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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think Barbara is a lovely name.

317 replies

Misscromwellrocks · 02/01/2020 20:16

A friend's daughter has just called her new daughter Barbara. A few people have wrinkled their noses, but I think it's a lovely vintage Enid Blytonish name.

AIBU?

OP posts:
littlebillie · 02/01/2020 22:55

It's up there with Edith, Irma, Marion, Greta and Ingrid

SunbeamsOverhead · 02/01/2020 22:51

Barbie for short? 😂

CustomerCervixDepartment · 02/01/2020 22:50

A PP called their kid ‘Sheila Fanny’? I’m fuckin weeping with laughter 😄 that’s awful , imagine her little darling classmates in future calling her whatever the current word for fanny is in the future, or just fanny itself, since it’s transcended many decades as a crude word for vulva long since it was used as a name for a human.

TooManyPaws · 02/01/2020 22:50

I know at least three lovely Barbaras and it was my grandmother's name. I'd have been much happier if my parents had named me that rather than the name they lumbered me with.

bringincrazyback · 02/01/2020 22:49

I can just Nana saying it in The Royle Family

And Dave's dad in the Xmas special - 'Fair point well made, Barb-er-ah'...

1Morewineplease · 02/01/2020 22:47

There are so many names that, in my youth , I thought were so old fashioned and even comical that are now quite popular.
Names seem to go in cycles.
Norbert/Nobby isn’t one that I expect to see again , for a long time, nor Edna or Enid. And like previous posters, I don’t expect to see Tracey, Sharon, Lorraine, Nigel or Neil for quite some time.

ClappyFlappy · 02/01/2020 22:46

I culled our Barbara about 20 years ago and she lives 400 miles away so it’s all good here now @honeyloops . She’s a nasty creature though. It would definitely put me off even the loveliest name!

ClappyFlappy · 02/01/2020 22:43

It’s actually growing on me seeing it written so often here. But still - my awful auntie - bad connotations sorry

sandyfoot · 02/01/2020 22:41

I don't mind it. I reckon it will come back. Who knew Nancy and Violet would be so popular now. Think we have a way to go before 70s/80s names of Julie, Linda and Sharon come back though.

Dongdingdong · 02/01/2020 22:41

Give me Barbara over another Amelia or Isabella any day Hmm

busybarbara · 02/01/2020 22:37

It has a certain ring to it

Muddyfieldsandprimroses · 02/01/2020 22:36

I love Barbara and Tom on The Good Life, and Margot and Jerry.. perhaps they should all come back 😀

SecretNutellaFix · 02/01/2020 22:34

I'm afraid I have a personal dislike of the name due to a cousin a year younger than me.
She was a bit of an indulged brat and I still remember when she deliberately wet herself at the table at my 5th birthday party so I don't have particularly pleasant associations with the name

katseyes7 · 02/01/2020 22:31

My mam had two sisters. The eldest was Jenny, which l love. My other aunt was Hilda (and the eldest called her daughter that too!). My mam was Ethel. Which is one of the most hideous names going.
Apparently when l was born my mother didn't have any girls names, she wanted a boy. So my auntie chose my name. Which l was never keen on, but l shortened it, and l don't mind it so much now. lt's a version of the Duchess of Cambridge's name so it doesn't sound too dated compared to the lrenes, Shirleys, Joyces and Susans l went to school with.

l think l got off lightly though. lf l'd have been a boy l was going to be Gordon. Which is bad enough, but with the surname Wall..... l have no idea what she was thinking.

Wren77 · 02/01/2020 22:29

By the way I am pretty young

Wren77 · 02/01/2020 22:27

Well I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at these comments. I never liked it until I married a man with an absolutely fabulous second name - people always say 'wow - what an amazing name' :D Which is great because I was teased for years over it but now people say I sound like a 1930s film star. And that will do for me!

Christmadtree · 02/01/2020 22:18

@TrainspottingWelsh GrinGrinGrin

hiredandsqueak · 02/01/2020 22:18

It wouldn't be my choice but I think it's a name that will make a comeback.

Yeahnah2020 · 02/01/2020 22:16

Absolutely awful name!!! I just think of a sheep baaaaing 🐑

KenzoBaby · 02/01/2020 22:10

I don't like it.
Makes me think of barbeques and Barbie dolls.

dayswithaY · 02/01/2020 22:05

Olivertwistwantsmore I don't have a speech impediment but my son does. Lots of people seem to find it irritating but other people are more patient with him.

My point is that the name Barbara doesn't exactly trip off the tongue. Is that ok for you?

Ikeameatballs · 02/01/2020 22:02

I don’t like it or any of the nicknames.

JesusMaryAndJosepheen · 02/01/2020 22:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
Misscromwellrocks · 02/01/2020 22:00

I think they become mainstream popular after about a hundred years. But they usually acquire a type of Boho chic about twenty years before that.

So I reckon names like Barbara, Jill, Susan and Anne are probably due a revival amongst the arty crowd.

OP posts:
Boireannachlaidir · 02/01/2020 21:59

Barbara is lovely! I have only ever known lovely ones though.

I think Jane is due a revival, also Jilly and Julia.