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Original poster

Old lady names

87 replies

Gimmeechocolate · 31/01/2013 11:50

I really love old lady names and already have 2 DDs with old names.

I have fallen in love with the name Ethel. Everybody I know hates it and laughs at it.

I guess what I am asking is what are your associations with it as a name other than 'old lady'?

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MortifiedAdams · 31/01/2013 14:22

My DD has an old lady name and im considering Lilian if I have another dd but Ethel.is ghastly.

bunnylang · 31/01/2013 14:20

What about Esme, Mabel or Constance?

FiercePanda · 31/01/2013 12:13

I love Ethel, less keen on Edith. Enid's another name I really like.

Wampingwillow · 31/01/2013 12:12

Sorry but I just can't see an Ethel being anything other than old, just like old Ethel in eastenders

Kaekae · 31/01/2013 12:11

I quite like old lady names too but not Ethel.

Pasiphae · 31/01/2013 12:10

There was an Ethel in Downton, not a happy story, though.
And there's Ethel Hallow in the Worst Witch, who is ever so annoying.
I like the name but then I tend to really like old ladies names like Shirley and Myrtle...

amck5700 · 31/01/2013 12:08

...much prefer Mabel or Eleanor.

smother · 31/01/2013 12:07

Association is currently Lily Allen's baby.... Ettie is a nice nn but Ethel still feels a step too far down the old lady path. What are your other DDs called?

amck5700 · 31/01/2013 12:07

Ethel might be a step too far I think......but having said that it will probably be the next "in" name- hasn't some celebrity named their baby Ethel?

TequilaMockinBird · 31/01/2013 12:00

The first thing I think of when I hear Ethel, is the old lady that was in Eastenders, and her little willy Grin

I don't like it at all, sorry.

emsyj · 31/01/2013 11:54

Ethel Austin. (Sorry)

I really like Elsa, but DH feels the 'old lady' vibe with that one - have tried to persuade him of the lioness aspect, but no joy so far.

naughtynaughtynamechange · 31/01/2013 11:54

Ethel is, I am sorry to say, a truly awful name. Bet you a pound to a pinch of shit that baby Ethel gets a deed poll on her 18th birthday. It's just not a pleasant sound.

If you want that pre-Conquest Anglo-Saxon feel, Edith is lovely.