Popular names when you went to school

There were a lot of Janes and Susans, Davids and Richards when I was at school. My Mother said they chose my name so I wasn't a Jane or Susan and it was a bit different. As it happened, by secondary school there were FIVE girls with my name in my year! So clearly it wasn't different enough.

It wouldn`t be Mair, would it Ali08? There was one in my class at Grammar School.
I can`t really add to the names listed so far, but a friend of mine had a name that I`ve never heard before, or since, she was called Gleason.

Sven (he said it was pronounced 'Spen').
There was a lovely girl with a Welsh name, I think, and it began with M. I've only heard of one other of the name but can I think of it? Ha! And they were both English, too!

Oh gosh, let's see how many I can remember, I'll try going alphabetically:

Alexandra, Alan, Andrew/Andy, Alison,
Billy, Beverley,
Catherine, Colin,
David, Debbie/Debra, Dawn,
Eleanor, Edward,
Frances/Francis, Fiona,
Geoffrey/Geoff, Gillian,
Hilary, Hamish,
Ina, Ian, Irene,
Jane, Jeffrey/Jeff, John, James/Jamie, Julie/Julia, Jacqueline/Jackie,
Katherine/Katie, Kerry,

Mandy, Marie/Minnie,
Nora, Norma,

Phaedra/Fred, Peter, Paul, Philip,

Robert/Rob,
Susan, Stuart, Sharon, Shawn,
Tony,
Una,
Vicky,
Wendy, Wayne,

More names have popped in my head. Barbara, Bronwyn, Beverly, and Shirley.

When I did office work, at one time there were 4 of us in the office, all with the same name. When the boss wanted one of us, we all used to look up

My name is so common it has come up on nearly everyone’s list of girl’s names.
I once asked my mum why she gave me such a common name and she said it was because nearly every woman on her maternity ward called their baby girl this name. I thought she was joking but she wasn’t.

There was a guy calked Pow at my school be cayse he looked kike aprisoner if war. And one or two with the name Peem, oeculuar to East Fife, oerhapsm

When I started at grammar school in 1957 the class had several less usual names: Naomi, Denise, Celia, Lesley, Elaine, Valerie. There was one Susan, a Lynn, an Ann, an Annette, a Marian and a Marion. The boys were Keith, William, David, Robert, John, Stephen, Trevor but we also had a Stanley and an Ernest.

Probably only Stanley and Ernest would be used today - full circle!

Or son at school came home and said his new friend was called Corner.

Barbara, Margaret, Susan
John, Andrew, Peter

Sharon and Paul

Millions of Sue's and Johns!

Witzend

Paul must have been common with boys who are now 50+, since both our dds have a dh/dp who’s a Paul.

I think Saints names for boys were popular for a long time.

Matthew, Mark and Luke, Andrew, Paul, Anthony, Christopher, David, Daniel, Martin etc.

One playgroup mother commented to me that we give them saints' names and they're anything but 😀

Ps My autograph book came in very handy once I found it, date started 1948.

I have searched through every girls name on here and not once has mine been given as a school friend. I was the only one through the whole of my school years 1940 to 1953 with the name and I never met anybody else after I started work. To this day, and I’m 87 now I still don’t know anybody with my name but it has popped up occasionally on a celebrity.

My class had four Patricia’s, five Mary’s, 3 Barbara’s, 2 Anne’s, 2 Sheila’s and 2 Bernadette’s. 0ne each of Angela, Bernice, Carole, Christine, Claire, Cynthia, Dorothy, Theresa, Imelda, Veronica and Maureen.

This was a Catholic Girls only Convent School but I do remember plenty of Johns, Peters, Alan’s, Joes, Lens, Tony’s and Ken’s in the boys I met after school.

Funnily enough, I know at least four Gails but don't remember one from school. Three are my age and one is my DD's age.

Presumably it's a short form of Abigail.

HiPpyChick57 Josephine Owaissa Cottle, known professionally as Gale Storm, was an American actress and singer. After a film career from 1940 to 1952, she starred in two popular television programs of the 1950s, My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show. Six of her songs were top ten hits.

Googled it.

thomasina34

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

Meet another Gail. I’ve scoured this post to see if my name came up I was giving up hope until I saw your comment.
I was the same when buying things with names on … nothing… ever! I always was disappointed about that.
When I heard my parents were thinking about the name Natasha for me I was really miffed as I would have loved to have been called that or Tasha for short.
I do quite like my name now though as not many people are called Gail. Only one other where I lived and only three others throughout my life.
My DM said I was named after a film star called Gail/Gale Storm.
Whoever the heck she was I’ve no idea 🤷🏼‍♀️

Paul must have been common with boys who are now 50+, since both our dds have a dh/dp who’s a Paul.

There were five Patricias in my reception class in 1953. There wasn’t more than one of any other name.

I was born in February 1952. King George VI died five days before I arrived. Not surprising then, that I was named Elizabeth. In my class at senior school, there were so many Elizabeths that we all had to have different versions. I was Liz G. There was also Liz P, Beth, Lizzy, Lizzy Lou and Libby. Funnily enough, no one got Elizabeth!

Karen, Julie, Wendy, Mandy, Michelle, Sian & Susan. Mark, Steven, Christopher, Robert, Paul, David, Richard, Gary.

@mae13, the boy next door, who was a year older than me, was called Nigel. He was a small, skinny child with white-blond hair, very high piping voice and a perpetually runny nose. He put me off the name Nigel for life.

peoplewe shouldn't
Punctuation failure. people; we shouldn't.