroline, Hilary, Lesley, Ann, Alison.

Boys were John, Gary, Dave, Andy, Pete.

Musicgirl Mon 20-Jan-25 14:00:12

Jane, Helen, Fiona, Catherine/Katherine, Sarah, Joanne, Karen, Julie, Nicola, Cla(i)re, Caroline, Alison, Deborah, Elizabeth, Rosemary, Gollian, Susan/Suzanne/Susannah, Sharon and Trac(e)y for girls.
Andrew (five in my primary school class), David, Paul, Mark, Jonathan, Ian, Alan, Philip, Simon, Stephen, Stuart for boys. These names are absolutely typical for people born in the mid-sixties and at school in the seventies. Sadly, the names of the fifties and sixties are totally out of fashion now and babies are being given names that were popular for our grandparents, unless they have made up names. Maybe in another fifty years' time there will be babies named Linda, Jane, Susan, Karen, Gillian and Fiona once again.

NannaFirework Mon 20-Jan-25 14:01:16

Karen !
Always lots of Karens in my class 1964-1976

Musicgirl Mon 20-Jan-25 14:01:59

Oh, yes, also Gary. Every Gary l came across in school was always badly behaved.

wibblywobblywobblebottom Mon 20-Jan-25 14:13:36

Oi!

escaped Mon 20-Jan-25 14:16:37

That's the dilemma when you're a teacher having a new baby ...... all the names you run through in your head remind you of a child at school who was either naughty or a pain!

Mamardoit Mon 20-Jan-25 14:19:05

From my English shire school in the early 60s.

Karen. We had four in our year.
Angela x 2
Linda
Beverly
Susan x 2
Jill
Gillian
Jane x 3
Brenda
Patricia
Shona
Ursula (loved that name)
Christine

Steven x 2
Mark
Michael
Martin
Gary
Glynn
Anthony
Peter
Douglas
Shaun
Christopher
Terrance
Paul
David x2
Angus

MissAdventure Mon 20-Jan-25 14:22:28

I love Ursula, too.
I think it means something to do with bears. smile

Allira Mon 20-Jan-25 14:22:52

Ursula (loved that name)
I knew two Ursulas, not from school though.
One was German, the other had a German mother.

Musicgirl Mon 20-Jan-25 14:23:14

We were also given French names. My name is Elaine, which many of you have mentioned from your classes, but I have not met many other Elaines. I would like to have been called Héléne, which is the French version of my name but was saddled with Nicole, which I really disliked, because my birthday is on St. Nicholas's day.

JamesandJon33 Mon 20-Jan-25 14:42:12

We also were given French name, similar to our own. No French equivalent to mine so I was Marthe …hated it.

GrauntyHelen Mon 20-Jan-25 15:20:00

Linda Carol Susan and Karen for girlß Stephen and Raymond do or boys circa 1970

Allira Mon 20-Jan-25 15:25:09

JamesandJon33

We also were given French name, similar to our own. No French equivalent to mine so I was Marthe …hated it.

Marthe - meet Collette 🙂
I didn't like that either, I wanted to be Claudine.

silverlining48 Mon 20-Jan-25 15:44:13

Hello, I was Yvette

Allira Mon 20-Jan-25 15:48:40

I've just googled Collette -
this name actually derives from the esteemed Greek name Nicholas. Collette is a diminutive of the name Nicolette

As I always wanted to be called Nicola then perhaps Collette wasn't so bad after all! 🇨🇵

Elrel Mon 20-Jan-25 15:54:10

1940s boys’ names at my primary school included 2 Maurices, Rex, Bryan, Peter, Alan, and Leslie who was Scottish. Boys in my road included Adrian and Kenneth.

GrammarGrandma Mon 20-Jan-25 15:56:28

Janet, Susan, Valerie, Barbara, Hilary, Elizabeth, Patricia, Marion, but there was one Cherry and one Wendy.

My best friends were Joanna, Josephine and Jackie.

montymops Mon 20-Jan-25 16:19:04

Katherine, Penelope, Patricia, Jocelyn, Elizabeth, Jane, Sandra, Marietta, Anne, Susan,Suzanne, Vivian,(sic) Josephine, Mary, Theresa, Wendy, Isabel, Jill, and many more……
Jonathan, Nicholas, Simon, Roderick, James, Andrew, Richard, David, Julian, Christopher, Clive, William, John, Desmond, Michael, Stephen, Anthony and more…. !!

Bazza Mon 20-Jan-25 16:38:30

I heard interview with Sebastian Coe who said with a name like that when he was a boy you learned to run fast. I always liked the name, but I guess then it would have been unusual.

thomasina34 Mon 20-Jan-25 16:50:30

I hated my name Gail because I never met anyone with my name, and I could never get a pencil or a pencil case with my name on it, I would have treasured a pen, or a pencil. There were loads of Susan's, Carol's, Linda's, Sheila's they all had pencils lol ,even today I have met very few people with my name

NotSpaghetti Mon 20-Jan-25 17:26:37

I can't believe how many have listed "Susan"!
I knew one Susan that I can remember.

Did others who were at Catholic schools have Susans?

We had more Bernadettes than Susan's!

CanadianGran Mon 20-Jan-25 17:38:15

for me, born in early 60's started school mid 60's. These are 5 each I can think of off-hand.

Amanda, Marilyn, Theresa, Janet, Cathy
John, Joey, Doug, Glen, Wayne

I have a French name, which isn't so French that there was one other in another class.

Mirren Mon 20-Jan-25 18:02:40

I'm a 1956 baby called Anne...very popular because of Princess Anne.
My friends were a mixture of Anne, Jane, Susan and Heather.

Magrithea Mon 20-Jan-25 18:11:53

I went to Catholic schools so there were lots of saints names - Patrick, Paul, Peter, Matthew, Mary, Margaret, etc

Redcar Mon 20-Jan-25 18:20:40

Gillian or Jillian, 3 in my class, Susan, Susannah, Christine, Margaret, Jean, Sonia, Only one Karen and one Sharon. The teachers didn’t know how to pronounce them! A couple of Brenda’s, Julia, Patricia.
Boys names from junior school were David, Paul, John, Peter, Michael.
Can’t remember any more from the late 1950s!