Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder whether, as per this claim, Annabel was really seen as a 'yuppie' name in the 80s?

136 replies

Giselle374 · 04/05/2026 00:57

I read Lady Colin Campbell's book a while ago about Harry & Meghan. A lot of the claims seemed ridiculous- they can certainly be criticised but the book went beyond reasonable. Anyway, one of the points I found odd was that Campbell claimed naming rules have always been very strict for royals, and mentioned an earlier name choice for Beatrice being vetoed.
I googled and found this choice was Annabel, which the Queen apparently vetoed for being 'too yuppie'. Was it really seen that way in the 80s or was this just some eccentricity of hers? I was born early 2000s and knew quite a few Annabels and Isabel/Isabellas, also one Arabella. It just seemed like a classic name, hardly one to complain about.
Not a traditional royal one : but then she was OK with Zara.

(Not the main point, but while I think they were wrong to choose Lilibet, I didn't agree with Campbell's argument that the Annabel veto meant the Queen remained just as strict in the 2010s. She clearly wasn't if she allowed Savannah, Sienna and Mia, all nice names but arguably more non traditional than Annabel)

OP posts:
Delphiniumandlupins · 05/05/2026 03:54

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 04/05/2026 06:15

The yuppy Annabels were born in the late 1950s or early 1960s. Middle-aged, borderline elderly now! Gulp.

It's hard to imagine a Queen Annabel, but the new monarch always has the option of picking a new regnal name. Edward VII was Bertie to his friends and family.

Yet Queen Camilla has a sister called Annabel.

mathanxiety · 05/05/2026 03:02

Giselle374 · 04/05/2026 21:02

That makes sense.
Re Sonia not being the name she went by, is that because of notoriety associated with the original Sonia's mother Alice (I assume the ancestor you mean?)

Edited
Show quote history

I suspect that is exactly why.

Bunnyofhope · 04/05/2026 21:43

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 04/05/2026 21:14

I would say it’s more Sloaney.

Show quote history

You know, I think you are right! I had almost forgotten about Sloanes.

Original poster
Giselle374 · 04/05/2026 21:16

Ohgoose · 04/05/2026 20:40

Her sisters’ BIL was in Made In Chelsea so not exactly related!

Show quote history

Oh right, sorry. I thought she was married to Spencer. I did think that might have been a but frowned on by the royal family.

OP posts:
GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 04/05/2026 21:14

Bunnyofhope · 04/05/2026 01:13

Annabel = pure yupster.

I would say it’s more Sloaney.

Genevieva · 04/05/2026 21:14

Queen Camilla has a sister called Annabel.

Genevieva · 04/05/2026 21:14

So on the basis of the conversation above I’d say that in the 70s Annabel was a Sloane Ranger name, not a yuppy name.

Genevieva · 04/05/2026 21:11

ginasevern · 04/05/2026 18:31

Well Diana was actually a Sloane, which was a very different thing. Yuppies were sharp and ambitious young guys who worked in financial services (like insurance, mortgages and stockbroking). They made a lot of quick money (and did a lot of hard drinking!) and they could come from any sort of background. In fact many of them came from quite humble roots. Sloane rangers were young women from very upper class or artistocratic families who did the sort of (pretend) jobs you're talking about for a few years until they married a well connected millionaire, an aristocrat or royalty. Sloane Rangers would definitely not have appreciated being called yuppies.

Show quote history

You are right. Apologies. There was some social overlap in places like Annabel’s.

Original poster
Giselle374 · 04/05/2026 21:06

I actually went down a rabbit hole on the club... 🤣

Interestingly, apparently Annabel's ended up being the first nightclub the Queen went to since her marriage (in the 2000s). By this time it doesn't seem to have been as scandalous though... and clearly Fergie did like it...!

'Sarah Ferguson and Diana, Princess of Wales went to Annabel's disguised as police officers a few days before Ferguson's wedding to Prince Andrew in July 1986.[4] The social commentator Peter York said that someone once described Annabel's as being where the "middle-aged meets the Middle East" and that it had represented the "high point of aspiration" in the 1980s but that it was unsustainiable if it only catered to Sloane Rangers.[10]

In the wake of the collapse of Lloyd's of London, Birley banned members from paying on credit.[8] The club was seen as stuffy and old fashioned by the late 1990s with its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s. After suffering a decline in his health and mobility, Birley brought his two children, Robin and India Jane Birley, into the management of the club for the first time.[9][15] The siblings co-managed Annabel's in the years before Birley's death in 2007. Robin ran the company and India Jane, responsible for the look and decoration of the club, redesigned and relaunched Annabel's with Robin in 2003. Their changes led to the arrival of a younger crowd to the club and the revival of its popularity.[16] Queen Elizabeth II visited the club in 2003 for a dinner to celebrate the 70th birthday of one of her Ladies of the Bedchamber, Virginia Ogilvy, Countess of Airlie.[17] It was the first time that the Queen had been in a nightclub since she was married.[17] The Queen drank a gin martini (without lemon).[17]'

OP posts:
Original poster
Giselle374 · 04/05/2026 21:02

mathanxiety · 04/05/2026 20:21

There are many, many reasons why Sonia wasn't the name she went by.

QE would have wished to distance her family from any association with the Shand sisters (Camilla's maiden name) both because of Charles' fascination for Camilla, which was a thorn in her side from the 70s on, and because of the career of their ancestor. She never lost an opportunity ity to make it very clear.

Edited
Show quote history

That makes sense.
Re Sonia not being the name she went by, is that because of notoriety associated with the original Sonia's mother Alice (I assume the ancestor you mean?)

OP posts:
Papyrophile · 04/05/2026 20:45

I knew a charming Annabel on my university course in the 1970s.

Ohgoose · 04/05/2026 20:42

I agree that the name is a sloany name not yuppie.

I also think there’s a class difference between spellings ending in Bel or Belle. Annabelle/Isabelle not as posh.

Ohgoose · 04/05/2026 20:40

Giselle374 · 04/05/2026 18:48

Well, to be fair, the future queen's BIL was Made In Chelsea so that might be OK...

Show quote history

Her sisters’ BIL was in Made In Chelsea so not exactly related!

Handeyethingyowl · 04/05/2026 20:29

Yes Annabel was a ‘’yuppy’ name in the 80s. There was only one at my comp and her family was quite well off. The association is not there now, it was just that decade.

Newsenmum · 04/05/2026 20:28

IdaGlossop · 04/05/2026 18:44

As a 20-something in London in the 1980s, Annabel was for me the absolute Sloane girl's name, the female Rupert. A friend of mine called my daughter Annabel in a Christmas card years later (at that point, they had not net ). I can hardly describe my horror that I would name any daughter of mine Annabel because of the Sloane association. Too many girls' names beginning in 'A'.

thats exactly what I thought

SwedishEdith · 04/05/2026 20:27

Giselle374 · 04/05/2026 20:18

Yes, Annabel Croft went to Diana's school didn't she?

Show quote history

Oo, I didn't know that. Just checked and I'm not sure she did tbh but wouldn't have been surprised.

Darrara · 04/05/2026 20:26

mathanxiety · 04/05/2026 20:14

She was a Sloan Ranger. There's a vast difference between Sloans and yuppies.

Show quote history

Yes. I mean, yuppies had jobs and were ‘upwardly mobile’. Sloanes would only be upwardly mobile if they married into a particular layer of the aristocracy, and only had ‘little jobs’ while they waited to marry suitably.

Diana was the classic vapid Sloane. Completely uneducated, despite every possible educational opportunity, puttered around doing little jobs because she was intended to marry young and suitably.

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 04/05/2026 20:24

I do think that HMQ probably asked for it to be changed due to the popular nightclub of the day that has been mentioned upthread, not a great association for Royalty. I think it’s a nice name though.

mathanxiety · 04/05/2026 20:21

Giselle374 · 04/05/2026 15:01

Yes but the connotations of Camilla having a sister called Annabel would've been different for TLQ in the 80s..

BTW I suppose this sister was named after their grandmother Sonia Keppel- she wrote quite an interesting memoir, Edwardian Daughter.

Show quote history

There are many, many reasons why Sonia wasn't the name she went by.

QE would have wished to distance her family from any association with the Shand sisters (Camilla's maiden name) both because of Charles' fascination for Camilla, which was a thorn in her side from the 70s on, and because of the career of their ancestor. She never lost an opportunity ity to make it very clear.

Original poster
Giselle374 · 04/05/2026 20:21

hopspot · 04/05/2026 15:18

Annabel absolutely was a yuppie name! My first time of coming across it was in Freaky Friday with Jodie Foster! Loved that film and thought the name was very cool and modern. No one in my school was called Annabel!

Aw, my mum liked Freaky Friday and showed me the original when I was a child. I'd forgotten the heroine was called Annabel.

Freaky Friday was US though, not sure if there was a naming trend for Annabel there..

OP posts:
Original poster
Giselle374 · 04/05/2026 20:18

SwedishEdith · 04/05/2026 19:15

Annabel Giles and Annabel Croft were/are this vintage.

Yes, Annabel Croft went to Diana's school didn't she?

OP posts:
Original poster
Giselle374 · 04/05/2026 20:17

Plasticdreams · 04/05/2026 19:58

There’s also currently Freddie who is related to the royals

Show quote history

Yes, the great grandson of 'Lord' Mountbatten...

OP posts:
AgnesMcDoo · 04/05/2026 20:16

There was a posh yuppie character in Brookside called Annabel which reinforced it

Original poster
Giselle374 · 04/05/2026 20:16

CloudyBayPlease · 04/05/2026 18:53

Definitely a Sloane ranger name in the 80s, and I had several girls in my year (born 73) named Annabel.

It would, however, have been a much less awful choice than Beatrice. As for ‘Eugenie’- I can’t think of an uglier name.

Beatrice is a beautiful name imo...I suppose though from the Queen's view it was a good name as it was the name of Queen Victoria's favourite daughter. Eugenie I also think is pretty, but maybe nicer in French..
Unfortunately both names are now tarnished by their owners...

OP posts:
mathanxiety · 04/05/2026 20:14

Genevieva · 04/05/2026 18:16

Diana was a yuppy. The girls tended to have ‘nice’ jobs like being a PA for an antiques dealer or working in a nursery. All jobs in Kensington and Chelsea.

Show quote history

She was a Sloan Ranger. There's a vast difference between Sloans and yuppies.

Swipe left for the next trending thread