Old names

I was surprised when a woman I went to ante natal classes with called her baby George. It was my grandfather's name!

I think they do go around and come back into fashion.

My name was also very common, lots of us in my year at school. My parents must have thought a bit harder when my two sisters were born as they have lovely less usual though not peculiar names. Am I jealous? Yes!
I bet there are plenty of us on Gnet called Jenny, Sarah, Jane or Susan. (Most of my friends have those names!) And a sprinkling of Dianas and Christines as well.
My great-aunts were Violet, Marjorie, Clara (sisters) also Joan and Ruth on another side.
My late DH and his brother had slightly weird names, MiL was rather arty. But now that DH is gone, I have to write our surname on Christmas cards etc to distinguish myself from all the others with my first name.
As for the men in my family, they're mostly called James, John, Peter, Robert, William, David, Tim(othy) including the younger generation.

My name is quite uncommon and definitely off the list, has been for years!
Our GCs names are quite uncommon, but are found in literature. Apart from one, the parents thought it was original within the family, until DH and I told them of relatives ( two generations away) that had that name. All lovely names.

My friend's grandchildren are called Nellie and Eli. Lovely children; absolutely delightful. But I can't get the image of Nellie and Eli Pledge from the Pledge pickle factory out of my head.

Usedtobeblonde

One of my young friends has a niece named Ada.
I last knew an Ada when I was a child, many, many years ago.

Robbie Williams wife is called Ada.
My mum had a friend called Ada. She was soooo glamorous.
If my father had had his way I would have been Ethel.

My grandmother was called Wilhelmina. I bet nobody uses that name now.

Robbie Williams wife is Ayda though, not Ada,

The ‘y’ makes it look a bit more glamorous.

It seems to me that great-grandparents names are the ones that make the comeback, so I think most of us will have to wait another generation before our names are thought of as unique again.

We are all given French names, so there were not any repeats of those at school. My poor older sister always hated her name Martine, but I think it is lovely, and now not so unheard of.

Calendargirl

Robbie Williams wife is Ayda though, not Ada,

The ‘y’ makes it look a bit more glamorous.

It's a Turkish name too, which is usually pronounced aye-dah or ee-dah.

Nigerian "western" names can be entertaining. I worked in an office with a Monday, & someone in another dept we worked with was called "Tuesday". I once answered the phone to Tuesday, who wanted to speak to Monday. Totally lightened my mood!

Well the old names are certainly better than some of the ridiculous names now: Chelsea, Madison, Sienna etc. Also I dislike the old names that, for some reason, have been shortened: Alfie, Freddie, Charlie, Katie. Why not just use the full name and then shorten it in speech if you want to.

My Dad had a usual name, even looking online no-one else seems to have it.

My neighbour's little girl is called Evelyn, I think it's rather nice.

My Grandma was called Evelyn and that has become very popular recently. She pronounced it Eve-lyn and went nuts when it was mispronounced as Ev-uh-lyn. Her brother wax Frank and that is popular too now.

We’ve got a baby Finley in the family, I don’t mind that one though I thought it was usually Finbar.

We had an auntie who we all called Eve-lyn, but apparently it was really Ev-e-line, and looking through the family Bible, it was spelled like that also.

Not realised until long after she died.

Katie is actually a name in its own right, not a shortened version of Katherine.

‘Kate’ sounds trendier than ‘Kath’ doesn’t it?

Can’t imagine the Princess Of Wales wanting to be called ‘Kath’ somehow.

Skydancer

Well the old names are certainly better than some of the ridiculous names now: Chelsea, Madison, Sienna etc. Also I dislike the old names that, for some reason, have been shortened: Alfie, Freddie, Charlie, Katie. Why not just use the full name and then shorten it in speech if you want to.

Skydancer you encapsulate the attitude that has always been with us. I can remember people when i was a child complaining about naames like Doreen, Mureen (actually an Irish name) and I am sure in the 19th century people objected to all those names like Maud, Gertrude, Millicent and Mildred.

As for using dimunitives as registered names. Have you any experience of the problems of having one name on your birth certificate that you never use and another name you use, a dimunitive of your main name, that has been used since birth.

DH is one of those, Robert, not his real name, always known, from birth as Bob, in order not to be confused with an uncle, after whom he was named. The confusion this leads to, the forms rejected because he hasn't put his official name down. sitting in hospital waiting rooms and not responding to a call for 'Mr Robert Smith' because he is reading and that name is not one tor raise awarenes,s because he is Mr 'Bob' Smith. Not to mention onlineproblems.

I see no problems with dimunitives being registered names.

Many of my grandchildren's friends have Victorian or Edwardian names - Stanley, Elsie, Mabel etc.
I think they are charming, but they do make me think of the staff of a grand house...think imperious Maggie Smith - type tones
" Mabel - ask Stanley to bring the car round..."

😂 chocolatelovinggran

My Greatgrandfather x5 was called Phoenix.

I often wonder why parents choose the names they do but my unusual first name (I have never met another) was definitely in defiance of the “sensible” names of the rest of the family; certainly no thought was given to a life time of having to spell it out.

This is a bit off topic but my autocorrect always amuses me when I email my friend Elvira (think of the Blythe Spirit pronunciation). It invariably changes her name to Elvis . I should point out that I have never emailed Elvis ........ (I thought these machines were learning all the time - obviously not in this case).

My sister's unusual (foor most of her life) name was the result of a stand=off between my parents. Both had a name they liked and the response of the other in each case was 'over my dead body', so the name she was finally given was a compromise between them. and a very pretty compromise it was, although my sister did say that she so often had to say her name and immediately spell it out, that the spelling out almost began to seem as part of her name.

Calendargirl

Katie is actually a name in its own right, not a shortened version of Katherine.

‘Kate’ sounds trendier than ‘Kath’ doesn’t it?

Can’t imagine the Princess Of Wales wanting to be called ‘Kath’ somehow.

My daughter was originally called Catherine (for about a week) then I thought as she got older people would just shorten it to Cathy so we decided on Kate