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Baby names

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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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Shoshe · 03/10/2012 17:44

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!

Isitginoclockyet · 03/10/2012 17:42

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

MadBusLady · 03/10/2012 17:37

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.

squoosh · 03/10/2012 17:36

Colin gives June what for if the antimacassars are wrinkled.

Original poster
Jusfloatingby · 03/10/2012 17:30

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.

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squoosh · 03/10/2012 17:28

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.

squoosh · 03/10/2012 17:27

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.

MadBusLady · 03/10/2012 17:26

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

MadBusLady · 03/10/2012 17:25

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

Original poster
Jusfloatingby · 03/10/2012 17:24

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

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squoosh · 03/10/2012 17:22

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.

Original poster
Jusfloatingby · 03/10/2012 17:15

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.

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Original poster
Jusfloatingby · 03/10/2012 17:14

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.

OP posts:
squoosh · 03/10/2012 17:11

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.

MolotovBomb · 03/10/2012 17:08

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.

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