Are fifties names having a revival?

My mum's middle name is Joan, she hates it. Says she's "never felt like a Joan". I suppose it was a slight deviation as there's a trend of Jane, Janet, Janette, Jean, in her family. Even Jean 'the chip shop lady' is marginally better than Joan. (Sorry Joans and Jeans on MN!) I like Rita, that was the name of my Sunday School teacher.

Oh, god, please don't bring back JOAN! Have you people no taste? It's a horrible old bags' name and my mother-in-law's, and all of her old crone friends. Not glamorous.

My aunt has an Emily, Claire, Katherine, and a Jane, (and Joseph and Benjamin) ranging in age from 8 to 23. I will tell her she is well hip. :o

I like Sylvie, Jeannie, Anna, Patricia, June, Valerie, Susan, Margaret, Cynthia, Florence, Rosemary, Rita, Lillian, Wendy, Penelope, Tulip, Gillian, Daphne, Darrell, Sally, Gwendoline, Mary, Alicia, Mavis, Mabel, Minnie, Maggie.

My DCs are called Nicholas and Kathleen- are they 50s/60s enough to be fashionable?

Still debating what to call DC3. I'll have to start quizzing my mum about the names of her classmates.

DS wanted (actually, 'wanted' isn't putting it strongly enough) to name DD1 Lesley. I had to break it to him gently that that was Not Happening.

Please do not resurrect Lesley or Leslie!

My 20mo twin girls have the middle names Jean and Gillian after mine & DP mums. Both of them born in 1949/1950 - definately something in the name cycle thing.

This is almost making me want twin girls again to call them Maggie and Patsy.
steps away from baby name threads as 4 dc is enough & dp would think i had lost the plot

I love this thread, it's made me want to reread all the Enid Blytons.

Exactly how horrified will I be at all the gender stereotype conditioning I innocently absorbed?

When my dad was at school (born 1935) he says that there were 7 Brians in his class!( including him, sadly) When we were growing up my sister and I wanted him to change his name to Philip but he wouldn't hear of it. Also he was nearly called Keith.

My Rachel was named after her 91 year old great-Grannie who died 2 weeks before her birth. Her middle name is my grans name! Born 1912/1922.

Yay keep the Katherines special. She has no other folk with the same name in school and goes by Kathy right now (her choice). Its classic. It's Greek, means "pure".

I know a baby Enid...

I have a Katherine here too. Hope it doesn't get too popular again. She's the only one with a K in her school

My mum has a Chinese friend called Mei. I love it and love foreign names (like Rayana/Coralie/Sakura/Johan/Theo (pronounced the German way tay-oh), but have no connections to their countries of origin and feel my white working class family would think I was being very pretentious!

Sorry, thread hogging - back to the 50s!

weegie - the Katherines & Rachels i knew were born in the mid 70s to early 80s.

They are good classic names that don't ever sound dated; so possibly would have around in the 50s too.

I remember: Zoe, Gemma / Jemma, Jennifer / Jenny / Jenna, Karen, were popular at school (80s / early 90s too). I keep remembering more names from school now, not sure i wanted to!

Danielle (Danni) was another popular name in late 70s / early 80s - i remember that because i recently learnt that one of my Great-Great Grandmothers in the 19th Century was called 'Daniele.'

I think of 'Diana' as a 50s name due to Diana Dors.

I had a friend called Baz and always thought it was a jokey nickname with no relation to his name, then wondered if it was short for 'Barry', then found out it was actually short for 'Basil'. Most unusual but very interesting!

I like the name 'Sherry' (because of the drink ) but I think it would be vetoed by DP instantly. He likes Esmé (pronounced Es-May and must have the accented 'e') but I'd veto that because of the Twilight connotations. It is a lovely name though. There's a lot of young Alfie's and Charlie's in my area at the moment, but names in their own right, and not short for Alfred/Charles. I wonder if there are any baby Barry's and Brian's though. No offence to anyone called Barry, but I look at lovely baby boys and just can't imagine anyone thinking Barry would suit them. I know a Terence and a Harold my age (26) but they usually go by their middle names.

Am I ahead of the name curve as I have a Katherine (12) and Rachel (8)?

Never thought of them as 50s. I thought they were undateably classic!

Samantha was a popular name, when did that appear?

I forgot; there were quite a few of these girls at school: Helen, Rachel & Natasha.
Also these boys: Russell, Robert.

Some of my girl classmates had what were then very pretty & unusual names; some have since become very popular: Chloe, Aimee, Jaime; Holly.. & i'd use those particular names now.

Some of the Romany boys had unusual names that i've not heard since school: Sherren, Soren, Reuben, Blue.

I like 'Reuben' as it's biblical but a bit different.

Old fashioned names:

I've not heard this name at all; it's the name of a neighbour who lived until she was 102; she'd have been born in the late 1890s i think:

Henrietta (she was 'Hetty' for short).

I know a young woman called 'Millie' (which is very current) but her full name is actually 'Millicent' which is pretty - i've never heard of anyone else under 90 with that name; & i think it was always quite rare.

Foreign names

I worked with a Filippino woman called 'Sherry' who was nice & very pretty. I like that name & would use it as long as no-one thought i'd used it because of the drink!

The other pretty & unusual names i heard recently are those of colleagues with East European or Italian parents: Zorica, Tatiana, Loretta.

Also i have 2 Pakistani Facebook friends with 2 variations on the same name which i like & i've not heard it on anyone else: Tehmina / Tahmina.

I'm 36; at school 80s & early 90s; for girls born approx 1975-1979 these were the names of many girls in my classes:

Claire / Clare
Sarah
Emma
Donna
Hazel
Hayley
Katherine / Katharine / Kathryn / Catherine / Kate / Katie / Katrina
Shelley / Shelly
Deborah (Debbie)
Louise / Louisa
Nicola (Nicky, Nikki etc)
Victoria (Vicky / Vickie)
Caroline / Carrie
Sally
Kelly / Kellie
Anna
Natalie
Samantha (Sam)
Rebecca (Becky / Becci)
Belinda

Popular boys' names of the same age group in my classes:

James (Jamie / Jim)
Justin
Daniel (Dan / Danny)
Alan / Allan
Andrew (Andy)
Jason (Jay)
Nathan / Nathaniel (Nate)
Darren
Stephen / Steven (Steve)
Nicholas (Nick / Nicky)
Samuel (Sam)
Christopher / Christian (Chris)
Gareth / Garry / Gary
Richard / Ricky (Rich / Rick)
Carl / Karl
Matthew / Mathew (Mat / Matt)
Michael (Mike / Micky / Mickey)
Craig
Jonathan / Jon / John / Jonathon
Mark / Marcus
Paul
Lee

Some of these names are still popular now as Christian names or Second names.

If i had i baby now - too many of the Girls' names are too strongly associated with certain girls for me to want to use those names; a lot were or still are friends; alternatively some were quite bitchy.

I still like some of the Boys names & would consider those for a baby boy; maybe cos i didn't know as many of the boys at school so well!
I definitely like: James, Carl, Nathaniel / Nathan, & Daniel.

In my school year there were loads of Emma's and Kelly's. My own name has popped up in one of your lists OP, I hadn't realised it was popular in the 50s. I was named after a TV character my dad fancied!!!

I was at school in the 70s and popular names were Joanne, Rebecca , Rachel, Victoria, Susan, Robert, Richard, Stephen, Andrew, David, Louise, Sandra, Claire, Mark whereas my parents generation were Ann, Sylvia, Roger, Peter, Trevor, Kathleen, Sheila, Stephanie and Colin. My grand parents generation were Stanley, Florence, Marion, Percy, William, Gladys, Frank, Elizabeth, Ann !, and Lancelot (not heard of that one for a while). There were lots of Emmas a few years after me.

My 3 daughters born in late 80's- to late 90's names are in there.Plus my mums name and she was born in the thirties (not Gladys). When I was at school in the 70's there were lots of Alison's, Caroline's, Claire's ,Morven, Susans etc.

My 2 year old DD is called Isobel, my mother wasn't impressed :)

I fancy Iris or Elsie for my next one. Grace is my favourite but DH refuses me that one.

My granny was Jemima but she refused to be called that and called herself Nan [to everyone not just her grandchildren!]