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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

Are fifties names having a revival?

190 replies

Jusfloatingby · 03/10/2012 16:47

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.

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StellaNova · 04/10/2012 13:38

I identified with dippy Alison. She got a bad press from Blyton, but she was kind hearted and her main crime was not to like games.

But yes, I am a 70s child and there were two Alisons in my class. Having said that the teacher was also an Alison.

Original poster
Jusfloatingby · 04/10/2012 13:18

Wasn't there an Alison in St Clare's? Funny, because I think of that as a very 70s name.

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Original poster
Jusfloatingby · 04/10/2012 13:17

I hope she was less complex than Enid Blyton, who was a seriously disturbed woman in real life and pretty horrible to her children.

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MadBusLady · 04/10/2012 13:16

She was a right little twonk really. The O'Sullivan twins were much cooler and had vastly better names. Isobel of course is very common now but Patricia (Patsy, Tricia) must be due a revival soon.

StellaNova · 04/10/2012 13:13

Darrell became a writer, because she was really Enid Blyton Wink

StellaNova · 04/10/2012 13:13

There was! She was hard. Well hard.

I never knew how to pronounce Alicia so used to skim over it going Alicka in my head.

I know an Alicia in her 30s. Other Malory Towers/ St Clares ones - Doris, Belinda, Felicity, Anne-Marie, Gwendoline, Mary-Lou, Wilhelmina (!)

Original poster
Jusfloatingby · 04/10/2012 13:12

Oh no. Darrell became a teacher and ended up as headmistress of Malory Towers. She just could not get enough of that place.

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MadBusLady · 04/10/2012 13:09

Yes. She was a bit lively and clever-clever, and Blyton (through the headmistress) found this kind of behaviour inappropriate in a gel. Grin Alicia probably had an exciting career in advertising and lived in lots of different countries with different men though while Darrell obediently became a secretary.

Original poster
Jusfloatingby · 04/10/2012 12:55

Alicia and Lydia are lovely names. Wasn't there an Alicia in Malory Towers?

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perfectstorm · 04/10/2012 12:53

I like Alicia, too! Sylvia and Alicia and Lydia, all so pretty.

Though they somehow seem more 1930s, really.

Original poster
Jusfloatingby · 04/10/2012 12:53

I used to love the name Sylvia until I had a really annoying boss with that name. Up until then I had always associated it with 'Garnie' in Ballet Shoes. Very feminine, ladylike, middle class English.

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shoppingtrolley · 04/10/2012 12:48

Yes, and she smokes Sobranie cocktail cigarettes on special occasions!

squoosh · 04/10/2012 12:45

I love the name Sylvia. She's a bit more glam than Carol or Joan. She has a long line of gentleman callers and wears her scarves in a very dashing way when Terence brings her for a spin in the country in his open top MG.

She's a little bit fast but who cares, it's the 50's and she's a modern woman!

shoppingtrolley · 04/10/2012 12:41

Sylvia.

Original poster
Jusfloatingby · 04/10/2012 12:39

There's something very reassuring about fifities names. They make me think of nurseries and high tea and children in mufflers playing out in the fields. Probably wasn't like that at all but that's the image those names conjure up for me.

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issynoko · 04/10/2012 12:18

I know 2 Jeans - aged 3 and 6. One known as Jeannie. DD has Jean as her middle name and sometimes gets called that in conjunction with her first name. Which makes her sound like a hill-billy. But cool! Joanie is cool too. What goes around comes around I guess.

evamummy · 04/10/2012 12:04

Peter?
Richard?
Bernhard?

Original poster
Jusfloatingby · 04/10/2012 12:02

Funny, I hate Phyllis but think Ruth and Diana are lovely. I could never understand why there wasn't a big revival of the name Diana in the eighties.

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Tedharry · 04/10/2012 12:01

Not really %0s but my Grannies/ great aunts names were Ruth, Phyllis and Diana. Love Phyllis now. Can just imagine a little girl called Phyllis

Latara · 04/10/2012 11:54

Firstly: a plea from my 80 year old neighbour... she says ''please never call your daughter 'Winifred' or she will never forgive you!''

(If i was given just £1 for every elderly lady i meet who hates her name & uses a totally different name; then i would be very rich indeed, so beware!).

Re: 1950s names - These are the most common names of the women i know born 1945-59; quite often they seem to prefer to use nicknames based on their Christian names:

Susan (Sue)
Jacqueline (Jackie)
Julie (Jules)
Valerie (Val)
Patricia (Pat, Patsy, Tricia, Trisha, Trish)
Joyce (Joycie)
Christine (Chris, Chrissie, Chrissy, Christy, Tina
Jane / Jayne (Janey)
Ann / Anne / Annette / Annie
Barbara (Babs)
Carol / Caroline
Janet (Jan)

I think it's best to try to be original (but not eccentrically so) in name choices if possible.

For example i know lots of women named 'Sue' in the 35 - 65 age group (the younger Sues tend to be Suzanna / Suzanne or Susanne / Susanna as well as Susan.
I think Susan is a pretty name actually, but the name is so common that in conversation i have to use extra identifiers eg. give a surname / description or my relationship to the 'Sue' in question.

wheresthebloodydogmummy · 04/10/2012 11:53

A mate recently named her girl Maggie. We were all a bit Hmm but the cuteness factor is well high.

mommybunny · 04/10/2012 11:24

squoosh, agree with you on Blanche, but please do go easy on Ann... Wink

SnotandBothered · 04/10/2012 11:01

Love Blance
Love Rita
Love Shirley
Love Betsey

When I was small I always wanted to be called Carol or Maggie (which is what all my mums friends were called) Hmm

Then later on Tina which to me epitomised all that was glamorous. Confused

I would have found 50's names really frumpy

It's funny how our perception of what's glamorous changes. I now think 50s names do seem glamorous, but I suspect it has a lot to do with Mad Men.

squoosh · 04/10/2012 10:46

Stella anytime I hear the name Blanche I now think of that thread Grin
People really came around to it, I think it's a brilliant name!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/a1449031-I-promised-DH-he-could-name-the-baby-Now-Ive-changed-my-mind

And yes Anne must always be spelt with an E. Ann looks awful, Anne looks a trilliion times better.

StellaNova · 04/10/2012 10:38

mommybunny there was a whole thread about Blanche a while back, which started with everyone hating it and then people started growing into it...

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