Active discussions

Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Baby names

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

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'?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Set a reminder
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.