Are fifties names having a revival?

[Jusfloatingby]

In the last couple of months I've heard of a baby Jill, a baby Hilary and a baby Judy. I think of these as very fifties Enid Blytoney type names and am just wondering if the fashion for early twentieth century names like Edith, Iris and Ethel is now moving on to another stage?
I love the names Jill and Judy by the way.

[MolotovBomb]

Hmm, possibly but I'm not 100% convinced. Names such as Janet, Patricia and Colin ranked in the top 10 in the UK in the 1950s but I don't these these names have the cache of some retro/vintage names that are re-emerging now.

[squoosh]

It will edge that way.

If I met a little girl called Jill and her Mum was hipper than hip I'd assume Jill was now a fashionable name.

If I met a little girl called Jill and her Mum was a bit frumpy I'd assume she just liked the name Jill.

[Jusfloatingby]

I actually like the name Janet. Again, a real Enid Blytoney middle England kind of name.
Laughing at your post squoosh. I know exactly what you mean.

[Jusfloatingby]

Actually, thinking about it I have a very cool, artistic, hip friend and her daughters are Susie and Sally and I think they're great names.

[squoosh]

Susie and Sally are cute name! But not too cute.

I like Jean from that era. But I'm thinking Jean Shrimpton and not Jean who works in the chip shop.

[Jusfloatingby]

Funny, I don't like the names Jean, Joan or June but I absolutely love the name Jane.

[MadBusLady]

I like Joan. Sounds sorted and pretty (and Joni is a lovely nn).

[MadBusLady]

And yy Jane too! Jane a bit cooler than Joan.

[squoosh]

Now I'm not crazy about Jane.

Jane would be at home in front of the fire darning her socks whilst her sister Jean (parents didn't have much imagination) would be sliding down the drainpipe and running off into the woods for a snog with Sidney, the vicar's wild son.

[squoosh]

Joan makes me think of Shakespeare, but not in a good way . . .

Then nightly sings the staring owl,
Tu-whit;
Tu-who, a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

Greasy Joan.

[Jusfloatingby]

Actually Joan would be at home darning the socks while Jane is in the studio with paintbrush in hand. And poor old June is married to Colin and keeps a very tidy house.

[squoosh]

Colin gives June what for if the antimacassars are wrinkled.

[MadBusLady]

Noooo, Joan would be calling her editor to get permission to board a helicopter and fly further into a war zone so she can report the real story, and Jane would be putting the final touches to her graduate show at Central St Martins.

Jean would be doing the thing with the drainpipe and the vicar's son though.

[Isitginoclockyet]

Yeah the old fashioned names seem to be coming back, I know babies called Edith, Maisie and Joan. Not my cup of tea but I do like Jane

[Shoshe]

I know a baby Melanie, and a Claire both young hip Mums, and a Simon and a Mark, which I always think of as 80's names!

[bushymcbush]

Oh I really like Janet and Jane.

Colin can give me what for any time he likes

[bochead]

lol! Ds has a friend named Janet so I think it's been trending for a while. Another little girl the same age is named Esme, which I think is lovely. My goddaughter is 20 and a Lois - so the turn of the century names peaked a while ago in this neck of the woods.

She's 8 and yes her Mum adored Mallory Towers growing up & now runs a cake business and is one of the jolliest people I know. (It's wonderful being a tester for all those new cream recipes - the hardship one has to suffer for one's mates ).

[BigFatLegsInWoolyTIghts]

I have loved Jean and Joan for ages now...my Aunt is Jeannie and it's so pretty. I love Sylvia too...and Rita is just cool!

[BikeRunSki]

Babies are often named after their GP, so I reckon names cycle every 50 or 60 years.

[wigglybeezer]

Your are making me smile, my brother Colin and his girlfriend Jane are expecting a baby girl and I think they should name it after my mum Jeannie ( but am keeping my ideas to myself unless asked for suggestions and will say all their ideas are lovely).

[Snog]

Yup, Rita is a rocking name

[StellaNova]

Ooh, excellent point BikeRunSki. But my grans were Vera and Gwen, neither of which seem particularly popular now. It's my great-grandmas that were Daisy, Amelia, Amy etc which seem to be more like the names that are popular now.

There should definitely be a run on Blyton names though. Isabel obviously very popular. Any Darrells about?

[googlyeyes]

I think it will be our daughters who take up these names with gusto!

For me, Joan, Jean, Rita etc are not just old lady names but are v v meh as every woman of a certain age as I was growing up was called one of about 6 or 7 names like that and I can't make the leap to seeing them as cool just yet. They're just too recent for me.

It's a theory born out of my experience re dd's name (Lily)...MIL and a few other similar aged rellies were horrified, saying it was an old lady name on the way to extinction. Little did they know how it was racing up the top names chart!

I think you need at least a couple of generations' distance before names regain their cool as a whole new audience 'discovers' them